A New Year, A New Book

I began the New Year by finishing a really great book, "Dead Watch" by John Sandford. I literally couldn't put it down. It is a political thriller set primarily in Washington D.C. and Virginia. I don't want to tell you too much about the story in case you decide to read the book, but it does involve the kidnapping of a former Senator. The main character is a man named Jacob Winter who specializes in what he calls forensic bureaucracy. Winter is an Army Intelligence veteran and when something goes wrong, he probes and pries until he finds out what really happened. The Democratic White House is his main client and Winter is asked to locate the missing former Senator. There is quite a bit of violence in this book and one rather gruesome murder. So if you don't like thrillers with dead bodies, then this book isn't for you!

Jacob Winter is a new character in John Sandford's writing. Sandford has written sixteen books in the Prey series, so called because each book has 'Prey' in the title. The main character in the Prey books is Lucas Davenport, a cop (and so much more) in Minneapolis. I own all of the Prey series. They are all good thrillers, too, and, just to let you know, they all contain violence.

John Sandford is actually a pseudonym for John R. Camp. Camp was awarded a Pulitzer prize in 1986 for a series of newspaper articles titled "Life on the Land: An American Farm Family". The series was written during the mid west farm crisis. You can find out more about Sandford/Camp here.

Tomorrow is my last day of Christmas vacation so I have to put away good books and get my lesson plans prepared for the second semester of the school year. I had a great break and I'm ready to get my choirs shaped up for the next flurry of performances!