Another Fantastic Series - Invisible Prey

Invisible Prey
Sandford, John.
New York: Penguin Group, c2007.

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The 17th novel to feature Minneapolis detective Lucas Davenport has him running dual investigations: a politically sensitive case regarding a state senator and his alleged child molestation, and the murder of a rich elderly widow and her maid. The murder takes up the majority of the book. The widow lived in a mansion filled with antiques, so initially robbery is considered a motive even though both victims were viciously beaten to death. However, it looks like little was taken until a teenage relative of the maid reports that he thinks some 'old' things are missing. So instead of a smash and grab gone wrong, it begins to look like an expert art heist. Connections begin to be made to other similar cases.

We've had lots of people question this series being in General fiction rather than Mystery but there's not a lot of mystery. A third of the way in, you know who the killers are but the suspense of the book is in watching the police try to figure it out. The killers keep on killing, which leaves clues to follow. There is some attempt at framing other suspects but the police work it out in the end. This is somewhat slower than other novels with fewer gory details but still good. New minor characters were introduced while Davenport's main sidekicks are on other assignments. The secondary plot seemed to be mostly filler and trying to connect them felt very strained.

For commuters, we have the abridged and unabridged book on cd.