Dead Watch

Boy, as much as I tried, I just couldnt get into this book. In fact, as I was reading, many times I thought, Really???. I also never did connect with or care about any of the characters, unlike the Virgil Flowers and Lucas Davenport protagonists. I am 71 years old and made a promise to not waste my time thinking I had to finish every book I started. Well, I fulfilled my promise on this one and stopped trying to care at page 268.

Im a big fan of John Sanford for two main reasonsthe characters and the snappy dialogue. Jacob Winter is Sandfords new character and if you like Lucas Davenport from the Prey series, youll probably like Jake. Similar to the way that Davenport did special favors for the Governor of Minnesota, Jake works for the President and his Chief of Staff. He does the jobs they want to be able to deny they had anything to do with. In this case, sorting out the political and criminal ramifications of an ex-Senator gone missing in a presidential election year. Its a nice niche in the genre, a step more nuanced than the well-developed theme of the private eye who can get away with stuff that the cops arent supposed to do, like breaking into someones house without a warrant or withholding evidence from government investigators. Jake does all that, but also has the clout of being able to say that the President wants results when he runs into a witness who doesnt want to cooperate, plus the White House travel office to fly him around the country.
Of course, you cant get to know Jake nearly as well in one book as you can Davenport in over two dozen, and Jake doesnt yet have a Virgil Flowers for all the fun he provides, but Im looking forward to seeing more books in this series.

John Roswell Camp, aka John Sandford, is the author of nearly four dozen books, the bestselling 25-book Prey series most prominent among them. Lucas Davenport of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension stars in the series, often assisted by the crack investigator Virgil Flowers (who sports his own eight-book series).
A new bestselling series?

Dead Watch bears all the signs of a new series coming on. Sandford has moved the setting from the Twin Cities to Washington, DC, where Jacob Winter works as a freelance researcher for the White House. However, job description is a euphemism; hes a political trouble-shooter. Jake is 33 years old and is a former soldier in the Special Forces in Afghanistan, where he was wounded in the leg by shrapnel and now uses a cane to help him get around. The Presidents Chief of Staff has called Jake in to wrestle a particularly threatening crisis to the ground: a former right-wing U.S. Senator from Virginia has disappeared, and his outspoken wife is making loud noise about it. Jakes assignment: to find the missing Senator as quickly as possible. Though Jake, like the President, is a moderate Democrat and the missing Senators wife, Madison Bowe, shares her husbands Republican politics, the chemistry starts boiling between the two when they meet early in the course of Jakes investigation.
The plot thickens

Madison (Maddy) is convinced that the Governor of Virginia, Arlo Goodman, has kidnapped her husband. The Bowes hatred for the Governor runs deep: Goodman used dirty tricks to sabotage the Senators reelection campaign. Goodman, though nominally a Democrat, has created a paramilitary force called The Watchers, which Maddy and Jake both suspect is behind the Senators disappearance. However, the story is far more complicated than that and its suspenseful to the end.

Jake Winter is a fascinating character with sufficient depth to become the protagonist of another long-running Sandford series. I, for one, would like to see that happen.

Before turning to writing fiction full-time, Sandford worked for The Miami Herald and later The Saint Paul Pioneer Press, where he won a Pulitzer for features writing.

Dead Watch introduces a new lead character, Jacob Winter, to the list of John Sandford’s creations. Winter works out of Washington and is a political “fixer” – meaning he is the man who gets certain jobs done that the politicians want kept low-key.

In this novel, a well-known politician disappears under suspicious circumstances and Winter is asked to investigate. There are no end of possible suspects ranging from the Governor, the missing man’s former gay partner, the missing man’s wife and others.

The story is quite good for the most part. Sandford writes a very readable novel where one can relate to the lead character and there are always amusing moments in the novels. The action part of the book near the end is a bit far-fetched but I assume the author needed a resolution that he was comfortable with.

I think this was the only Winter outing so far, Sandford has such strong leads with Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers, he doesn’t really need another lead.

John Sandford has a unique talent for adapting his writing style to fit the personalities and characteristics of his main characters. In he does his usual exemplary job of developing his characters and establishing an intimate connection with his reader. Stanford’s frequent dry humor helps the pace of the book, giving the reader a breather and a smile–just before the next exciting development.
This is one of my favorite Sandford books and that is saying a lot, because there are so many others!

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