• Rules of Prey

  • A Lucas Davenport Novel
  • By: John Sandford
  • Narrated by: Richard Ferrone
  • Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (8,416 ratings)

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Rules of Prey  By  cover art

Rules of Prey

By: John Sandford
Narrated by: Richard Ferrone
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Publisher's summary

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.
©1989 John Sandford (P)2005 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

"A police procedural as effective as it is brutal." (Publishers Weekly)
"Sleek and nasty...a big, scary suspenseful read." (Stephen King)

What listeners say about Rules of Prey

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4,607
  • 4 Stars
    2,611
  • 3 Stars
    875
  • 2 Stars
    182
  • 1 Stars
    141
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4,380
  • 4 Stars
    1,830
  • 3 Stars
    565
  • 2 Stars
    114
  • 1 Stars
    94
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    3,975
  • 4 Stars
    2,042
  • 3 Stars
    686
  • 2 Stars
    146
  • 1 Stars
    116

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Good book

My first prey book. liked enough to try book 2 .
I like Ridley Scott books. Sorta in the same vein

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Difficult

In this day and time Lucas Davenport is despicable. He is as bad as the bad guy. The only time I liked him was when he was working on his games. I might try another book to see if he develops any redeeming qualities.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Glad I listened

Unfortunately when I was introduced to Lucas Davenport it was several books down the line. I always wondered how it/he started. I was thrilled when I saw this in the Plus catalog. Now I’m on to number two!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Wow

This book was absolutely amazing! I was on the edge of my seat the whole time and the ending is worth the wait!

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Good story, would have been great without the romance

I enjoyed the story. HATED the romance interwoven. The GF was detestable and unnecessary. Remove the romance part and it would have been great.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

the audio is terrible quality

it sounds like it's raining in the recording studio the rest of this is fill words because it won't accept it otherwise

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

I’m always interested in new stories and characters

Very good performance. Easy story to follow. Could be more details describing looks of individual characters.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Twist and Turns

I was often caught off guard by the twist and turns of this story. It was a fun quick listen.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Serviceable detective story.

A decent serial killer story. Good view into the killer's mind, the detective's story could get tedious at times. Rooting for a crooked cop protagonist was trying at times, but the real issue I had with this was the audio quality.

Early on in the book, during certain chapters, they failed to remove the natural clicks, pops, lip licking, and slurping saliva in the narrator's mouth as he read between words, as well as the inhalations between sentences.

Small, but very noticeable and annoying.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars
  • EJ
  • 06-05-23

Pay phones?!

This has been on my TBR list for a while. I'm always excited to find a new series. This is book one with 33 more books! The original publication date was in 1989. Wow, tech has evolved so much since then. Pay phones, carrying change for them, calling cards, answering machines, video-taping broadcast news. I giggled when a home theater was described with a 27-inch television. Not sure how important it is to read the books in order, but I think for the next book, I will read one in the series that was published in this century 😉 But for sure, I appreciate a morally grey hero.

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