Dead Watch | John Sandford | Great book, well worth reading (listening to)!

Dead Watch | John Sandford | good story, well read audiobook

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Dead Watch

	Dead Watch John Sandford Berkley, 2007 - 416 pages average customer review:based on 85 reviews view larger image
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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. . . .

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Great book, well worth reading (listening to)!

This was my first John Sanford book and I really enjoyed it. Great story with interesting characters. I would recomend it to anyone who likes a good political thriller.

good story, well read audiobook

I just finished up this audiobook which I've enjoyed over the last week during my commute. I have to say that this is one of the better ones I've listened to. It has a very engaging story. I like the characters alot. The audiobook reader also did a nice job. He's certainly not the best I've heard, but he's fine.

recommended!

Room for improvement

Political suspense novels are a popular venue, but most authors try to avoid having to name political parties. In Dead Watch, John Sandford creates a fast-paced plot that names parties and shows both Republicans and Democrats to be flawed politicians. Members of both parties are generally shown to be more involved in trying to maintain power than in trying to uphold principles. So, while this novel does not have a liberal agenda, there are several occasions when the author's liberal bias emerges, primarily through the thoughts of the protagonist, Jake Winter.

The one embodiment of liberal bias that seems inappropriate is Mr. Winter bemoaning students at University of Wisconsin who might be reading books written by Newt Gingrich and Ayn Rand. I understand that many people do not appreciate or understand Newt Gingrich. I suppose it is also possible not to embrace the powerful arguments in defense of freedom found in the writings of Ayn Rand, but why is Mr. Sandford illustrating his bias this way? Most universities, including University of Wisconsin, are primarily liberal, and students who are adherents of Mr. Gingrich and Ms. Rand are definitely not in the majority.

While this novel might be a best seller and it might be a page turner, it is not literature. Mr. Sandford has as much use for a figure of speech as Al Gore has for an understatement. His descriptions of people and situations are uninspired, and there is very little dialogue that does not utilize four letter words.

The only examples of literary creativity that I uncovered were one anagram and one semi-clever piece of wordplay. The anagram shows that Mr. Sandford is attempting to earn his author's fee, but it is not as much fun as Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code anagrams because readers probably do not have enough information to work out the solution. The modest wordplay endeavor occurs when a Wisconsin politician is found to be corrupt; one character describes him as "toast," and another character contradicts him by referring to his home state and calling him "grilled cheese." While this is not a Shakespeare-quality figure of speech, I appreciate it and I would have liked to have read more.

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A Minor Effort from Sandford

I enjoy John Sandford's books a lot, especially his PREY series involving Lucas Davenport. DEAD WATCH is not a PREY novel, but is instead a standalone featuring a completely new cast of characters. It's a decent political thriller, but I think it pales in comparison to most of Sandford's other work.

I won't discuss the plot in depth, but DEAD WATCH involves the disappearance and apparent murder of an ex-Senator from Virginia. The main character of this novel is a Davenport-like character who "fixes" problems for the President. Most of this book details his investigation of the murder, and all the interesting twists and turns along the way.

The problem with DEAD WATCH is that the political plot is rather silly and unbelievable. Further, most of the supporting characters are very thin and have little personality. Although this novel is something of a mystery, nearly all of the mystery is pretty much resolved at the halfway point. The second half of the novel is mainly action, and involves little surprise or true suspense. I was bored by most of it, and found the ending of the story surprisingly lame and unsatisfying.

Sandford's a really good writer, and his prose is strong enough to make DEAD WATCH into a readable book. That being said, you can do much better than this novel, so I can only give it a tepid recommendation. My advice is to instead read the early PREY books if you have not done so.

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Jake Winter is no Lucas Davenport

In Dead Watch, John Sandford brings us a new realm of characters, this time with the main character being Jake Winter. An ex-soldier with a gimpy leg who works at the highest levels of the White House as a 'fixer.'
There is a great, twisted plot delivered as only John Sandford can, though not quite as compelling as those from the Prey series. Sandford mixes high-political intrigue and inventive new characters to form a slow-moving plot.
Good story, though not quite as driving as a Lucas Davenport novel.

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