This volume of John Sandford's Prey series gives more attention to the criminals and to Lucas' wife, the surgeon Weather Karkinnen, is part of the team that is separating two Siamese twin babies. Lucas is not in total control of the murder case, he makes mistakes.
A non-too-smart Lebanese ER physician at Weather's hospital is abusing drugs and is out of money. He persuades some bungling low-level crooks to steal about a half million dollars worth of drugs from the hospital pharmacy. They do so, but, being incompetent, accidentally kill one of the pharmacists. While dashing away in a car, they pass Weather who is arriving for the twin's operation. Weather sees and is able to identify one of the bunglers. The crooks decide, among other dumb ideas, to kill Weather so that they would remain unidentified. "My friend," one of them says to another, "you are smarter than you look," and this emphasizes how dumb they really are.
Virgil Flowers, Lucas' assistant and the protagonist of three excellent Sandford novels, plays a role in the book, protecting Weather, but shows little or none of the flare that made him such an enjoyable character in the three Flowers books.
All in all, this mystery lacks the usual humor of the Sandford mysteries, the bungling mars our desire to identify with Lucas, and the story lacks suspense.
2 Stars
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