Neon Prey by
John Sandford
My rating:
3 of 5 stars
The book gets off to a good start. Clayton Deese is arrested for a small time assault in New Orleans but when he jumps bail several dead bodies are discovered on his property and forensic evidence reveals he has been eating them. Bob and Rae call Lucas in order to get in on the case and they team up with FBI agent Tremanty (a big deal is made that he looks like a young Lucas). They track Deese to LA (Los Angeles) where he is hiding out with Marion Beauchamps, his half brother who is running a home evasion team. Their hide out is staked out and a Swat team is called in. Then everything goes to hell when Deese, Beauchamps, Cole and Cox escape due to the fact they were living in a house in back that the police didn't know about.
At this point the book goes off the rails which is why it only got 3 starts. Lucas makes a rookie mistake and gets shot when he stands out in the open in front of the hideout. And we are suppose to believe that no effort is made to find Deese while Lucas is recuperating or at least that Bob and Rae don't use the lead they have to find him.
Lucas recuperates and gets Weather's permission to go back on the hunt. They go back to LA and confront the English bouncer that was passing phone messages to Beauchamps. With the phone number he provides they are able to track Deese to Las Vegas. But they aren't the only ones hunting Deese. Deese has contacted his former employer Smith and demanded a payoff. Smith agrees to pay him and sends Santos to deliver the money or kill Deese. Deese suspecting a set up isn't there when Santos arrives and Beauchamps and Santos get in a shootout and Beauchamps is killed Cox escapes when Santos flees to escape the cops. Cole is at their second location were Cox and Deese eventually arrive at. Deese arranges to meet Santos at the mall to get the money but Cox and Cole tip off the cops (in hopes that the cops will kill Deese and Smith will pay them for setting Deese up). Santos is badly injured in the shootout that occurs and Deese escapes but without any money. Deese, Cox and Cole then decide to hit up Harrelson a local gambler who is rumored to keep 5 million dollars in his car. While Deese and his gang are invading Harrelson's home the police have found their second hide out (which is on the news).
When they discover that Harrelson doesn't have that much money in his car or house they kidnap his wife (Gloria) and alerted by the news reports that their hideout has been discovered by the cops they head to Deese's Uncle Ralph's trailer at a remote desert location. Cox and Cole want to leave but Ralph prevents them from leaving while Clayton rapes Gloria. Deese then forces Cox to stay with Ralph while he and Cole go to pick up the ransom.
Lucas who is suppose to resemble Harrelson drops off the ransom, due to Deese's plan to use a drainage channel tunnel he is able to escape. He shoots Cole and heads back to Ralph's. With the Vin number from the abandoned motorcycle they are able to discover it belongs to Ralph Deese and track down his current location. The police head there and actually arrive before Deese.
Before the police get there Ralph rapes Gloria. Cox takes advantage of the situation to kill both Ralph and Gloria as they can testify that she isn't the innocent girlfriend dragged along against her will but an active participate. She sticks around because she plans to leave with Cole and use his contacts to start a new life. When the police arrive and cut the power to the trailer she gets in the car to run the A/C which alerts Deese there is a problem when he gets back. The police are forced in to shooting him but only wound him as they want him alive. But he crawls under the trailer where he is bit by a snake. Cox surrenders and spins her tail of being held against her will by the men and used as a sex toy. Her high priced defense attorney gets all charges against her dropped.
Personal notes: Lucas and Virgil plot how to get Frankie to marry Virgil.
Tremanty and Rae hook up
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