Certain Prey - Hardcover

Attorney Carmel Loan is preternaturally beautiful, intelligent and ambitious. When she becomes infatuated with fellow barrister Hale Allen, she isn't going to let a little thing like his being married get in her way. A quick meeting with an ex-client sets up the hit on Hale's wife, Barbara. The professional killer, Clara Rinker, is one of the best in the business. Smart, attractive, with a gentle Southern drawl, no one would suspect her of being a top Mafia hit man ... er, hit person. When she takes the Allen assignment, she figures it will be easy money for a day's work. But things go wrong from the beginning. Loan's ex-client made a tape of the meeting, and is shaking her down for money. Worse, the shooting of a witness--a cop--brings deputy inspector Lucas Davenport into the case. Somehow Davenport has not only linked Loan to the killing, but seems to have a lead on Rinker as well. Carmel and Clara team up to clean up the loose ends, which includes getting Davenport off their backs by whatever means necessary.

Like all of Sandford's books, Certain Prey is a fast and furious ride. Fans of previous Prey books will find Davenport a little older, a little more wary, but no less sharp-witted and determined. Though parts of the plot may stretch the limits of credulity and the dialogue falls a little flat in places, this is still a wonderfully crafted thriller, possibly one of the best of 1999. Certain Prey cements Sandford's standing among such luminaries as James Lee Burke, Lawrence Block and Thomas Harris. --Perry Atterberry

CERTAIN PREY:
'After ten thrillers in his series about Minneapolis cop Lucas Davenport, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist John Camp, writing under his Sandford pen name, hits a home run over the curve of the earth as the brilliantly swift Certain Prey sinks a meat hook under the reader's jaw on page one and never lets up...Top suspense' KIRKUS REVIEWS
'A commanding grasp of the thriller idiom, ensuring that his incident-packed narratives still move with express-train speed. This new one is as idiosyncratic and punchy as anything he has written... The conflict between the ruthless anti-heroine and the dogged Deavenport is handled with authority and skill, as Sandford juggles the demands of character and the mechanics of the thriller genre with a master touch' CRIME TIME

'John Sandford is a brilliant writer' GUARDIAN
'Few do it better than Sandford' DAILY TELEGRAPH
'In a crowded market Sandford shines at the quality end' DAILY TELEGRAPH'
The stakes are high, the characters rich, the action relentless - here's a thriller that will make your hair stand on end' PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
'Grabs you by the shirt from the start... You'll probably read it in one big gulp' CHICAGO TRIBUNE
'Sandford creates a cracklingly authentic atmosphere, a you-are-there sense of place, a sharp and sympathetic feeling for the details of the police at work' LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK REVIEW
'Sandford has crafted the kind of trimmed-to-the-bone thriller that is hard to put down' CHICAGO TRIBUNE