The first time I ever read a Lucas Davenport book, I was 11, and it was the 5th one in the series, Winter Prey. I can't, for the life of me, tell you what that book is about. I just simply don't remember the plot.

But what I do remember is the excitement I felt while reading it. What I remember is this nagging feeling in the back of my mind that I had to get my hands on the rest of the series and read them in order, start to finish. I was obsessed with owning these books. It might have been because it was one of the first adult novels I read that didn't traumatize me (i.e. Lisey's Story by Stephen King, because no 9-year-old should be given that book even if they ask for it), or it might have been because it was my first crime thriller and it opened up a love for a whole new genre.

Whatever the reason was for obsessing over owning all the books in the series, it doesn't matter anymore because now I own all the books and I'm finally going to do what I planned to do 13 years ago and read all of them, start to finish, in order.

But this first book makes it really hard to figure out what was going through my mind when I decided that this series, based off of one random book I found at a flea market, was going to be my favorite crime thriller series.

I thought I liked the fact that Lucas Davenport is not a likable person. I thought it would be a refreshing change of pace from the last few crime novels that I've read, which I'll admit haven't been many. I thought I could get past all of the disrespectful "representation" and all of the disrespectful wording that was going on. And the investigating of the crime itself was entertaining, it did have me on the edge of my seat, especially the chase scene at the end of the book, but it wasn't interesting and entertaining enough to overshadow everything else.

I was also super confused about the importance of how wealthy Lucas Davenport is because of the video games he creates. It seemed like two entirely different plot lines smashed together and it was awkward, especially with the way the video game thing was written into the story.

He's also a lieutenant in his 30s, and I don't even think that's possible? And how can he be a lieutenant without actually being part of a department? His office is literally a closet? And why did he get pulled from robbery and why was a demotion the option everyone was going to go with when he got pulled from robbery? None of it makes much sense, especially since he's also supposed to be the most decorated and respected officer in the city, even though he's been recorded beating up other officers and that recording has been showed on the news. How can you respect someone who loses their temper so fast and is so violent and aggressive at the slightest inconvenience or mistake?

And here's another thing that doesn't make sense. When you're introduced to Lucas Davenport, he's being investigated because they "think" he committed the murder, but they don't actually think that because "we see how you are around women, you were just the only likely person." Which makes absolutely no sense because within two sentences after that, they have a list of 34 people BESIDES Lucas Davenport who had access to the room a gun had been stolen from, which they had said he was the only one who had access to.

And aside from all that, this book just didn't age well at all. It was written originally in 1989, and it shows. Even without the mentioning of VCRs and tapes. It shows in the way the gay community is talked about. It shows in the way women are talked about. It shows in the way that Lucas Davenport immediately proposed to a woman he'd been sleeping with and "liked better than all the others," just because she told him she was pregnant. Because his child being a bastard was apparently the worst thing that could happen to him. *insert eye rolling here*

And now that that's out the of the way, we can finally talk about Lucas Davenport's relationship with women. Because what fuck even is that? He's a "lady's man" and apparently has a girlfriend who is okay with him cheating on her even though she's pregnant with his child? (And I'm assuming she's only pregnant with his child because she sabotaged whatever contraceptive they were using just because she wanted a kid and hadn't actually discussed it with him until she was positive she was pregnant. That's entrapment and it's illegal. But whatever.) He has sex with a victim of an attempted murder after forcing her to re-enact how she had been assaulted by the killer? And the women's interactions with Lucas Davenport was so unrealistic. Carla just assumes they're seeing each other because he comes up every weekend and has sex with her? And the way he talks about "not fucking dumb women" is extremely ick.

Everything about this man is detestable and half the plot seemed more like filler to me than anything else. All those game nights with nuns was extremely unnecessary? And this book can't really be considered a mystery if we know who the killer is the entire length of the book. Because, you know, he introduced himself to his victim on page 35. Mysteries are supposed to baffle the readers as well, not just the rest of the characters in the book.

Despite all of this, though, I am still going to be reading the rest of the series since I spent so much time and money fulfilling my 11-year-old dream, but this book was definitely not a great start.