Dead Watch

A few days after Lincoln Bowe, a former Republican senator, drops out of sight, his disappearance has rattled politicians of every stripe. When searchers find him, the discovery is grim. He is in a remote stretch of Virginia woods, wired to a tree with barbed wire, burned almost past recognition, and his head is missing. With the potential for scandal growing, the Democratic president turns to Jacob Winter. Winter holds the modest title of research assistant, but he is a former Army Intelligence officer who was wounded in Afghanistan, and he is trusted with problems the White House cannot afford to handle openly. His job is to untangle the situation and keep any whiff of scandal away from the president's office. The case does not stay contained. As Winter digs, the pace quickens, more innocent people are killed, and the people responsible start to feel the pressure. John Sandford, best known for the Lucas Davenport novels, builds this political thriller around a fresh protagonist, with tight plotting and steadily rising tension.