Certain Prey — Lucas Davenport #10

A Professional Killer

Certain Prey, the tenth Lucas Davenport novel, introduces one of John Sandford’s most memorable creations: Clara Rinker, a cold, brilliant professional assassin who would recur in the series as a formidable adversary. The story begins when an obsessed lawyer hires Rinker to kill a rival, but the contract killing spirals into a string of bodies, and Davenport finds himself matched against an assassin unlike any he has faced. Rinker kills without passion and without mistakes — a true professional, methodical, intelligent, and disciplined — and she does not intend to be caught. The pursuit of a killer as smart and careful as Davenport himself gives Certain Prey a tense, formidable center.

Clara Rinker is the book’s great achievement. A professional assassin who is cold, competent, and brilliant, she is a genuinely formidable antagonist, her methodical precision and her intelligence making her a worthy match for Davenport. A professional killer makes no mistakes, and Rinker’s discipline — her careful planning, her lack of passion, her refusal to leave evidence — makes her exceptionally difficult to catch. Cold competence is its own menace, and Rinker’s professional detachment is more frightening than theatrical cruelty, the sense of a killer who treats murder as a craft to be executed flawlessly. The introduction of Rinker is one of the series’ most significant.

A Worthy Adversary

What makes Certain Prey a standout is the quality of its antagonist. A worthy villain elevates a thriller, and Rinker is among the most worthy in the series — as smart, as careful, as formidable as Davenport himself, a true match for the detective. The cat-and-mouse between Davenport and Rinker is a contest between equals, two intelligent, capable professionals matched against each other, and the tension comes from the sense that Rinker is genuinely Davenport’s equal, capable of outthinking and evading him. The formidable assassin gives the novel a tension the series’ lesser villains cannot, the pursuit a genuine battle of wits.

Rinker is also a morally complex antagonist, a professional killer who is nonetheless rendered with humanity and depth, not a simple monster but a fully realized character with her own logic and code. This complexity makes Rinker memorable, the sense of a villain who is more than her crimes, and it gives the novel a moral texture beyond a simple hunt. Sandford’s willingness to make his assassin a complex, even sympathetic figure distinguishes Certain Prey, and it is part of why Rinker became a recurring character — the best antagonists return, and Rinker’s complexity earned her a place in the series’ ongoing story.

A Tense Cat-and-Mouse

Certain Prey is a tense, propulsive cat-and-mouse, the pursuit of the formidable assassin unfolding as a contest between two capable professionals. Davenport must match Rinker’s intelligence and discipline to catch a killer who makes no mistakes, and the cat-and-mouse drives the novel with relentless tension, the sense that either could outmaneuver the other giving the pursuit genuine suspense. The battle of wits between detective and assassin, both intelligent and capable, provides the novel’s engine, and the question of whether Davenport can catch a killer as good as himself drives the book.

The novel employs a villain’s-eye-view structure, alternating between Davenport’s investigation and Rinker’s perspective, which builds tension by letting the reader inside the assassin’s methodical mind but also divides the focus. Rinker’s perspective makes her competence and complexity vivid, and the alternation generates suspense as Davenport closes in on a killer the reader knows intimately. Sandford’s sharp prose and relentless plotting carry the cat-and-mouse, and the formidable antagonist gives it tension. The combination of a memorable assassin and a tense pursuit makes Certain Prey a standout entry.

A Standout Entry

Certain Prey is a standout Lucas Davenport novel, and its strengths are the introduction of Clara Rinker, the formidable assassin antagonist, and the tense cat-and-mouse. Rinker is among Sandford’s most memorable villains, her cold competence making her a genuinely formidable match for Davenport, and the battle of wits between detective and assassin gives the novel relentless tension. The divided focus and the morally complex antagonist are considerations, but the memorable villain and the tense pursuit distinguish it.

Sandford’s sharp prose and relentless plotting carry the cat-and-mouse, and Rinker gives it a formidable center. Certain Prey is the series in a tense, worthy-adversary mode, anchored by the introduction of Clara Rinker and a battle of wits between equals, a standout entry that gives Davenport one of his most formidable foes.

Where It Sits in the Series

Certain Prey is the tenth Lucas Davenport / Prey novel, following Secret Prey and preceding Easy Prey. It introduces Clara Rinker, who recurs in the series, notably in Mortal Prey, making the order meaningful. For readers tracking the Prey series, it is a standout entry.

Among the Prey novels, Certain Prey stands out for introducing Clara Rinker, one of Sandford’s most memorable villains, and for its tense cat-and-mouse. It is a propulsive thriller anchored by a formidable professional assassin, demonstrating Sandford’s gift for worthy antagonists and giving Davenport one of his most formidable adversaries.

Clara Rinker endures as one of the series’ great creations because Sandford refuses to make her a simple monster. She is a professional who happens to kill for a living, rendered with enough humanity — a backstory, a code, moments of vulnerability — that the reader comes to understand and even, uncomfortably, to root for her, all while she remains genuinely dangerous and morally culpable. That complexity is what distinguishes Certain Prey from a routine assassin thriller: the cat-and-mouse is not merely a contest of skill but a meeting of two complex people who, in another life, might have respected each other. Sandford’s willingness to grant his villain real interiority makes the pursuit more than a procedural exercise, and it explains why Rinker, unlike most of the series’ one-off antagonists, earned a return engagement. A worthy adversary, the novel demonstrates, is one the reader cannot simply hate, and Rinker is precisely that — a killer whose competence commands a grudging admiration even as her crimes demand justice.

Our rating: 4.1/5 — A standout Lucas Davenport novel that introduces Clara Rinker, a cold, brilliant professional assassin, pitting Davenport against one of his most formidable foes in a tense cat-and-mouse.