Listening to Broken Prey by John Sandford

John Sandford. Broken Prey. Narrated by Richard Ferrone. Recorded Books. Unabridged. 2005. 9 cassettes/11.75 hours.

Mystery novelists tend to do series. I suppose that's because their readers like that sense of continuity you get from opening another Brother Cadfael book, or another Kinsey Millhone adventure from Sue Grafton. John Sandford's Prey series features Lucas Davenport, who starts out as a detective on the Minneapolis police force, changes jobs a few times, and is, at the time of Broken Prey, an investigator with the Minnesota state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. (I presume the BCA is fictional.) Broken Prey is the sixteenth novel in the Prey series, which started in 1989.

To admit a personal bias, one of the reasons I like Sandford's novels is that he locates Lucas Davenport in St. Paul, living not far from the University of St. Thomas. There are allusions to St. Catherine's, as well as to the University of Minnesota. Based on descriptions of Lucas's neighborhood, he's living not far from the school I attended for a couple of years: Macalester College. Sandford never mentions Macalester in any of his books that I've read; maybe it's too Protestant for his tastes. In any event, some of the scenes Sandford sets have a certain familiarity for me, even a bit of a nostalgia value. Broken Prey, however, is set in southern Minnesota, and so had very little of the familiar about it for me.

One characteristic of Sandford's style is that he uses a variety of viewpoint characters, including the murderer. This often serves to obscure, rather than reveal, which of the people Davenport is investigating, may actually be the culprit. Broken Prey uses this device to good effect, as Sandford generates a netful of red herrings.

The story, simply put, is that someone is murdering people in particularly grotesque ways. A young woman is found to have been flailed before having her throat cut. A man is found posed in an odd position; his son has been killed by a ferocious blow to the head. So Lucas and his team, including his partner Sloan and his old friend Elle, the psychologist nun, set off to track down the elusive serial killer. There are more killings, many more killings, before they catch their man. Sandford has always provided graphic descriptions of his murders. This time, the massacre in the state mental hospital just goes on and on, and seems to have very little point to it. Unless, of course, Sandford believes that the mentally ill are all better off dead.

From Davenport's point of view, the case is not very satisfactory. Not only does he not prevent the serial killer from striking again, the villain precipitates a bloody shootout. And, even when the killer is dead, his motive and his personality remain elusive. This is the sort of story which isn't very satisfactory if you examine it too closely. Can people really control a person, even a crazy person, effectively at long distance? I doubt it. Can someone as crazy as this character maintain the pose of a normal, working professional for years? I doubt that, too. Fortunately, Sandford maintains a pace that precludes the reader spending the time on that sort of analysis.

Broken Prey is a good listen. Ferrone is a very competent narrator, and the story moves right along. It kept me popping one cassette after another into my player.