Phantom Prey by John Sanford

This was my first book by John Sanford, and it probably will not be my last. This book was pretty good, though the suspense was somewhat weak. I will give it a B+.

From Amazon:
A widow comes home to her large house in a wealthy, exclusive suburb to find blood everywhere, no body—and her collegeaged daughter missing. She’s always known that her daughter ran with a bad bunch. What did she call them—Goths? Freaks is more like it, running around with all that makeup and black clothing, listening to that awful music, so attracted to death. And now this.But the police can’t find the girl, alive or dead, and when a second Goth is found slashed to death in Minneapolis, the widow truly panics. There’s someone she knows, a surgeon named Weather Davenport, whose husband is a big deal with the police, and she implores Weather to get him directly involved. Lucas begins to investigate only reluctantly—but then when a third Goth is slashed in what is now looking like a Jackthe- Ripper series of killings, he starts working it hard. The clues don’t seem to add up, though. And then there’s the young Goth who keeps appearing and disappearing: Who is she? Where does she come from and, more important, where does she vanish to? And why does Lucas keep getting the sneaking suspicion that there is something else going on here . . . something very, very bad indeed?

As I mentioned earlier, the suspense was somewhat weak because about halfway through the book, the reader learns about who the killer was. That really stunned me though, and I looked back and reread those pages a couple of times to make sure what I read was right. I was somewhat confused about the backstory of the main character, Lucas, but I assume that it is because this book was part of a series. I do wish that Mr. Sanford did explain some of the things that were kind of glossed over, but it wasn't that big of a deal. The topic of goths was interesting though, because I always associated goths with those kids who wear all black and are very, very pale and want to be different (though just look like each other) and Mr. Sanford explained some of their lifestyles and what being a goth is all about. I will be checking out more of Mr. Sanford's books in the future.

All in all, this weekend was a successful one reading wise. I finished two books and am planning on starting Meg Cabot's The Queen of Babble Gets Hitched. I got all of my cleaning done and lesson plans done, so I do plan on getting some reading done. I tend to speed through this series, so I anticipate having it finished it soon. It is my last library book and I am getting interested in some of the books on my TBR piles. I hope everyone had a great weekend and Happy Reading!