Certain Prey

N.Y.: Putnam, 1999. 1st edition with complete number line beginning with 1. Fine in fine dust jacket, not price clipped, with protective mylar cover. "The vast popularity of the Prey novels is probably due, not so much to this dependable hero as to Sandford's clever plotting, sure pacing and fully rounded villains--as well as his smart prose. As if acknowledging his series' hero's unflashy demeanor, Sandford, in his 10th Prey book (after Secret Prey), allows two gleefully unrecalcitrant female antagonists to steal the show from Davenport. Clara Rinker's life as a murderer and mob hit woman begins when she is raped at age 16 and beats her assailant dead with a baseball bat. Years later, the other femme fatale, sociopathic Minneapolis defense lawyer Carmel Loan, hires Rinker to kill the wife of property attorney Hale Allen, whom Carmel desires; within days, she has Hale in bed. The storyline spools out as a cat-and-mouse among the women and Davenport, with the villainesses dominating the action, sometimes in tangential scenes. When the junkie who connected Carmel to Rinker blackmails the pair, for instance, Carmel tortures him with an electric drill as Rinker watches... and Carmel's ferocious response to being framed by Davenport redefines the term "over the top.". First Edition. Hard Cover. Fine/Fine. Book.