Trouble in D.C.? Jake’s the go-to guy

FOR his latest assault on the national bestseller lists, the prolific novelist known to many thousands of readers as John Sandford -- he actually is a former journalist named John Camp who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1986 with the St. Paul Pioneer Press -- has moved the scene of the crime, as it were, from the lush Minnesota countryside where he has been most comfortable, to the rough-and-tumble corridors of Washington, D.C.

For “Dead Watch,” his first thriller set in the nation’s capital, Sandford has introduced a younger, sleeker version of Lucas Davenport, the police detective turned problem solver for the governor whose adventures in 16 “Prey” novels (“Broken Prey,” “Silent Prey,” “Rules of Prey,” “Chosen Prey,” “Naked Prey,” “Easy Prey,” et. al.) have earned a loyal following, this reviewer among them.

Like Davenport in the Twin Cities, Jacob “Jake” Winter is a go-to guy in Washington who operates pretty much beneath the radar -- in this case, of the federal government.

Though he has no official title, Jake’s specialty is succinctly expressed as “forensic bureaucracy;” his No. 1 client is the “second most important man in the country,” not the vice president or any Cabinet member, mind you, but Bill Danzig, the president’s chief of staff.

It’s a sign of the times when the latest generation of action hero has earned his mettle in the Middle East -- not Vietnam, as was the case with Michael Connelly’s most notable continuing character, Harry Bosch, and James Lee Burke’s no-nonsense Dave Robicheaux, or even Korea, where Spenser, Robert B. Parker’s venerable superstar, honed his formidable skills as someone not to mess with.

Jake Winter is 33, divorced and wealthy by way of an inheritance. Described as a “political intellectual” -- he did his PhD research at Georgetown on “Modernism and Politics” -- Jake spent eight years with Army intelligence, three of them in Afghanistan with Special Forces, where a roadside bomb ended a promising military career.

With an uncanny ability to uncover information and get things done, however -- he is described as the “Sam Spade of the circular file, the Philip Marlowe of the burn bag” -- he has created a whole new area of opportunity.

As the novel opens, Jake receives an urgent call from Danzig to take on what will be his 21st and by far most challenging “consulting” assignment.

Jake’s must find out what has happened to Lincoln Bowe, a former senator from Virginia who has suddenly gone missing, with no shortage of likely culprits.

It gives away nothing to say that Bowe quickly turns up dead under the wildest of circumstances, since his fate is never really a mystery.

It is the whodunit factor, of course, and the deepening why of it all, that sends Jake prowling through the government in the company of the former lawmaker’s gorgeous wife, Madison, and keeps this thriller moving along at a crisp pace.

The bad guys in “Dead Watch” are numerous and finely drawn. Most notable among them is Arlo Goodman, the slickly repellent governor of Virginia and unapologetic Bowe enemy, and his immediate circle of sycophants, along with a creepy band of civilian militia known as the Watchmen.

Whether any of these lowlifes may have been set up to take a fall is another matter entirely, though questions of sexual indiscretion and political misconduct emerge in ways that are resonant enough to have been inspired by recent headlines.

In his published interviews, Sandford makes no bones that he regards what he does as an exercise in carpentry, not artistry, and while “formulaic” is not a word one would use to describe his work, there is a discernible structure to how he goes about his business.

With a Sandford novel you always know you’re going to have an interesting premise, a lot of solid detail, some very good reporting and more often than not a fairly credible resolution that takes on the texture of a morality tale, which in this case involves the integrity of the political process itself.

The Lucas Davenport-Jake Winter characters, as a result, are almost interchangeable. Both are tall, both are handsome, both have money, both dress fashionably, both drive nice cars, both are glib, both have chutzpah, both have a strong code of ethics, both are respectful to women (which may explain why Sandford’s books enjoy a strong female readership) and both can be lethal opponents.

For all their predictability, Sandford’s books are compulsively readable. It may take awhile for his fans to get used to this new guy on the block, but it appears Jake Winter will be around for some time to come. One thing we never seem to run out of in this country is Washington scandals.

Nicholas A. Basbanes is the author of five books, most recently “Every Book Its Reader: The Power of the Printed Word to Stir the World.”