Dead Watch [Hardcover]

John Sandford (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 16, 2006

Through twenty-one novels featuring Lucas Davenport, Kidd, or the razor-edge world of the Night Crew, John Sandford has been writing brilliantly suspenseful, consistently surprising thrillers filled with rich characters and exceptional drama.

But Dead Watch sets a whole new level.

Early morning, Virginia, and a woman is on the run. Her husband, a former U.S. Senator, has been missing for days. Kidnapped? Murdered? She doesn't know, but she thinks she knows who's involved, and why. And that she's next.

Hours later in Washington, D.C., a cell phone rings. The White House chief of staff needs Jacob Winter now. His chief investigator and an Army Intelligence veteran, Winter knows how to move quickly and decisively, but he's never faced a problem like this. The disappearances are bad, but when the blackened body shows up barbed-wired to a tree, Winter knows there is much worse to come. And soon enough, there is. Large forces are at work, determined to do whatever it takes to achieve their ends. Winter will have to use all his resources not only to prevail but also to survive. And so will the nation. . . .

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

When Lincoln Bowe, a controversial Republican ex-senator, disappears at the start of this fast-paced thriller from bestseller Sandford (Broken Prey), the White House puts Jacob Winter, a veteran political operative with "an uncanny ability to navigate the world of bureaucracy," on the case. Bowe vanished shortly after making a fiery speech denouncing a rival, Arlo Goodman, the governor of Virginia and a demagogue who heads a volunteer militia group known as the Watchmen. When Bowe's burnt and headless corpse turns up, Winter is under even more pressure to discover those behind his murder. Aided by the dead man's attractive and possibly duplicitous widow, Madison, the fixer follows a trail of corpses and deception that suggests the killing may have been a staged piece of theater intended to derail Goodman's ascent to the presidency. Readers interested in a quick diverting romp without much gravitas will enjoy this, but serious Beltway fiction junkies might prefer their political thrillers to be a little more plausible. 500,000 announced first printing. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Former Virginia senator Lincoln Bowe is missing. His wife, Madison, believes his bitter political rival, Governor Arlo Goodman, is behind it. Critics scoff until she reveals a security tape showing two men loosely affiliated with Goodman threatening her in her home. Bowe's disappearance is a political time bomb. The presidential conventions are just over the horizon, and both parties fear the consequences if it detonates. The president, through his chief of staff, hires Jake Winter to investigate. Bowe's body is found soon after Winter initiates his investigation. Bowe was not a saint: his sexual dalliances, with both men and women, were numerous, and his obsession with destroying Goodman's political career may have driven him to contemplate political blackmail. Winter has plenty of suspects to choose from, and he knows the answer can be found somewhere in Washington's backrooms, where third-string campaign dirty tricksters change allegiances like other people change socks. Sandford, the best-selling author of the Prey series, displays an insider's knowledge of political infighting and couples it with his skill at creating memorable characters working through the maze of a diabolical plot. (Readers of a certain age will be reminded of Ross Thomas, grand master of the D.C. thriller from an earlier era.) The real Washington is awash with its own scandals and political time bombs, so expect readers to flock to this funhouse-mirror reflection of the real thing. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Adult; 1ST edition (May 16, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399153543
• ISBN-13: 978-0399153549
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (107 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #112,599 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John Sandford was born John Camp on February 23, 1944, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He attended the public schools in Cedar Rapids, graduating from Washington High School in 1962. He then spent four years at the University of Iowa, graduating with a bachelor's degree in American Studies in 1966. In 1966, he married Susan Lee Jones of Cedar Rapids, a fellow student at the University of Iowa. He was in the U.S. Army from 1966-68, worked as a reporter for the Cape Girardeau Southeast Missourian from 1968-1970, and went back to the University of Iowa from 1970-1971, where he received a master's degree in journalism. He was a reporter for The Miami Herald from 1971-78, and then a reporter for the St. Paul Pioneer-Press from 1978-1990; in 1980, he was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize, and he won the Pulitzer in 1986 for a series of stories about a midwestern farm crisis. From 1990 to the present he has written thriller novels. He's also the author of two non-fiction books, one on plastic surgery and one on art. He is the principal financial backer of a major archaeological project in the Jordan Valley of Israel, with a website at www.rehov.org. In addition to archaeology, he is deeply interested in art (painting) and photography. He both hunts and fishes. He has two children, Roswell and Emily, and one grandson, Benjamin. His wife, Susan, died of metastasized breast cancer in May, 2007, and is greatly missed.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good character, odd concept., May 23, 2006

By 

David Warner "Comic Novel Fan" (Manassas, Virginia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dead Watch (Hardcover)

As a die-hard John Sandford fan (I read the entire Prey and Kidd series in about 4 months or so) I was disappointed that a new Kidd or Lucas novel was not out, but was very interested to see his construction of a political thriller. I bought it and finished it in a day, and it was, in a word, OK.

I think the thing that makes certain political thrillers work and others fail is character construction, and for me, there were far too many characters (and their motivations) to keep track of, and it's a fairly convoluted plot. I think the main character, Jake Winter, has a lot of potential, as too many characters that we see are law enforcement, in one form or another, but for him to be a "forensic bureaucrat", as he is called, is a unique approach for a protagonist and one that could open up a new avenue for Sandford.

All in all I give it 3 stars; it kept me interested, and was a quick and easy read, but at times was a bit hard to follow, like the conversation on a fast-paced episode of "The West Wing" where they reference people and events and places with which the listener is unfamiliar.

I, too, look forward to the return of Kidd or Lucas, but I would read another Jake Winter novel, and I suggest you give it a try. Sandford is a great writer, but this isn't his best showing.

21 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Unfortunately, far from Sandford's best work, May 27, 2006

By 

Brian Baker (Santa Clarita, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dead Watch (Hardcover)

I won't rehash the story line, as you can read that in the editorial reviews.

I'll preface by saying that I've long been a fan of Sandford's, especially his "Prey" series. His Lucas Davenport character does for the Twin Cities what Connelly's Harry Bosch does for LA; a brooding and introspective look at the dark underbelly of society.

In this book, Sandford takes on the political melieu of Washington with, at best, mixed results.

He tries to weave a tale of murder into one of political intrigue, and unfortunately fails to fully succeed at either.

There are many examples of success to which we can compare: probably one of the all-time classics is the 60s novel "Seven Days in May". Drury's works. Those of David Baldacci, such as "Absolute Power", a terrific novel and a pretty good Clint Eastwood movie.

It's hard for me to exactly pin down why this book doesn't succeed, but it doesn't. Some elements come to mind.

1. The presidential-level political aspects just didn't work; there was no sense of the immense power or potential menace of the office.

2. The lead character (Winter) struck me as a muddled and inconsistent mess. There's an implied backstory involving his ex-wife that seems purposeless, and isn't developed. His experience as a Special Forces soldier seems inconsistent with his capabilities, and simply thrown in to make the character a "tough guy".

3. The whole nature of the murder plot - and I won't expound more on the details so as not to create a spoiler - seemed incredible and was created more for sensationalism than anything else.

4. The actual perpetrators seemed like something out of "The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight", and diluted any sense of real menace they may have been intended to convey.

5. I also had problems with his Watchmen. Obviously, Sandford is using them to convey his own disapproval of the real life Minutemen, and whether or not you agree with him (and I don't) this was executed very ham-handedly.

Anyway, there you have it. I consider this an interesting experiment that failed. Two and a half stars. Now Sandford owes us a REALLY good Prey novel.

20 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ah Jeez, May 29, 2006

By 

Ben F. Small (Tucson, AZ, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dead Watch (Hardcover)

John Sandford's got his Mad on. About the dirty world of politics and spin control, about a sensationalist, rude media --ironic since Sandford's real personae is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist. Everybody lies, everybody manipulates, there are no pure hearts, there's no innocence in DEAD WATCH.

Former Senator Lincoln Bowe is missing, then found dead. Decapitated, shot, burned and tied with barbed wire, no doubt the victim of Democratic Party politics -- unless the Republicans did it. The president calls in Jake Winter, forensic political fixer, to sort out the mess and keep the president's underwear clean. Is the dead senator a victim of the Democratic Party's storm troopers, the Republican Party's election planning, or was he killed by a gay lover? Winter knows the answers lie deep within the layers of election planning bureaucracies of the two political parties. A scandal is about to leak, and each party is planning its stain. People will die, people will go to jail. Who's to blame, or is everybody to blame?

One might think that Winter has few allies tip-toeing through this political sewer. Au contraire. Seemingly, everybody wants to help: Party honchos; the governor of Virginia; the leader of the Watchmen, the Democratic Party's Storm Troopers, even the hot and [...] widow of the gay dead senator. But everyone's got an agenda, and Winter must choose his bedmates carefully, or it could be his life next turned to goo. Winter may be cold and ruthless, but man, the guy can cut red tape. This is a dark thriller, at least as dark as Sandford's Prey series. And many of the characters are similar: Jake Winter smacks of Lucas Davenport; Danzig smacks of Rose Marie; the characters still say "Ah, man" and "Ah jeez." Only this time, there's no top 100 list of Rock 'n Roll.

I didn't enjoy this book as much as Sandford's Prey or Kidd series. While I'm just as disgusted with the media, spin and electioneering as Sandford apparently is, this book exaggerates those realities, and it has the feel of a disgusted author shouting, "ENOUGH!" It's a good read, though, no doubt about it -- it's Sandford after all. But I'm hoping this is a stand-alone, not the birth of a new series.