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Jake Winter is ex-army intelligence and now a White House fixer. But he's not your average gofer . . . he's also an academic and writes books on modernism and politics. But he's called back to the spooks side of things when The Powers That Be ask him to investigate the disappearance of Lincoln Bowe, an eminent Republican senator It starts to get really nasty, though, when Bowe's blackened body shows up, hanging from a tree with its head missing. As Winter digs deeper, he finds that Bowe's marriage to the beautiful Madison was one of convenience, and that a sinister group called the Watchmen may be behind the politician's death Sandford is always good value, but DEAD WATCH is nowhere near one of his best. He has a very distinctive style which usually serves him well, but in this case causes him problems. The throwaway spareness of his writing comes across here as underwritten, distracted and sketchy. It almost reads in places like a rough draft. And there's a distinct lack of action. Winter, who was injured in Afghanistan, hobbles his way round the suspects, which include an ambitious politician and his dodgy brother, has brief conversations with them, then heads off to the next one, leaving a trail of bodies in his wake. The Watchmen are a promising creation, but don't quite deliver -- they're never quite as spooky and menacing as you think they're going to be. And some of the book, with its gay angle, seems naive -- at one point Jake says "being gay doesn't matter any more." Um, given the political setting of this book, you reckon? DEAD WATCH has a Democrat president and a load of Republicans, all with something to hide. In the end, though, the book never really ignites and it's all a bit of a yawn -- something you wouldn't usually accuse Sandford of. If you like Sandford, give this a go. And I'm all for writers of long-running series branching out in other directions. But Winter, if he's to star in other books, has a long way to go before he rivals Lucas Davenport and Kidd.
Reviewed by Sharon Wheeler, June 2006
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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