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Gated Preyby Lee Goldberg Kindle Edition, 255 pg. Read: October 26-27, 2021 |
“The people who live in these places think the gates protect them from all the crime and misery that’s out there, but it doesn’t. It just locks them in with it.”
“You think whatever happened came from within the gates?”
“I don’t know where it came from, that’s your job. But I’m sure there’s as much evil inside these gates as there is outside of them. Maybe more.”
What’s Gated Prey About?
LASD Detectives Eve Ronain and Duncan Pavone are in the midst of a sting operation when the novel opens—to trap a home invasion team, the pair are pretending to be a well-moneyed couple who’d make pretty easy marks to lure the team in. They go out daily to shop a little—making sure to flash a lot of cash—and then go back to their McMansion in a gated community to wait. Duncan’s loving the excuse to sit around all day and watch movies, while it’s driving Eve crazy to not be active.
The LASD has tried traditional investigational methods, but they just haven’t worked—no one can figure out how the team is getting past the security gates, much less who they are, and how they select their targets.
The trap works and the LASD chalks it up as a win. But Eve’s uncomfortable with the number of questions (and possible accomplices) that remain about it. Also, there are indications that Eve still has enemies within the department—and they might have prevented backup that Eve and Duncan needed from acting to keep them safe.
That’s not the only crime Eve and Duncan encounter behind the protective gates—while trying to close the home invasion case, the pair pick up another assignment. It’s not covered in the publisher’s description, and I’m not sure how to talk about it without giving away too much. So let’s just say that it will underscore that “Maybe more” from my opening quotation.
Eve Off-the-Clock
“You’re doing it again,” Duncan said.
“Doing what?”
“Obsessing over your case to the point of exhaustion. You need a life and some sleep. You can’t physically, mentally, or emotionally sustain being relentless.” “
I’m only doing it now because we’ve got a ticking clock on this one.”
“You’ve done it on every case we’ve had.”
“You make it seem like years. We’ve only been working together for a few months. It hasn’t been that long.”
But like Duncan, readers know if the two had been working together longer, she’d be doing the same thing. This is not a good way to live—it’s not healthy, and if Eve doesn’t learn how to take her foot off the gas, she’s going to burn out or make some big mistakes—likely both. But this is the kind of character I love reading about. Yes, I do hope that she learns how to balance things a bit—for the sake of character development, I think it’d be interesting. But until she does? I’m going to love watching her burn herself out.
Eve spends so much time working over the course of the novel that there’s almost no time for anything but her work. We do get to see most of Eve’s family, but very briefly—and the most we see is of her sister, thanks to Lisa’s work in the ER. I’d have liked a bit more time with her, she humanizes Eve, but that’s not always possible in every book.
Conversely, I thought it was good to have a scaled-down presence of Eve’s mom (especially with Eve’s agent being able to carry the water of “supporting character annoyingly-fixated on the superficial”). I find Jen an amusing and important part of the series, but man, a little of her goes a long way.
Duncan “Dunkin’ Donuts” Pavone
I’m not sure if I should use the nickname in that section header, I’m not sure if Goldberg used it this time. But, eh, I like it. I made so many notes while reading that were variations of “love this character.”
While he remains the wise and largely-comic-relief figure he’s been, there’s a darkness to Duncan we haven’t really seen before, expressed in a couple of different ways. There’s a certain invulnerability that his fast-approaching retirement date gives him that allows him to give this side a free rein—Duncan notes repeatedly that his career is over, he has nothing to lose. I really wouldn’t want him as an enemy (not that I want any, I have to say, but really not him).
We also get some insight into his reason for retirement—one of those things I hadn’t questioned. He was introduced to us in Lost Hills as being on the verge of retirement, and that’s just how I’ve thought about him. But now I want to know more about what got him to this point.
She’s Still Learning
Eve’s only been a homicide detective for a few months, and she still has a lot to learn. Not just the lessons that Duncan’s trying to teach her about overworking and getting along with colleagues.
But she’s still learning how to be a detective—she doesn’t know basic routines and procedures. She embarrasses herself in front of a morgue attendant and in an autopsy—nothing horrible, just the kind of stumbling people make when they’re new at something. Some of what she does within the Sheriff’s department is a little more than embarrassing—and will likely come back to haunt her, but again, that’s realistic growing pains.
It’s not often that we get to see this kind of thing in police procedurals—especially with the central/titular character. And this approach is a treat.
So, what did I think about Gated Prey?
“…I just got lucky.”
Duncan leaned against the wall and looked at her. “It isn’t luck, Eve. It’s instinct. You’re a natural at this. What you haven’t learned yet is how to do it without making enemies.”
I’ve gone on too long at this point—and there’s so much that I still wanted to talk about: the ongoing role of the media (both news and entertainment) in Eve’s life and career—not to mention at least one fellow detective; the politics within and outside the LASD and how that impacts their investigation; personnel changes within the Department; and racial and economic prejudices that the security gates seem to magnify.
Also, while Duncan (especially) and Eve have always seemed to have some fun meals—there are three references to food that almost induced a between-meal DoorDash order on my part. Don’t read this on an empty stomach, folks.
Great characters all around, a couple of gripping cases, and a breakneck pace—all par for the course for this series. If you haven’t jumped on the Eve Ronin train—now’s the time. I literally organized my reading schedule the last couple of weeks so that I could start this as soon as it was delivered to my Kindle, and it was worth it. You want to get your hands—and eyes*—on this, readers.
* Or ears, come to think of it, Nicol Zanzarella does a great job with the audiobook narrations for these books.
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