It's tempting to say that Mortal Prey is lucky #13 in author John Sandford's Prey series, but in fact all 12 previous appearances by deputy police chief Lucas Davenport have scored tremendous success for publisher Putnam. (It will be interesting to see if Sandford can repeat the PW bestseller pattern of his previous two novels: both Easy Prey and Chosen Prey hit our lists at #2—each time behind a Mary Higgins Clark title—then quickly went to #1. We suspect Jean Auel might not be so easy to dislodge.) On the book's May 13 pub date (copies in print: 425,000), Sandford was greeted by SRO crowds at three bookstores in his hometown of Minneapolis (three more signings are forthcoming), and he guested on local radio and TV shows. Mortal Prey was featured on NBC's Weekend Today on May 25, and the author will be heard next month in an NPR Morning Edition segment on summer mystery books. Meanwhile, Berkley's paperback edition of Davenport's previous escapade, Chosen Prey (copies in print: 1.5 million), observes its third week atop our mass market list.
With reporting by Dick Donahue
