|
DEAD WATCH is the title of John Sandford's newest novel. He has won a great following with his series of Lucas Davenport procedurals and the lesser known Kidd books. Now, he has chartered new territory and entered the dark side of partisan politics. His new hero is Jacob Winter, an accomplished military man, a respected author of influential political books such as WINTER'S GUIDE TO THE INSIDE, a map and guide to the military/intelligence complex that had become "the bestselling Pentagon samizdat [and] had also got him a part-time job with the second most important man in the country...Bill Danzig, the president's chief of staff. Jake is a fixer...he [finds] things out; [is] the Sam Spade of the circular file, the Philip Marlowe of the burn bag." And in DEAD WATCH he has his work cut out for him.
His new assignment is to find former Virginia senator Lincoln Bowe, who has mysteriously vanished. Bowe, a feisty, outspoken maverick, attacks with no mercy whenever he sees corruption in the government and the world. Madison Bowe, his wife, has made public statements wherein she blames the Watchmen, a group created by Governor Arlo Goodman, for her husband's disappearance and probable murder.
Her lawyer, Johnson Black, explains to her that Jake Winter has been chosen to find Lincoln. [He works] "for the government as a consultant...[he] specializes in 'forensic bureaucracy.' When something goes wrong [he tries] to find out what really happened. If there's some really screwed-up problem, that nobody can fix, and that must be fixed, Jake fixes it. He has ears all over the bureaucracy...he scares the heck out of those people. And that's what's got to be done if you want to find Linc."
She is not impressed and angrily tells Winter and Black: "The Watchmen are like the Klan, or the Mafia, or the Gestapo. They take their orders from Goodman. If Lincoln's never found, and nobody is ever caught, people become even more afraid of the Watchmen. That's what they want. They want the fear. They want control. Who benefits if we don't find Lincoln? The Watchmen do." They may have started as a group of "Old Boy Scouts" but they are on an evil mission to infiltrate communities around the country and to influence voters to put Goodman in the White House. What, she cries, can a "bureaucracy hunter" do in the face of this tightly run and violent group?
As calmly as he can, Winter explains to the fiery Madison Bowe: "The president has ordered me to find Senator Bowe. I'm going to start kicking bureaucrats, I'm going to raise hell over at Justice, with the FBI, with Homeland Security, and I'm going to talk to Governor Goodman" and make him tell me what if anything his "Watchmen" may have to do with Lincoln's disappearance. "Your husband is too important a public figure to disappear on his own. There's a concept...called The Rule...you ask, 'Who benefits?' You will find the answer to any political or bureaucratic question, if you can answer that one correctly."
John Sandford is at his best creating believable characters and placing them in seemingly untenable situations. But he can also be relied upon to guide readers through his labyrinthine multi-layered plots. He brings a steady hand to his narrative and his prose is tight and succinct.
On his homepage he relates the genesis of DEAD WATCH (readers who check will understand the irony of the title). He says: "The book is more episodic than earlier books: it doesn't have the smooth transition between scenes...the 'grease,' that makes a novel smoother. One reason for that is that Fate showed up again...My wife...stopped to get gas, and had a seizure. Her breast cancer, which had been in remission for three years, was back. The end of the year was taken up with treatments, hospitalizations, and, to be blunt about it, abject fear (on my part; not hers). She slept most of the time, for most of a month. I wrote while she slept, because I couldn't stand to just sit there and look at her.
"I finished the book: but, as I said, without some of the smoothness that would have been there under other circumstances. And reading it now, I don't miss it much." And Mr. Sandford continues: "I'm still writing, though: a new Davenport Prey book is underway."
--- Reviewed by Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum
 Click here now to buy this book from Amazon.com.
Click here to get the audiobook from Audible.com.
© Copyright 1996-2009, Bookreporter.com. All rights reserved.
Back to top.
|
