Nice to have "fuckin" Flowers show up in this story. ( )

Lucas Davenport , Book 17

(2007)This was a little different in that the criminals were not as viscious and scary. Just some art thiefs that used murder to hide thier crime. BooklistConstance Bucher is in her eighties, wealthy, and lives in a lovely Twin Cities home brimming with antiques. Bucher and her maid slip into past tense when intruders bludgeon them to death and trash the house. The victim's social standing is enough for the governor to assign his top investigator, Lucas Davenport, to investigate. The easy solution would be to label the crime a junkie killing, but when a painting stored in the attic (and worth a cool half-million) turns up missing, it's clear that this was no random attack. Aided by an imaginative intern, Davenport uncovers a series of similar crimes across the Midwest in which the victims were all old, wealthy art collectors. Concurrently, Davenport is working on a politically sensitive case in which a local politician has been accused of having sexual relations with a 15-year-old. And maybe her mother. Or maybe they're angling for a civil payday as opposed to criminal justice. The latest in the Preyseries is more thriller than mystery; the villains are revealed early, and the plot is advanced through the bad guys' point of view. Davenport unravels their scheme by pulling on a small thread, and it's his immersion into the murky world of art, antiques, museums, and donors that gives this one its cachet. As always for Sandford, entertaining and intelligent reading.

Pretty good thriller with a quilt theme. ( )

I heard an interview with John Sanford that was tacked on to the end of Broken Prey. He spoke of his love of the art world and that Invisible Prey was a book marrying Davenport's circle with the art world. This was a slower moving book that had grace despite the murders. It reminds me of a river, although not the 4 inches of water one of the characters jumps into at the end. Yuck. It is a fine addition to the Prey Series. ( )