At the beginning of this book series, Lucas Davenport — the good guy — wasn’t much better than the criminals he chased.
But over time he became increasingly likeable.
Night Prey (2024) is only 6th in the series. But Davenport is already showing signs of humanity.
State Investigator Meagan Connell believes that Minneapolis has a serial killer on its hands, a killer who has stepped up the frequency of his attacks. Connell is dying of cancer and is determined to catch the killer in the few weeks she has left.
Davenport is called in for his expertise in serial murder.
The BAD GUY this time is an elusive cat burglar obsessed with a woman.
It’s a gritty police procedural trying to find the villain.
The BFG (short for The Big Friendly Giant) … was ranked number 88 among all-time best children’s novels in a survey published by School Library Journal, a US monthly.
Sophie, an eight-year-old girl in an orphanage, befriends a mysterious Giant, the BFG.
The 24-foot-tall giant carries her away to the land of the Giants, a place not on any map.
The BFG is a vegetarian. But his 9 neighbours are much bigger and stronger giants, who all happily eat humans every night.
Sophie persuades the BFG to approach the Queen of England for help with the other giants. They plot to imprison the hungry man-eating giants in a deep pit.
I was most entertained by Dahl’s inventive, playful use of language. He invented over 500 new words by scribbling down his words before swapping letters around and adopting spoonerisms and malapropisms.
Horror stories for kids? Yep.
His obituary in The Times was titled “Death silences Pied Piper of the macabre“.
I was interested to read about the process, complicated by ancient history.
One strength of the Catholic Church is tradition.
The big weakness is tradition. It’s very difficult to reform / improve Catholicism, though I respect Pope Francis for trying.
The Pope is dead.
Behind the locked doors of the Sistine Chapel, one hundred and eighteen cardinals from all over the globe will cast their votes in the world’s most secretive election.
They are holy men. But they have ambition. And they have rivals.
Over the next seventy-two hours one of them will become the most powerful spiritual figure on earth.
In Conclave, the hero is Cardinal Lomeli, dean of the College of Cardinals and the man responsible for presiding over the conclave. Among the papabile there is Tedesco the traditionalist, Tremblay the ambitious North American and Adeyemi the African with strong views on the role of women and gay marriage. …
Into this gathering there arrives a cardinal no one has heard of – Vincent Benítez, a cardinal in pectore, created by the pope in secret in order to protect his identity. The stage is thus set for a showdown. …
The first body is of a young woman, found on a Minneapolis riverbank, her throat cut, her body scourged and put on display. Whoever did this, Lucas knows, is pushed by brain chemistry, there is something wrong with him. This isn’t a bad love affair.
The second body is found a week later, in a farmhouse six miles south. Same condition, same display — except this time it is a man. Nothing to link the two murders, nothing to indicate that the killings end here. …
A suspect emerges early: a man recently released from a prison hospital and who now seems to have cut himself free from his court-imposed ankle bracelet and disappeared. But the more Lucas investigates, the more he wonders: Is this really the man? Could he really have done this all by himself? And where has he gone to, anyway?
Michael Tanner is on his way home from a business trip when he accidentally picks up the wrong MacBook in an airport security line. He doesn’t notice the mix-up until he arrives home in Boston, but by then it’s too late. Tanner’s curiosity gets the better of him when he discovers that the owner is a US senator and that the laptop contains top secret files.
When Senator Susan Robbins realizes she’s come back with the wrong laptop, she calls her young chief of staff, Will Abbott, in a panic. …
Though I wasn’t impressed with his Nick Heller series of books, I’ll definitely be reading more Joseph Finder.
Marlys Purdy is a crazy woman who has endured the political system long enough. She blames the political system for the loss of the farm she had with her dead husband and the continued financial system that perpetuates the same cycle.
She is ready to take action and stop Michaela Bowden, a potential Democratic presidential candidate from going any further in the campaign in Iowa.
Marlys has a plan. Together with her derange son who has had some military service in Iraq, they put their plan into action. …
Detective Lindsay Boxer‘s daughter is age-4. That’s how I keep track of these newer books. 😀
Fictional California has enacted a NEW lawrestricting the most dangerous firearms. Needless to say, some of the Gundamentalists are revolting.
There’s buzz of a last-ditch shipment of drugs and weapons crossing the Mexican border ahead of new restrictive gun laws. Before Lindsay can act, her top informant tips her to a case that hits disturbingly close to home.
Former cops. Professional hits. All with the same warning scrawled on their bodies:
He’s an insane pathologist drug addict who studies the moment of death of his victims. He removes their eyes so they can’t look at him from the afterlife.
… police reach out for the man who knew Bekker best, but when Lucas arrives, he finds unexpected danger as well.
For Lily Rothenburg, the policewoman whose intense affair with Lucas has never completely faded, is there too. Now, consumed with her own investigation of a group of rogue killers within the police department, she draws Lucas into her orbit again, until their hunts merge, their twin obsessions driving them ever closer to the edge . . . and then over.
For me, this book was not focused enough on one plot line.
AND it’s incomprehensible authorities couldn’t catch him sooner.
Davenport tries to solve the murder(s) before a Senate election night.
Time is short.
He knows the killer(s). But can’t prove it.
Silken Prey is a novel about political corruption.
… In this novel, we meet one of the most narcissistic of the bunch, democratic candidate for the Senate Taryn Grant, a wealthy, gorgeous, sexy, and driven woman who will do whatever is necessary to achieve her goal to fill the Senate seat for the State of Minnesota -even if that involves murder. …
A man named Tubbs disappears and is feared dead. He is suspected of having planted child pornography on the republican candidate’s computer, resulting in a highly-publicized scandal that threatens to ensure Taryn Grant the senate seat. ..
Rick McCharles 