Chosen prey

As we learn at the very outset, the Gravedigger is James Quatar, an effete, deeply disturbed art historian with a penchant for blondes who remind him of his mother. Several of these iconic blondes have served as unwitting models for James's distinctive brand of pornographic, mix-and-match computer art. And several have simply disappeared from the face of the earth. As the novel opens, the body of Qatar's most recent victim surfaces in a park on the outskirts of Minneapolis. When the park turns out to be a mass graveyard containing eight more victims -- all blonde, all with an affinity for the visual arts -- a statewide manhunt ensues. Cutting crisply back and forth between the demented perspective of James Qatar and the increasingly frantic perspective of the Minneapolis/St. Paul police departments, Chosen Prey offers a satisfying demonstration of Sandford's by now familiar virtues: brisk, no-frills prose, pungent dialogue, authoritative scene-setting, and a vivid gallery of characters from both sides of the law. These include Davenport himself, Detective Sergeant Marcy Sherrill (who is just returning to action after her near-fatal wounding in Easy Prey), and Davenport's on-again, off-again girlfriend, Dr. Weather Karkinnen, who has now assumed a dominant role in Lucas's always complicated domestic life. Effective new characters include the Gravedigger himself, James Qatar; his voyeuristic paramour (and prospective victim), Ellen Barstad; and Terry Marshall, a veteran law enforcement officer with an intensely personal stake in the investigation.