Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

Rules of Prey
Rules of Prey
Rules of Prey
Audiobook11 hours

Rules of Prey

Written by John Sandford

Narrated by Richard Ferrone

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

()

About this audiobook

The "maddog" murderer who is terrorizing the Twin Cities is two things: insane and extremely intelligent. He kills for the pleasure of it and thoroughly enjoys placing elaborate obstacles to keep police befuddled. Each clever move he makes is another point of pride. But when the brilliant Lieutenant Lucas Davenport--a dedicated cop and a serial killer's worst nightmare--is brought in to take up the investigation, the maddog suddenly has an adversary worthy of his genius.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateFeb 15, 2013
ISBN9781436101301
Rules of Prey
Author

John Sandford

John Sandford is the pseudonym for the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist John Camp. He is the author of thirty-three Prey novels, two Letty Davenport novels, four Kidd novels, twelve Virgil Flowers novels, three YA novels co-authored with his wife, Michele Cook, and five stand-alone books.

Related to Rules of Prey

Titles in the series (5)

View More

Related audiobooks

Related articles

Reviews for Rules of Prey

Rating: 3.9761409610995853 out of 5 stars
4/5

964 ratings37 reviews

What did you think?

Tap to rate

Review must be at least 10 words

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    According to GR I read this one six years ago but I sure don't remember it!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A fun read. Likeable protagonist. I look forward to reading the author's next 30 books.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    First book of the Prey series. Holds up pretty well despite being almost 20 years old.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Even Lucus had issues handling womens?? Loved the cat and mouse game between Lucas and Maddog?
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is the second time I have read this book. Well not exactly read, it was a audio book and extremely enjoyable.
    A well thought out thriller with twists and turns. I just loved it.

    Looking forward to the next one.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This was an enjoyable murder mystery novel that tells the story by alternating between the lead detective and the murderer. I wasn't sure if this technique would work well, but I think the author did a good job with it. I did not love the characters, but I do think the author stayed true to them in his telling of the story. Not a book that I will savor, but it was entertaining and I will certainly continue the series.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    John Sandford is the man. Full of energy and suspense.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Part of my review from my blog...I have read every Sandford novel, save his latest release and have enjoyed each novel as they progress and build upon each other. The characters are well described and come to life for the reader. For those not familiar with Minnesota, Sandford does an excellent job describing the scenes, right down to the streets. I used to read Sandford's articles in the Star-Trib when he was a reporter and was thrilled when I discovered his Prey series. I would recommend this series to anyone who enjoys mysteries, his plots are some of the best I have come across.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    First in the series of Prey books by John Sandford. Lucas Davenport is a bad-ass detective, accustomed to working on his own. When he gets pulled from vice to homicide to chase down a serial predator and killer, he pulls no punches. Manipulating the media, manipulating women, manipulating the killer, ultimately he gets the guy who taunts the police.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This was my first John Sandford/Lucas Davenport book ever. I found it thoroughly enjoyable and unpredictable. I was surprised more than once with how the story played out. I do like the character of Lucas, but I’m not such a fan of his sort of girlfriend, Jennifer. He is the cop and she is the reporter, but I have to remember that this book was written in 1989 and things are definitely different now. I think Jennifer would still be considered a manipulating bitch today though and Lucas is still a player.

    So the story revolves around a serial killer who has avoided being caught so far. It’s up to Lucas to catch him. I like that the story has good old-fashioned police detecting. I like that the characters aren’t written perfectly. I think a lot of books written today are too afraid to step outside the box the world is in today. The characters feel real and that’s hard to come by lately. He does his guy thing and she does her girl thing and we all smile at the end.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    People aren't wrong that there are a lot of cliches (the sadistic serial killer toying with the cops, the handsome ladies' man investigator, overzealous reporters) but in fairness, this was written just long enough ago that they might not have been quite so cliche. There were definitely some eye-roll moments (especially dealing with Davenport's relationships with women) but it was good enough that I'll check out the next book in the series.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is one of those books that entraps you -- it has a great lead character, a great adversary for the lead, action, humor and keeps you engaged throughout the book.

    Lucas Davenport is a good guy not a great guy but his flaws are endearing in a way which I think is a credit to Sandford's writing of this character. The character can be simple and complex at the same time and his value of other lives is fantastic -- he has enough experience to know the world isn't a peach but he isn't too jaded yet.

    The adversary Lucas is put up against is just smart enough and evil enough that you think "oh my God" he might actually get away with it. He is also evil enough that you are rooting for the good guys entire time.

    I just love this book and its a wonderful first book in a series.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Note: The star ratings I give are based on my enjoyment of the books I read, so although I gave this a low star rating, that is not due to poor writing, but due to the fact that the content was not enjoyable to me.Lucas Davenport is a hot-shot cop in the 1980s (at least in this first novel). He works in Minneapolis. An intelligent man who creates successful role-playing games on the side, he is affluent. He likes poetry, women, guns, etc. In this story he is faced with a serial killer. Right there is where my enjoyment of this novel ended. I do not like reading about serial killers and torture. Nor do I particularly enjoy police procedural novels. With two strikes against it, possibly three when you consider Davenport's sex life, I normally would not have finished this story. I did for two reasons, one, a friend adores the Davenport novels, so I wanted to see why, two, the writing was good and therefore I was able to read it in spite of itself. So, if serial killings, torture and lackadaisical attitudes about sex don't bother you, you may really love these!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Great start to a long series of crime novels featuring Lucas Davenport. Didn’t like him much at first but there is more to him than it seems. Great plot, gritty storytelling, fast paced and mostly believable characters. A lot to like for this reader.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I've been reading the “Prey” featuring Lucas Davenport since the first book, Rules of Prey, was published in 1989. There are currently twenty six books in the series so I was interested in going back and seeing Lucas back at the beginning of his career as a Minneapolis cop. His new assignment is to investigate a series of murders where each victim is left with a note outlining some of the rules of the killer. For example, “never kill anyone you know”, never use the same weapon twice”, and “never have a motive”.Davenport is an interesting character himself. He likes his job as a cop, but his real passion is developing role-playing games. That gives him some extra money and he's the only cop in town who drives a Porsche. He doesn't like to be tied down and is quite a ladies man. He's also not above using the women in his life to make his job easier. The killer, who refers to himself as “maddog”, is quite interesting too. We get to know him in alternating chapters and before long we realize he's an ego driven sociopath who needs to feel superior to everyone else around him. I found the story to be incredibly exciting, fast paced, and very difficult to put down. Even though I read this book years ago I had no idea who the killer really was or if Lucas would catch him in the end. Rules of Prey is an extreme thriller with a killer who commits a lot of horrific crimes. I don't think I'd recommend it a fan of cozy mysteries but I completely enjoyed it. I have way too many unread books to reread this series again, but it was so nice to see how Lucas Davenport has changed and matured over the last twenty six years. I still might pick up a couple of audios every now and then, because this is a series that could be fun to experience that way.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Trying out a new detective series, by starting with the first book. Very enjoyable, but since it was set in the 1980s, it has funny lingo and no cell phones... but the plot is good and the writing smart. I will definitely read the next in the series and see where the story goes from here.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A very interesting start to the series. Gritty and quite different to most other books in this genre for some reason, unless it was the style of the narrator, Lucas Davenport is a very interesting character, look forward to reading more about him. And as for Mad Dog!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Audiobook: Rules of Prey is the first in a long series of Lucas Davenport police procedurals set in Minneapolis. I’ve read about ten of them, not in order and for some reason never got around to the first, an oversight I have now remedied. The Sandford Davenport books are all quite good, although Lucas’s relationships with women I sometimes find superficial and irritating. Lucas is independently wealthy having sold the rights to a software game he had developed and he drives around in a red Porsche. In this one, he’s been tasked with finding the “Mad Dog Killer,” a man -- whose predations and POV we are subjected to -- who is killing women. One aspect puzzled and put me off a little. That was Lucas’s manipulation of the press. He’s sleeping with (and has impregnated) one of the star reporters of a local paper. She has no qualms about using things she has overheard during his private phone conversations even though she has been asked to leave the room. (His relationship with her is highly improper, in my view and hardly necessary since he’s sleeping with a victim of the Mad Dog Killer - also extremely unprofessional and irregular.) Then he uses a TV reporter (whom he regards as dumber than a rock) to leak all sorts of incorrect information clearly to irritate the killer. Whether that encourages the killer to kill in a different way I’ll leave up to the other readers. I understand that some writers feel it’s necessary for cops to break the rules to catch the bad guys but imho then they become bad guys as well. (Not a spoiler since we know who the bad guy is almost from the beginning, unfortunately participating in his predations via his POV that becomes gross as the book progresses.)Richard Ferrone does his usual brilliant job reading.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I got into these books through my mother. She was (and is still) a huge fan of procedural cop shows on TV and Mystery/thrillers in her literature. These were the books that she gave me that also grew into a love of a good thriller.

    Lucas Davenport is a detective for the Twin Cities who is very good at catching serial killers. He is hard edged and a bit womanizing, but he knows his job very well. HE can usually think like the killer and outsmart them pretty well.

    The killer in this story is known as the "Maddog" killer for his brutality ( I Think, its been a while since I read these), and he always leaves a note on his victim. These notes are his "rules" for killing:

    "Never kill anyone you know. Never have a motive. Never follow a discernible pattern. Never carry a weapon after it has been used. Beware of leaving physical evidence, etc.

    I think I like these books so much because they show not only Davenport's thoughts and method for finding the killer, but also the killers side of things. The various killers throughout these books have been pretty interesting, but also crazy (obviously since they are serial killers). It has always been a lot of fun to get inside their head for a while.

    Another good thing about this book (and all the subsequent novels) is that there is also a lot of attention paid to the personal life of Lucas Davenport. HE starts out these novels as your basic lady loving cop, but throughout out the books he has a child and finds a wife who he sticks with through lots of craziness. I really like that about the books as it makes the characters into real people and not just cardboard cutouts looking for clues.

    I re-read these at least once a year and never get tired of them.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I've long been a fan of John Sandford's Lucas Davenport mysteries and of the Virgil Flowers series which spun off of them. Somehow, I missed this Davenport novel. And I believe it was probably the first of the series. While he lacks his usual sidekicks and Rose Marie, his character is already pretty well developed. Rather than being marries to the magnificent Weather, he's an avid cocksman.But moral ambiguities abound in even this early work.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A friend recommended I try John Sandford so being the OCD person that I am I got the first in the series to try.

    I enjoyed the book and the story, loved Lucas Davenport (well, maybe except all the bed-hopping) but wished the book hadn't been about a serial killer. Knowing that it was written in 1989 helps, that was the height of serial killer mania. I'm pretty much avoiding most things with them now but this one was very well done.

    Davenport is a cop who operates slightly outside the law on occasion but knows he needs to get someone legally in the end. "The maddog" killer stretches Davenports abilities and resources when he starts killing a female on a schedule of approximately every two weeks.

    I liked the book well enough that I will try more, and no, I don't know why it took me so long to get around to reading this series. For some reason I always thought it was more "thriller" and less procedural and so I avoided it.

    Live and learn.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    With a new foreword explaining how Lucas Davenport got his start...Game on. A serial killer is stalking the women of the Twin Cities. Lucas Davenport is a player (in more ways than one). This time he's playing against an obsessive, meticulous killer for life or death stakes. Davenport's not the guy you'd want to bet on for a long term relationship, but for catching a maddog? He's your man.Creepy and suspenseful.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Another Lucas Davenport weekend. After reading #21 in the series I had a hankerin' to go back to some of the early ones. Sandford has certainly improved his delivery over the years. This first one is heavy on the nonessential narrative summaries, especially in the first 100 pages or so. Rules of Prey introduces Lucas Davenport, the badass Minneapolis cop who plays by his own rules but gets the job done when no one else can. He goes head to head with a smart lawyer who is also a serial killer. The serial killer theme is soooo '80s! This was published in 1989, so it was right for the times, but felt a little tired to me lo these 20+ years later. I didn't read the series in order my first time through. I started with #10, which I ran across by chance at the library. I didn't know it was part of a series when I grabbed it, but Clara Rinker got me hooked! Had I started with this first one I don't know if I'd have continued with the series. I read them all out of order until I caught up. I give this 3.5 stars.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    First in the series. The crimes were way too twisted for me and I had to turn that part down. I like Davenport's complexity and I enjoyed the cat and mouse game between Mad Dog and Davenport.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This haunting, unforgettable, ice-blooded thriller that introduced Lucas Davenport is so chilling that you're almost afraid to turn the pages and so mesmerizing you cannot stop.A creepy serial killer "MadDog" plays cat & mouse withLucas.He kills women after women, leaving notes explaining his "Rules".This is a fast paced thriller, some of the kills are very graphic and disturbing, not for the faint of heart.The climax leaves you breathless. Sandford paints Lucas as NOT a very likeable character. He is a womanizer of the first order, plays and sets his own rules. But, he is fascinating, something about him worms it's way into your heart. A man of many faults, but a true Hero at heart.Even though I have seen this series around for many years, I really wasn't interested. A friend sent me this as a gift to my Kindle and I felt compelled to read it.I am so glad I did. However, now I have more than 20 Lucas Davenport novels to catch up on!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Very dated, but a good thriller without political correctness. I will look out for next in series, who doesn't love a badass cop!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    But I had a problem that was big enough to remove on star from my rating: the protagonist (and the love interest he impregnated). The main character is a pig. Pure and simple - he's all over the place with women (and apparently this behavior isn't confined to just the first book). I don't particularly find that to be an appealing character trait, so it's hard to like the lead in a series when that's the way he behaves. The woman he's going to have a baby with is a back-stabbing twit whom I also dislike, even thought I don't appreciate that he was hopping in bed with a criminal witness on the side, behind her back. I may continue on with the series, but if these characters continue to behave like idiots, I doubt I'll be able to for much longer. I'd eventually grow to despise them and that never bodes well for me when it comes to books. :-p
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    The summary in the back of the book builds this as a kind of duel between cop and serial killer, and so whether you are held by this book depends upon your reaction to those two characters. In the introduction, Sandford himself says of his police detective protagonist that "cops don't act like Lucas Davenport--they'd be fired or even imprisoned if they did," and he calls the character a "cross between a cop and a movie star." Indeed, that's how Davenport comes across--as a Hollywood version of a cop, a jerk and Marty Stu with women falling all over him, and that's not the kind of character that appeals to me. As for his adversary, the serial killer in the book, he seems cliched and creepy, but not in the good, chills down the spine way, but more in the Too Much Information squicky kind of way. He styles himself "maddog" sees his killings as "the ultimate game" and leaves notes on the bodies with his "rules" such as "never kill anyone you know." In other words, this book reads like a television movie of the week, and not one strong enough it would be my choice to buy from the airport gift shop to take me through a long flight.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Lucas Davenport chases the "maddog" killer who devises elaborate obstacles to keep the police confused.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    “Rules of Prey” by John Sanford was highly recommended by a close friend and is my first foray into the world of Lucas Davenport. While Mr. Sanford’s protagonist is similar to other slick detectives from a multitude of TV-shows, he differs with his geeky hobbies and barely concealed callous tendencies. And though I found this first outing a tad formulaic, Mr. Sanford’s follow though and character development were to my liking with the characters unveiled here I can see room for growth and development. On my next trip to the book store I will look forward to perusing for other Lucas Davenport novels.