Redheaded Reviews: Eyes of Prey by John Sandford

This is the third book, published in 1991, featuring Lieutenant Lucas Davenport, a cop in Minneapolis. He's had it rough in the last two books and is now in the depths of depression that seems to have no end. His captain assigns him to the Bekker murder investigation, which is looking into the death of Stephanie Bekker. All of her friends tell the cops that they wouldn't be surprised if her husband committed the murder because he was always a little off. However, the husband has a rock-solid alibi. Carlos Druze, a man Bekker met in a bar one night, kills and carves out the eyes of Stephanie for Bekker, who, like in the Hitchcock movie Strangers On A Train, will kill a woman at the theater Carlos works at who is giving him problems. While killing Stephanie, Carlos is seen by her lover, who has just come out of the shower, to inspect the noises in the kitchen. They both get a good look at each other. After Bekker kills the theater woman for Carlos, Carlos kills the man he believes to be the lover so he cannot be identified. Things begin to unravel for the two killers from there on out as Lucas draws closer to figuring out what is really going on.

Sandford writes books that tell you early on who the killer is. The novel alternates between Lucas's and the killers' viewpoints. This way of reading a book is both interesting and hard for me. I like the insight into the killer's mind, but I get frustrated with the cops who spend chapters unable to figure out what is going on. Bekker is a weird character. He takes all sorts of drugs and pharmaceuticals such as cocaine, speed, meth, Xanax, Clonopin, PCP, steroids, acid, and lots of other drugs that I have never heard of. He manages his life by what drugs he takes to feel or act a certain way. It's a wonder he isn't brain dead, or just plain dead. As the book goes on, he starts to have lots of blackouts. A friend of mine got me reading this series and is ahead of me. They tell me that the fourth book, Silent Prey, is the best, but that you have to read Eyes of Prey first. So I pushed my way through the book. It wasn't a terribly bad book, just hard to read at times, and the insight into Bekker's mind is priceless.

Quotes

They would find him there, standing over the body like the innocent man in a Perry Mason television show, point a finger at him, accuse him of murder.

John Sandford (Eyes of Prey, p.503)

A fifth man, older, sat by himself in front of a bowl of peanuts, nursing a lifelong rage and a glass of rye.

John Sandford (Eyes of Prey, p.506)

You gotta be young or naive to write poetry.

John Sandford (Eyes of Prey, p.507)

Fuckin' women. So casual about the way you break a guy's heart.

John Sandford (Eyes of Prey, p.577)

In a week, you couldn't find that hole with three Geiger counters and a Republican water witch.

John Sandford (Eyes of Prey, p.628)

Column-writing is the only job I know where sarcasm passes for intelligence.

John Sandford (Eyes of Prey, p.633-4)

Nothing gives an editorial writer more satisfaction than seeing somebody else booted out of their job.