Eyes of Prey by John Sandford is the third Lucas Davenport mystery novel. Eyes of Prey is mostly a page turner but the plot gets bogged down three quarters into the mystery, making the ending less of a pay off.

Eyes of Prey’s premise is Strangers on a Train. Pathologist Mike Bekker gets theater actor Druze to kill his wife and in exchange he will kill Druze’s boss. Things work out to a point but there was a witness. Bekker and Druze find themselves on a killing spree, one victim justifying the next and so on.

Mike Bekker is an especially creepy bad guy. He is a serious pill popper, kills off terminally ill patients on the side, and carves out his victims’ eyes otherwise they will come back to haunt him.

The only clue Detective Lucas Davenport has is the very reluctant witness who feels guilty enough to help but not guilty enough to reveal himself.

In the end, good detective work and the villains getting in over their heads lead to a rather satisfying ending.

Eyes of Prey is a solid mystery novel but not for the squeamish as some descriptions are rather explicit. I also have a problem with one of the secondary characters getting killed when there really was no need to do it aside from justifying part of the climax.

Eyes of Prey
A Lucas Davenport Mystery
John Sandford
G.P. Putnam & Sons 2007

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