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There are facets to this book that make it especially interesting to read, beyond the usual benefits that a John Sandford book brings, well written, well characterized, good police procedural, and all the rest. In this book Lucas Davenport is away from his home turf, thus forcing him into the role of a stranger and making him an outsider in the investigation. The case starts in Cancun, Mexico where the killer for hire whom we met in a previous book, Clara Rinker, has settled down and fallen in love. She plans to marry Paolo Mejia. And then her past comes to haunt her in the form of a hired gun who shoots Paolo and wounds her, killing her unborn child. Rinker is a dangerous woman, a hired killer who has yet to fail. Now she intends to get the men she is certain were responsible for the attack on her. These four men live in St. Louis and so the FBI concentrates their effort in that city to protect the mob bosses if possible, but to capture Rinker and take her out of circulation no matter what. The closest anyone has come to capturing Rinker was Lucas Davenport in Minneapolis and so they call him, inviting him to join them first in Cancun and then in St. Louis. He might recognize her and no one else has any idea what she looks like. He might guess what her next move could be. His great advantage is that he is lucky and luck is the only factor that will stop Rinker. Davenport, enduring life changes (new house, new job, new wife and child), is all too eager to leave Minneapolis. And his prospective wife is eager for him to go also, because he has been harassing everyone for weeks. And so he goes to new territory. Sandford does an excellent job of describing St. Louis and employing it as the backdrop to the action. I have visited the city several times and felt the heart and soul of the city were captured in this book. Often cut out of FBI deliberations (most agents didnít trust him) and concerned that they were going about things in the wrong way, Davenport finds a unique group to help him out, retired cops who are sitting around looking for something to do. What a great idea for a group of sidekicks. They function a bit like Gerry Fordís bums, except they are sober and more knowledgeable in police work. They bring a new dimension to the story. Davenport is, by the way, more macho than usual in this book. There is nothing wrong with this, but it did catch my attention. Sandford tells a good story and he is not afraid to take risks, to push his character and challenge the reader. The story is engrossing, the suspense is chilling, and the characters are empathetic. Once again John Sandford scores.
Reviewed by Sally A. Fellows, June 2002
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