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The Night Crew
A departure from the Prey series, The Night Crew boasts a whole new cast of characters and a brand-new level of suspense. Anna Batory runs the night crew. Small, dark-haired, shy but tough, a Wisconsin farm girl on the streets of Los Angeles, she roams the city with her small band of video freelancers in their truck from ten to dawn, looking for news, accidents, robberies, murders, demonstrations; anything they can shoot and sell to the local stations or the networks. It's an exhilarating life...until two deaths hit Anna close to home.
One night, when Anna's crew is filming a suicide jumper who falls five stories to his death, Jason, her fill-in cameraman, is strangely affected. The next morning, Jason is found murdered on a beach. At first the police think that the deaths are unrelated, but too many coincidences and clues keep linking the deaths and leading back to Anna, revealing the dark truth of an obsessed madman. Through a series of bizarre and harrowing events, ghostsofAnna's past are stirred up and revealed to be intrinsically linked to the lives of Jason and the suicide jumper. Anna's world becomes as cold and dangerous as the night itself.
John Sandford has written thrilling stories before, but nothing to top the extraordinary suspense and tension of The Night Crew.
One night, when Anna's crew is filming a suicide jumper who falls five stories to his death, Jason, her fill-in cameraman, is strangely affected. The next morning, Jason is found murdered on a beach. At first the police think that the deaths are unrelated, but too many coincidences and clues keep linking the deaths and leading back to Anna, revealing the dark truth of an obsessed madman. Through a series of bizarre and harrowing events, ghostsofAnna's past are stirred up and revealed to be intrinsically linked to the lives of Jason and the suicide jumper. Anna's world becomes as cold and dangerous as the night itself.
John Sandford has written thrilling stories before, but nothing to top the extraordinary suspense and tension of The Night Crew.
407 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1997
1205 people are currently reading
2447 people want to read
About the author
John Sandford
237 books9,660 followersJohn Sandford is the pen name of John Roswell Camp, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and bestselling author known for his gripping thrillers and popular crime series. After earning degrees in history, literature, and journalism from the University of Iowa, Camp began his writing career as a reporter, first at The Miami Herald and later at The Saint Paul Pioneer Press, where he earned critical acclaim for in-depth series on Native American communities and American farm life. His work won him the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing in 1986.
In 1989, Camp transitioned into fiction, publishing two novels: The Fool's Run under his real name and Rules of Prey under the pseudonym John Sandford. The latter launched the long-running “Prey” series, starring Lucas Davenport, a sharp, fearless investigator navigating politically sensitive crimes across Minnesota and beyond. The series grew to include spin-offs and crossovers, notably featuring characters like Virgil Flowers, a laid-back BCA agent with a sharp wit, and Letty Davenport, Lucas's equally determined daughter, who stars in her own series starting in 2022.
Sandford’s books have consistently appeared on the New York Times bestseller list, with over two dozen debuting at number one. Known for his dynamic storytelling, fast pacing, and keen attention to detail, Sandford combines his journalistic roots with a gift for character-driven narratives. He remains an avid reader and outdoorsman, and continues to write compelling fiction that resonates with readers who enjoy intelligent thrillers grounded in realism and driven by memorable protagonists.
In 1989, Camp transitioned into fiction, publishing two novels: The Fool's Run under his real name and Rules of Prey under the pseudonym John Sandford. The latter launched the long-running “Prey” series, starring Lucas Davenport, a sharp, fearless investigator navigating politically sensitive crimes across Minnesota and beyond. The series grew to include spin-offs and crossovers, notably featuring characters like Virgil Flowers, a laid-back BCA agent with a sharp wit, and Letty Davenport, Lucas's equally determined daughter, who stars in her own series starting in 2022.
Sandford’s books have consistently appeared on the New York Times bestseller list, with over two dozen debuting at number one. Known for his dynamic storytelling, fast pacing, and keen attention to detail, Sandford combines his journalistic roots with a gift for character-driven narratives. He remains an avid reader and outdoorsman, and continues to write compelling fiction that resonates with readers who enjoy intelligent thrillers grounded in realism and driven by memorable protagonists.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 317 reviews
May 8, 2020
I started to read this book and realize I have read it before. My husband did not like this book so I am not going to re-read it to see if I did or did not like it...
October 13, 2018
I liked it & it's a solid mystery-thriller, but felt a bit phoned in. It should have been better since there is some gender reversal that was pretty well done, but somehow the story never really grabbed me. One of my GR friends (Hey, James) said that it was too formulaic & he didn't feel the geography as much. He felt more like he was looking at a map rather than the real thing. Both valid points, although I felt the land a bit more. Maybe it's all those Connelly novels that take place in the area.
Anyway, it was an entertaining read & well narrated. Certainly better than OK, but not my favorite novel of his.
Anyway, it was an entertaining read & well narrated. Certainly better than OK, but not my favorite novel of his.
September 12, 2011
I very much liked the plot and the intensity of this novel. It kept me entertained and interested enough so that I did not want to put it down. I thought the characters were charismatic and had a great rapore. There was something missing for me, tho. The flow, not of the plot but of the writing style, was... choppy? I found myself thinking, "Wait, what?" and I would back up and reread the last few sentences. But it wasn't me, the author had failed to describe SOME of the scenes so that they captured my imagination. They didn't draw me in, I couldn't follow the picture being drawn in my mind, if that makes any sense. The scenes that were primary were ok, but other scenes should have been made more descriptive. That was just a bit distracting, I still very much liked the read, until the end. Didn't like the ending, the very end. Very obviously leaving it open ended for a sequel.
Found this today Terri. Is this the Author you talked about?
Found this today Terri. Is this the Author you talked about?
January 28, 2016
"Louis, calling from the truck seventy-five feet away, excited: 'Jesus, Anna, we got a jumper on Wilshire, he's on ledge.'"
I liked several books by John Sandford (a pseudonym of John Camp): three or four early installments of his "Prey" series as well as some shorter-series works are pretty good reads. Alas, Night Crew (1997) is much below the level one could expect from the author. The beginning is promising, with an interesting setup and competent writing. Unfortunately, as is the case with most bestselling mystery/suspense/crime novels, after a good start the plot fizzles. The phenomenon is so common that one could undertake a study to examine how badly the later parts of novels compare with their beginnings and also how early the sudden drop of quality occurs. Here, the plot flatlines already before page 50.
The "night crew" is a group of video freelancers who cruise the streets of Los Angeles, waiting for fires, shootings, high-speed chases, and other emergencies to film them and then to sell the footage to TV stations. The plot begins with the crew, Anna, Creek, Jason, and Louis, filming a "liberation raid" on the UCLA campus, where the commandos are freeing the laboratory animals from their cages. The action quickly moves to a "jumper", a young man on a ledge of a tall building, threatening suicide (see the epigraph). This part of the story is plausible, moves fast, and the writing resembles the John Sandford that I know. Tense, edgy, high-strung prose perfectly captures the situation dynamics.
Alas, the good stuff is over quickly and we meet the "two-faced man", who assumes the role of an arch-villain. Yeah, right... There are thousands of crime/mystery novels with arch-villains, every single one being more arch- than every other. Since it takes imagination to invent something new for the plot and since readers seem to buy the stereotypical arch-villain stuff, why not copy hundreds of other plots? Until the very end the plot stays mundane, artificial, and implausible. A grieving father, who has just lost his son, is flirting away with Anna. The romantic thread between one of the crew and a female police detective is even sillier. Did Mr. Camp hire an inept ghostwriter? Overall: a waste of time.
One and a half stars.
I liked several books by John Sandford (a pseudonym of John Camp): three or four early installments of his "Prey" series as well as some shorter-series works are pretty good reads. Alas, Night Crew (1997) is much below the level one could expect from the author. The beginning is promising, with an interesting setup and competent writing. Unfortunately, as is the case with most bestselling mystery/suspense/crime novels, after a good start the plot fizzles. The phenomenon is so common that one could undertake a study to examine how badly the later parts of novels compare with their beginnings and also how early the sudden drop of quality occurs. Here, the plot flatlines already before page 50.
The "night crew" is a group of video freelancers who cruise the streets of Los Angeles, waiting for fires, shootings, high-speed chases, and other emergencies to film them and then to sell the footage to TV stations. The plot begins with the crew, Anna, Creek, Jason, and Louis, filming a "liberation raid" on the UCLA campus, where the commandos are freeing the laboratory animals from their cages. The action quickly moves to a "jumper", a young man on a ledge of a tall building, threatening suicide (see the epigraph). This part of the story is plausible, moves fast, and the writing resembles the John Sandford that I know. Tense, edgy, high-strung prose perfectly captures the situation dynamics.
Alas, the good stuff is over quickly and we meet the "two-faced man", who assumes the role of an arch-villain. Yeah, right... There are thousands of crime/mystery novels with arch-villains, every single one being more arch- than every other. Since it takes imagination to invent something new for the plot and since readers seem to buy the stereotypical arch-villain stuff, why not copy hundreds of other plots? Until the very end the plot stays mundane, artificial, and implausible. A grieving father, who has just lost his son, is flirting away with Anna. The romantic thread between one of the crew and a female police detective is even sillier. Did Mr. Camp hire an inept ghostwriter? Overall: a waste of time.
One and a half stars.
December 21, 2017
Fast action read, but nothing special grabbed me.... and yet I couldn't put it down until I finished the damn thing.
Anna is described as shy, but her actions don't match that descriptor. Anna does all the selling / marketing / pitching of the news-worthy videos she and her freelance team capture. Anna is fearless where we may expect a petite female to be cautious and careful. Shy is not a characteristic we see during her dealings with murder / accident / suicide scenes and now she is dealing with being the victim of a stalker.
Anna seems to team up with an ex-policeman-turned lawyer, Jake, which turns into a love / sex interest. She and Jake go hunting for her stalker, using the trail of murder scenes as their guide.
And all this is fine, until Jake and then Anna continually tell each other to 'Stay There' while the other goes to deal with the dangerous stuff or look for the bad guy or kill someone to protect you. Yawn.
Good Reader Sean Gibat said it best when he wrote that [The Night Crew] is "...capable of passing the time if it's the only book you've got."
Anna is described as shy, but her actions don't match that descriptor. Anna does all the selling / marketing / pitching of the news-worthy videos she and her freelance team capture. Anna is fearless where we may expect a petite female to be cautious and careful. Shy is not a characteristic we see during her dealings with murder / accident / suicide scenes and now she is dealing with being the victim of a stalker.
Anna seems to team up with an ex-policeman-turned lawyer, Jake, which turns into a love / sex interest. She and Jake go hunting for her stalker, using the trail of murder scenes as their guide.
And all this is fine, until Jake and then Anna continually tell each other to 'Stay There' while the other goes to deal with the dangerous stuff or look for the bad guy or kill someone to protect you. Yawn.
Good Reader Sean Gibat said it best when he wrote that [The Night Crew] is "...capable of passing the time if it's the only book you've got."
November 24, 2021
Lots of action; lots of unanswered questions for me.
I know we have to suspend belief in novels and movies, but I couldn’t quite get there with this one.
In the span of ONE week, a mask-wearing psychotic man falls in love with a woman he met one time and kills/wounds her part-time co-worker and his drug buddy, her full-time co-worker, a bit player on TV, a police officer doing surveillance, a pig, her brand-new lover, the brand-new lover of her co-worker, his ranch hand and oh, I’ve lost count of all the bodies.
This is his way of getting her attention. But he wears a mask and expects her to know him.
In the span of ONE week, our main character falls in love with a man and becomes a crime-solving, gun-toting, one-woman vigilante bent on justice.
In the span of ONE week, a cop turned lawyer loses his son in a gruesome death, falls in love with our main character, stops going to the office, begins helping our gun-toting Mama, and never grieves for his son or plans a funeral.
Suspend belief? I just can’t.
I know we have to suspend belief in novels and movies, but I couldn’t quite get there with this one.
In the span of ONE week, a mask-wearing psychotic man falls in love with a woman he met one time and kills/wounds her part-time co-worker and his drug buddy, her full-time co-worker, a bit player on TV, a police officer doing surveillance, a pig, her brand-new lover, the brand-new lover of her co-worker, his ranch hand and oh, I’ve lost count of all the bodies.
This is his way of getting her attention. But he wears a mask and expects her to know him.
In the span of ONE week, our main character falls in love with a man and becomes a crime-solving, gun-toting, one-woman vigilante bent on justice.
In the span of ONE week, a cop turned lawyer loses his son in a gruesome death, falls in love with our main character, stops going to the office, begins helping our gun-toting Mama, and never grieves for his son or plans a funeral.
Suspend belief? I just can’t.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 26, 2016
Sandford takes a break from Minnesota, and creates a whole new cast of characters in California. As usual, the characterization is fairly strong, and the action is decent, but this group lacks the "certain special something" to make it really memorable as anything other than a time-killer.
Truth be told, I started this novel three times, stopped, and put it down for later. Finally, on the fourth try I was able to get enough into it to finish. Like I said, it's not a bad book, it's just nowhere near Sandford's best.
Truth be told, I started this novel three times, stopped, and put it down for later. Finally, on the fourth try I was able to get enough into it to finish. Like I said, it's not a bad book, it's just nowhere near Sandford's best.
April 9, 2022
Nice change of pace from the Davenport/Flowers novels.
May 13, 2018
Good book with a real twist to a moving on story
March 19, 2018
This is a solid early thriller from Sandford, though none of his regular cast appear. Nothing exceptional, really, just a book that shows a solid command of the expectations of the thriller genre, enhanced perhaps by Sandford's eye for character differentiation and ear for glib dialogue. Had far less to do with the rather sordid career of being a freelance videographer than I thought it would, though; that ends up being virtually a sideline, so the title is a bit misleading.
September 30, 2009
I know that many people disliked this book because it's a departure from Sandford's Lucas Davenport series. For my money, while a solid read, they had become too formulaic. Night Crew takes place in Los Angeles instead of Minneapolis and follows Anna Batory, a freelance videographer who roams the city listening to police calls in hopes of beating regular news crews to a story so she can sell some video to the networks.
Unlike the geography of Minneapolis which stands out in the Prey series, I just didn't get a sense of place in this book. Lots of running around, but I felt like I was hovering over a map instead of being in the place itself, something I think Sandford accomplishes better in the Davenport series. The relationships between the characters could have been fleshed out better. Jake Harper, ex-cop, who becomes Anna's lover?/boyfriend?something?, loses his son in the opening scene, but the impact on Jake (pun intended since he jumps from a window) seems slight.
Many people who like the Prey series have not liked this one. I did, but with reservations. It has promise for a new series. We'll see.
The Kidd series is enjoyable; I have tried any of the Virgil Flowers titles yet.
Unlike the geography of Minneapolis which stands out in the Prey series, I just didn't get a sense of place in this book. Lots of running around, but I felt like I was hovering over a map instead of being in the place itself, something I think Sandford accomplishes better in the Davenport series. The relationships between the characters could have been fleshed out better. Jake Harper, ex-cop, who becomes Anna's lover?/boyfriend?something?, loses his son in the opening scene, but the impact on Jake (pun intended since he jumps from a window) seems slight.
Many people who like the Prey series have not liked this one. I did, but with reservations. It has promise for a new series. We'll see.
The Kidd series is enjoyable; I have tried any of the Virgil Flowers titles yet.
November 26, 2011
Took me a while to get into this one, but when I did I could hardly put it down and finished it in about 24 hours. Very intense, but I can't say that I really loved it. I do sort of like that then end left me completely hanging, but as it has been 14 years since this one, I don't foresee Sandford answering the lingering questions for me in subsequent novels. It's a shame, I would like to have more on Anna, more on Jake, more on Creek. My husband read it several years ago, and doesn't remember much more than that he wanted it to become another Sandford series. None of the characters popped out at me and gave me the kind of attachment that F$#%ing Flowers has, but it left more questions unanswered than answered at the end. Much respect, but much frustration as well.
November 16, 2024
Thought I would venture off of the “Prey” and Virgil Flowers books by John Sandford and tried Night Crew.
A complex story about Anna and her independent news video crew who sold breaking news videos to the local and national TV stations around LA. Anna becomes targeted by a serial killer and teams up with the father of a boys who was filmed by her crew taking a dive off a high rise (yes, a weird pairing). A lot of characters/suspects and running around made the book hard to follow and improbable.
A complex story about Anna and her independent news video crew who sold breaking news videos to the local and national TV stations around LA. Anna becomes targeted by a serial killer and teams up with the father of a boys who was filmed by her crew taking a dive off a high rise (yes, a weird pairing). A lot of characters/suspects and running around made the book hard to follow and improbable.
May 9, 2013
John Sanford – LOVE HIM.
In this book he leaves Lucas Davenport behind and introduces us to Anna Batory, a free lance photo journalist who tries to beat the police to crime scenes and sell to the highest bidder. Anna is a shy, Wisconsin girl who gets in the middle of a murder, and becomes the stalked rather than the stalker.
Well written page turner. Love John Sanford
In this book he leaves Lucas Davenport behind and introduces us to Anna Batory, a free lance photo journalist who tries to beat the police to crime scenes and sell to the highest bidder. Anna is a shy, Wisconsin girl who gets in the middle of a murder, and becomes the stalked rather than the stalker.
Well written page turner. Love John Sanford
August 14, 2018
John Sandford, I like your stories. Moving out of Minnesota, Sandford roams Los Angeles with a freelance video news crew seeking payoff in overnight coverage. Beating out the broadcast channel and local cable crews in the story of the night turns out badly as one-by-one Anna's crew gets taken down. Struggling to find a connection lands Anna a romance. And of course, there is a killer on the loose. Sandford's characters are always loveable, interesting, and have a skill set that seems to be in short supply.
March 10, 2018
Good suspense novel for those Sandford fans who, like me, are burned out on Lucas Davenport stories.
The premise, running around L.A. shooting film and then selling it to TV probably worked when this was written. Now everyone has a smartphone and shoots the video and posts it on Facebook or Youtube. Times change.
The premise, running around L.A. shooting film and then selling it to TV probably worked when this was written. Now everyone has a smartphone and shoots the video and posts it on Facebook or Youtube. Times change.
January 2, 2020
Reasonably well-written, but with some plot holes that were a bit confusing.
September 6, 2017
The Night Crew is a free lance news group that roams the streets of Los Angeles gathering what news they can shoot and then sell their video and news to the local TV stations and networks. Anna Batory runs the night crew. One day two deaths shake their world, and Anna becomes the target of a mad man obsess with her. A good read!
October 7, 2023
.
The Night Crew
by John Sandford, pub. 1997, about 400 pages,
a standalone novel.
Summary:
Anna Batory runs a night crew of video freelancers who sell their breaking news coverage to TV stations and the networks. In their dish-equipped news truck they patrol the Los Angeles area from ten at night till dawn, looking for news, monitoring the radio and the cops. Accidents, robberies, murders, demonstrations and the like are all possible news stories, but have to be quickly evaluated for profitability. Is it worth their time to chase a particular news event? The goal is to be first on the scene, capture exclusive video footage, shoot from just the right angle and sell their coverage for a premium. For Anna and her crew it's an exhilarating life, until the murder of their talented cameraman, (Jason O'Brien), shakes their world.
The crew includes: Anna, small and athletic, a runner and schooled as a concert pianist; her 6'7" overmuscled partner Creek who runs the camera and drives the truck; Louis Martinez their tech specialist who operates the fax, phone, scanner and transmitter from the news van's swivel chair and the part-time cameraman Jason, a druggie and UCLA film student who's only needed on special occasions.
On this particular night they are filming a planned event, a raid at the UCLA Medical Labs where a group of radical animal rights wackos have broken in and freed the animals. The crew first picks up a masked participant calling herself the Bee (Sarah) and as they reach the animal lab, a dozen masked women exit the building and pour out a garbage can filled with hundreds of mice that scramble in all directions. Another mask-wearing raider, calling himself the Rat, aka Steve Judge, sets free a pig which turns on him, knocking him to the ground. Charles McKinley is a bloodied student in charge of the lab who wasn't able to stop the raid. Then a bigger story nearby and Anna orders them back in the van, cutting short the interview and speeding away to a jumper at the Shamrock Hotel.
Five stories up, standing on the ledge near a hotel window, is the jumper, Jacob Harper, Junior. One of the high-school seniors attending the spring dance held at the Shamrock. As Anna races up to the 5th floor to interview witnesses, Jacob hits the ground. It's unclear whether he ways attempting to re-enter the window and slipped or if he tried to jump out far enough to land in the nearby swimming pool. At any rate, Creek captured the long shot and Jason was focused on the kid's face all the way down. An exclusive.
Jason, the undaunted cameramen, claims to be troubled over the suicide and quits for the night. Recalling the various tragedies he's filmed in the past, Anna knows it's something else, not the jumper. There wasn't even any blood. She doesn't see Jason again until she identifies his body after it turns up on the beach several hours later, shot in the head. Jason and Jacob the jumper were both high on the same product. Lieutenant Jim Wyatt, a Detective, is secretly in love with his partner Pam Glass and they're working on the case. As the body count increases, Anna will discover she's the real target, especially when one of the victims has her name carved on his chest. - edited and expanded.
.
Mostly enjoyed it.
Begins as a fast-paced, entertaining whodunit, but bogs down a bit as they pursue so many leads. At first, Anna is portrayed as that typical self-assured victim who refuses to be chased out of her own house, even if a knife-wielding killer is after her. She does take precautions and starts carrying her revolver.
The odd sentence:
"The Bee had small opaque-green eyes, like turquoise thumbtacks on the black mask." It sounds odd, thumbtacks on a black surface, as if her green eyes have popped out of the mask.
"The tub. . . in which she could get her wa as smooth and round as a river pebble." Haven't heard that before and can only guess.
Some details are not clarified. Not a big problem, but annoying.
The mystery of the missing flower pot. She noticed the big pot in the backyard was gone. They find a pile of dirt, probably the pot's contents. At the sea wall, where her backyard borders LA's Venice Canal, they see something bobbing in the water. It's a kayak, but no one says anything more about the flower pot. Did he use it as a weight to sink the kayak or anchor it in place? These missing details can be aggravating as you continue reading, waiting for the reveal that never arrives.
There's a fair amount of coarse/vulgar language common to Sanford's work, as well as some fabulous lines and dialogue. "And above them all, a quarter - million miles out, a buttery new moon smiled down as it slid toward the Pacific."
Since Sandford is also the author of the long-running Prey series, there are quite a few lines and comments found also in the Davenport books. Jake Harper often sounds very Lucas like.
• •
Stop here unless you want the details and the ending.
The villain guy is referred to as the two-faced man. He beat up Jason in the shop where he worked on the Santa Monica Pier, asking about a rumored dalliance, a threesome involving Anna. "Tell me about Creek ... Was he with you two? Finally he shoots the drugged and unresponsive Jason, pushing his body out the window into the surf.
Two-Face has been a creepy killer since his youth, starting with neighborhood cats. His parents were abusive drunks and so he developed his calm outer face. The pleasant, pretty face the world sees and the one he used to avoid antagonizing his violent parents, but his inner face was raging. In school he poisoned the pretty science teacher for snubbing him in front of the class. When she collapsed and convulsed, he played the hero and then knelt by her, waiting for the ambulance.
Two-Face is fantasizing about an encounter with Anna, believing they are fated to be together & goes about eliminating his perceived competition, starting with Jason. A few weeks ago Anna came by BJ's club to pickup Jason for a job, but left him there since he was high. After she left, Jason and his druggie pal Sean bragged about a one nighter with Anna and people believed it. This may be where Two-Face first heard about Anna and wanted her for himself. For a good portion of the book, Anna & company are trying to figure out who he is. Occasionally we get to see what Two-Face is up to, but not his identity.
Anna has a house on Linnie Canal near Venice beach where she runs. Someone broke out a window pane at Anna's back door and when the intruder reached in, she whacked his arm with a fishwacker. Having alerted the cops & neighborhood watch, her neighbors come out in force armed with flashlights & guns. After a brief exchange of gunfire, the intruder got away. At this point they don't know it's Two-Face armed with the 22 pistol he always uses.
Dead druggie Jason has out of state relatives that call on Anna to make the funeral arrangements & pack up his apartment stuff. That's where she's ambushed by another intruder. This guy turns out to be Jake Harper the father of the jumper. He's looking for the dealer who sold drugs to his son, Harper Jr & to the other high schoolers at the hotel. Harper is an ex-cop, now a lawyer with a lot of cop clients. After roughing up Anna & finding out she has permission to be there, he heads out. Later Harper gives Anna a call about finding a dead dope dealer she might know. Before reporting this to Lieutenant Wyatt, they all have a look at the body, after all the door was open. This is Sean MacAllister with ANNA carved on his chest, Jason's pal & participant in spreading the orgy rumor.
Harper and Anna are soon working together. He makes sure her house is secure & acts like her bodyguard. At his rural home on 20 acres, Anna does target practice & finally they turn intimate.
Creek is next. Two-Face was waiting by the news van, hiding his face with a dark nylon & even said Anna's name when she & Creek walked up. When he pulled a gun, Creek charged him, was shot & Anna couldn't get her gun out. The killer ran off as Creek yanked off the nylon stocking. The cop, Pam Glass had taken a liking to Creek & camps out at the hospital while he's recovering. Anna is sure she recognized the guy's voice. She'd heard it before, but just couldn't place it. I'm wondering why no-one talks to crew member Louis, why they're not concerned he could be next.
A lot more name chasing & elaborate schemes to get a look at various suspects, reasoning the guy with the voice is probably someone Anna knows or at least would recognize. Bob, one of Jason's UCLA drug pals is working at Kinko's when Harper & Anna confront him. They're looking for Jason's dealer. Bob, also reveals the story of the fling between Jason, Sean and Anna, the first she's heard of this rumor. After various threats Bob finally gives up the dealer, a Russian who looks like the devil.
The Russian, a professional, high-end dealer, is at the Philadelphia Grill & even after much conjoling, claims to know nothing about the violent, amateur drug dealers who get wasted on their own product & who sold dope to the jumper and his high school friends. After they leave, the devil calls Anna, altering his voice & tells her to check out Ronnie & Tony, two drug dealing brothers living in Malibu.
At the Malibu house, Anna cruises slowly by giving Harper a good look at the property. He gets out for a better look, but trips an alarm in the yard. Harper is battered, tumbling down the hill as he escapes & once back in the car, Anna, a talented driver at a high speed, loses the gunman. They call the cops to report a shooting at the house & in the ensuing raid, drugs are seized & the residents arrested.
The other brother, Tony, has his own house nearby & before he returns, Harper and Anna break-in, have a look around & wait to ambush the drug dealer who finally gives up the name Rik Maran. At Rik's hotel room, Harper breaks his legs once Rik bragged about selling to the high school kids including the jumper, Harper's kid. Anna thinks to herself, she would have killed the dealer, just like she's planning to do to her stalker.
Harper & the cops had been looking for a connection between Jason the video photographer who filmed Harper Jr pitching off the ledge. Maybe they used the same dealer? Turns out when they carefully reviewed the video, Harper Jr dropped a slip of paper as he fell from the ledge & Jason picked it up. This was the slip of wax paper containing the remaining dots of acid & speed, wizards. That's why Jason took off. He's an addict, picked up the slip, told Anna he wasn't feeling well & went off to get high.
Jake Harper's mission is over, finding the dealer who sold to his son, but since he's in love with Anna he continues on as her bodyguard & personal detective. They go to a driving range together where Harper hits golf balls to clear his head & Anna goes back to the parking lot to fetch something from the car. That's where the guy, Two-Face is waiting. Again, the nylon mask & he repeatedly says her name, trying to talk with her. The cops later point out, if he just planned to abduct her, he could have sapped her, put her in the trunk & no one would have seen or heard a thing. However, he's obsessed with Anna & wanted to reason with her, expecting she'd go with him.
Anna fights him, even biting his face, hard & the guy turns hostile. He tries having his way with her & finally she gains her breath & screams. As other golfers come running, Two-Face fleas, but Anna, battered as she is, gives chase & tries tackling him, but he eventually escapes up the hill through the bushes. This changes everything for Two-Face & he now plans to take his time doing her in.
Harper & Anna check out BJ's, the club frequented by Jason & Sean, looking for someone who hung out with them & might have heard the sex rumor & fixated on her. They meet a pleasant druggie actress, China Lake, who knew them both, but doesn't know anyone matching the guy's description.
Jason & Sean also knew an adult film guy, so they vandalizes his office, call him about the break-in & when he shows, Anna gets a good look at him & is sure he's not the guy. In the meantime Two-Face has nabbed China and gives Anna a call on her cell. To torment her, Two-Face cuts & kills the actress while on the phone with Anna, letting her hear China's final words as she bleeds out.
Who else could be the guy? They wonder about the mask wearing Rat, Steve Judge from the animal raid, one of the few guys she talked to before Jason was killed and the hunting of Anna started. He didn't get to complete the interview & his mishap with the pig running him over, repeatedly, was turned into a farcical news story, most humiliating to the Rat. After calling around & talking to the animal ranch gal Daly, they learn Judge is supposedly at a ranch up in Oregon & would also be running the river there. Once she gets Judge on the phone, Anna's pretty sure he's not the guy, not the same voice from the golf range.
To lure in Two-Face they decide to troll for the killer. Anna goes back to work in the news truck with Louis & an undercover cop filling in for Creek & operating the camera. Nothing, even the multiple surveillance cars following them see nothing suspicious. A new strategy, Detective Pam Glass (the cop gal who's now in love with hospitalized Creek), will dress up like Anna & go out in the news van. First they sneak Pam into Anna's house where she'll start her decoy job.
Clark, Anna's old beau is in town, she saw him from a distance at a gas station. He has a music fellowship for 2 years at UCLA, working as an artist in residence. They were very involved 7 years ago until he broke her heart. Harper wants the cops to check him out even though Anna is pretty sure he's not the guy. When they try following him from a distance, they lose Clark at the mall & give up for now.
Again they interview Bob the student working at Kinkos & McKinley the bloody nose student from the animal raid. McKinley has had more than his 15 minutes of fame being interviewed on numerous talk shows & after talking with him again & verifying his alibi they know he's not the voice. He also reveals the whole raid was a setup, a publicity stunt planned by Sarah the Bee, video cameraman Jason, McKinley the student working as a lab assistant and Steve Judge the Rat.
Detective Wyatt wonders if the guy might live in Anna's neighborhood by the canal since twice he easily disappeared, first after the back door break in & after he shot Creek at the news van. One of the residents suggested he might have escaped by swimming the canal. When Anna & Harper return to her house they find the window patch pushed in, a bloody handprint, Detective Pam gone & so is Anna's car. The stake out cops say they saw a person they believed to be Anna driving off in her car, no one else. After searching the yard, finding the missing flower pot & the kayak in the canal, they finally realize how we sneaked in--he came by boat.
They've got a bunch of cops watching the street & house. It's hard to believe they had no one watching the canal which is Anna's backyard. Going to have to call BS on that one.
Two-Face calls Anna's cell phone & she's sure he'll kill Detective Pam over the phone, just like he did to China. Instead Harper answers & tells the unknown caller who did indeed ask for Anna, that she's not here, that he's on the way to pick her up.
So who has a kayak? Well, Judge was said to be kayaking in Oregon & has a ranch in Pasadena. When the cops talk to Daly the ranch gal she verifies Steve has a wound on his face, supposedly a cat bit him. Not waiting for Wyatt and his task force, Anna & Harper drive to the ranch, come in on foot in the dark & find Anna's car hidden in a shed. No sign of Steve or Detective Pam. When Anna trips a gate alarm, Steve comes out holding a gun on Daly, calling to Anna & finally shooting this poor woman in the head. Harper & Anna fire back & pursue Steve as he retreats into the house.
What follows is a protracted gunfight, not as long as the hunting various suspects, but plenty long. Harper is hit & Pam is found badly wounded inside the house. They put her in the iron bathtub while they come up with a plan. No phone & no cell service. Anna makes a run for the car, driving it back up to the porch, but Steve is out in the bushes, circling the house, shooting a barrage of bullets & keeping them pinned down. Finally, calling out to Judge, Anna pretends Harper is dead, she's dropped her pistol & lost her glasses. She's helpless, sitting on the floor. Judge has planned a slow death for Anna & isn't going to just shoot her. He makes his way into the house & when he's close enough Anna pulls her pistol, firing a single shot that drops Steve, but a few seconds later he's up again. She fires three more times into his chest & when he's on the ground she empties the revolver, two more shots into his head & keeps clicking the trigger. Harper called out, "no more Anna" before she stood over Judge for the headshots. That's six shots in a row from her 640 Smith & Wesson, 5-shot revolver, hmm.
The last chapter is about a month later with Creek and his mostly healed girlfriend Detective Pam on his yacht, just docking after a boat race. Anna is forlorn over Harper, he claimed he loved her, but stopped seeing her. Apparently her overkill shots into Steve's head alarmed Harper, she frightened him. It ends with Creek going to see Clark. ‘‘I’ve come to see you about a woman,’’ Creek said.
Apparently Creek is going to try and help his BFF Anna by letting her old beau know she still has feelings for him & she's available. Not sure that'll work since Clark's break up had hurt Anna worse than the death of her mom when she was only age six. Personally I don't buy it--Harper dumping Anna cuz she overkilled a scumbag & her actions supposedly "frightened" him. Harper himself committed multiple felonies & severely busted the legs of a drug dealer for selling to his kid. Now we're to believe he's so frightened by his girlfriend because she emptied her gun into a into a killer who stalked & terrorized her, kidnapped & brutalized a cop and even shot a woman in the head right in front of them?
This character, an occasionally criminal cop-turned-lawyer wouldn't be this anxious about his gun toting girlfriend. Having Harper dump Anna seems more like the musings of the gun-squeamish author. Boo.
...
The Night Crew
by John Sandford, pub. 1997, about 400 pages,
a standalone novel.
Summary:
Anna Batory runs a night crew of video freelancers who sell their breaking news coverage to TV stations and the networks. In their dish-equipped news truck they patrol the Los Angeles area from ten at night till dawn, looking for news, monitoring the radio and the cops. Accidents, robberies, murders, demonstrations and the like are all possible news stories, but have to be quickly evaluated for profitability. Is it worth their time to chase a particular news event? The goal is to be first on the scene, capture exclusive video footage, shoot from just the right angle and sell their coverage for a premium. For Anna and her crew it's an exhilarating life, until the murder of their talented cameraman, (Jason O'Brien), shakes their world.
The crew includes: Anna, small and athletic, a runner and schooled as a concert pianist; her 6'7" overmuscled partner Creek who runs the camera and drives the truck; Louis Martinez their tech specialist who operates the fax, phone, scanner and transmitter from the news van's swivel chair and the part-time cameraman Jason, a druggie and UCLA film student who's only needed on special occasions.
On this particular night they are filming a planned event, a raid at the UCLA Medical Labs where a group of radical animal rights wackos have broken in and freed the animals. The crew first picks up a masked participant calling herself the Bee (Sarah) and as they reach the animal lab, a dozen masked women exit the building and pour out a garbage can filled with hundreds of mice that scramble in all directions. Another mask-wearing raider, calling himself the Rat, aka Steve Judge, sets free a pig which turns on him, knocking him to the ground. Charles McKinley is a bloodied student in charge of the lab who wasn't able to stop the raid. Then a bigger story nearby and Anna orders them back in the van, cutting short the interview and speeding away to a jumper at the Shamrock Hotel.
Five stories up, standing on the ledge near a hotel window, is the jumper, Jacob Harper, Junior. One of the high-school seniors attending the spring dance held at the Shamrock. As Anna races up to the 5th floor to interview witnesses, Jacob hits the ground. It's unclear whether he ways attempting to re-enter the window and slipped or if he tried to jump out far enough to land in the nearby swimming pool. At any rate, Creek captured the long shot and Jason was focused on the kid's face all the way down. An exclusive.
Jason, the undaunted cameramen, claims to be troubled over the suicide and quits for the night. Recalling the various tragedies he's filmed in the past, Anna knows it's something else, not the jumper. There wasn't even any blood. She doesn't see Jason again until she identifies his body after it turns up on the beach several hours later, shot in the head. Jason and Jacob the jumper were both high on the same product. Lieutenant Jim Wyatt, a Detective, is secretly in love with his partner Pam Glass and they're working on the case. As the body count increases, Anna will discover she's the real target, especially when one of the victims has her name carved on his chest. - edited and expanded.
.
Mostly enjoyed it.
Begins as a fast-paced, entertaining whodunit, but bogs down a bit as they pursue so many leads. At first, Anna is portrayed as that typical self-assured victim who refuses to be chased out of her own house, even if a knife-wielding killer is after her. She does take precautions and starts carrying her revolver.
The odd sentence:
"The Bee had small opaque-green eyes, like turquoise thumbtacks on the black mask." It sounds odd, thumbtacks on a black surface, as if her green eyes have popped out of the mask.
"The tub. . . in which she could get her wa as smooth and round as a river pebble." Haven't heard that before and can only guess.
Some details are not clarified. Not a big problem, but annoying.
The mystery of the missing flower pot. She noticed the big pot in the backyard was gone. They find a pile of dirt, probably the pot's contents. At the sea wall, where her backyard borders LA's Venice Canal, they see something bobbing in the water. It's a kayak, but no one says anything more about the flower pot. Did he use it as a weight to sink the kayak or anchor it in place? These missing details can be aggravating as you continue reading, waiting for the reveal that never arrives.
There's a fair amount of coarse/vulgar language common to Sanford's work, as well as some fabulous lines and dialogue. "And above them all, a quarter - million miles out, a buttery new moon smiled down as it slid toward the Pacific."
Since Sandford is also the author of the long-running Prey series, there are quite a few lines and comments found also in the Davenport books. Jake Harper often sounds very Lucas like.
• •
Stop here unless you want the details and the ending.
The villain guy is referred to as the two-faced man. He beat up Jason in the shop where he worked on the Santa Monica Pier, asking about a rumored dalliance, a threesome involving Anna. "Tell me about Creek ... Was he with you two? Finally he shoots the drugged and unresponsive Jason, pushing his body out the window into the surf.
Two-Face has been a creepy killer since his youth, starting with neighborhood cats. His parents were abusive drunks and so he developed his calm outer face. The pleasant, pretty face the world sees and the one he used to avoid antagonizing his violent parents, but his inner face was raging. In school he poisoned the pretty science teacher for snubbing him in front of the class. When she collapsed and convulsed, he played the hero and then knelt by her, waiting for the ambulance.
Two-Face is fantasizing about an encounter with Anna, believing they are fated to be together & goes about eliminating his perceived competition, starting with Jason. A few weeks ago Anna came by BJ's club to pickup Jason for a job, but left him there since he was high. After she left, Jason and his druggie pal Sean bragged about a one nighter with Anna and people believed it. This may be where Two-Face first heard about Anna and wanted her for himself. For a good portion of the book, Anna & company are trying to figure out who he is. Occasionally we get to see what Two-Face is up to, but not his identity.
Anna has a house on Linnie Canal near Venice beach where she runs. Someone broke out a window pane at Anna's back door and when the intruder reached in, she whacked his arm with a fishwacker. Having alerted the cops & neighborhood watch, her neighbors come out in force armed with flashlights & guns. After a brief exchange of gunfire, the intruder got away. At this point they don't know it's Two-Face armed with the 22 pistol he always uses.
Dead druggie Jason has out of state relatives that call on Anna to make the funeral arrangements & pack up his apartment stuff. That's where she's ambushed by another intruder. This guy turns out to be Jake Harper the father of the jumper. He's looking for the dealer who sold drugs to his son, Harper Jr & to the other high schoolers at the hotel. Harper is an ex-cop, now a lawyer with a lot of cop clients. After roughing up Anna & finding out she has permission to be there, he heads out. Later Harper gives Anna a call about finding a dead dope dealer she might know. Before reporting this to Lieutenant Wyatt, they all have a look at the body, after all the door was open. This is Sean MacAllister with ANNA carved on his chest, Jason's pal & participant in spreading the orgy rumor.
Harper and Anna are soon working together. He makes sure her house is secure & acts like her bodyguard. At his rural home on 20 acres, Anna does target practice & finally they turn intimate.
Creek is next. Two-Face was waiting by the news van, hiding his face with a dark nylon & even said Anna's name when she & Creek walked up. When he pulled a gun, Creek charged him, was shot & Anna couldn't get her gun out. The killer ran off as Creek yanked off the nylon stocking. The cop, Pam Glass had taken a liking to Creek & camps out at the hospital while he's recovering. Anna is sure she recognized the guy's voice. She'd heard it before, but just couldn't place it. I'm wondering why no-one talks to crew member Louis, why they're not concerned he could be next.
A lot more name chasing & elaborate schemes to get a look at various suspects, reasoning the guy with the voice is probably someone Anna knows or at least would recognize. Bob, one of Jason's UCLA drug pals is working at Kinko's when Harper & Anna confront him. They're looking for Jason's dealer. Bob, also reveals the story of the fling between Jason, Sean and Anna, the first she's heard of this rumor. After various threats Bob finally gives up the dealer, a Russian who looks like the devil.
The Russian, a professional, high-end dealer, is at the Philadelphia Grill & even after much conjoling, claims to know nothing about the violent, amateur drug dealers who get wasted on their own product & who sold dope to the jumper and his high school friends. After they leave, the devil calls Anna, altering his voice & tells her to check out Ronnie & Tony, two drug dealing brothers living in Malibu.
At the Malibu house, Anna cruises slowly by giving Harper a good look at the property. He gets out for a better look, but trips an alarm in the yard. Harper is battered, tumbling down the hill as he escapes & once back in the car, Anna, a talented driver at a high speed, loses the gunman. They call the cops to report a shooting at the house & in the ensuing raid, drugs are seized & the residents arrested.
The other brother, Tony, has his own house nearby & before he returns, Harper and Anna break-in, have a look around & wait to ambush the drug dealer who finally gives up the name Rik Maran. At Rik's hotel room, Harper breaks his legs once Rik bragged about selling to the high school kids including the jumper, Harper's kid. Anna thinks to herself, she would have killed the dealer, just like she's planning to do to her stalker.
Harper & the cops had been looking for a connection between Jason the video photographer who filmed Harper Jr pitching off the ledge. Maybe they used the same dealer? Turns out when they carefully reviewed the video, Harper Jr dropped a slip of paper as he fell from the ledge & Jason picked it up. This was the slip of wax paper containing the remaining dots of acid & speed, wizards. That's why Jason took off. He's an addict, picked up the slip, told Anna he wasn't feeling well & went off to get high.
Jake Harper's mission is over, finding the dealer who sold to his son, but since he's in love with Anna he continues on as her bodyguard & personal detective. They go to a driving range together where Harper hits golf balls to clear his head & Anna goes back to the parking lot to fetch something from the car. That's where the guy, Two-Face is waiting. Again, the nylon mask & he repeatedly says her name, trying to talk with her. The cops later point out, if he just planned to abduct her, he could have sapped her, put her in the trunk & no one would have seen or heard a thing. However, he's obsessed with Anna & wanted to reason with her, expecting she'd go with him.
Anna fights him, even biting his face, hard & the guy turns hostile. He tries having his way with her & finally she gains her breath & screams. As other golfers come running, Two-Face fleas, but Anna, battered as she is, gives chase & tries tackling him, but he eventually escapes up the hill through the bushes. This changes everything for Two-Face & he now plans to take his time doing her in.
Harper & Anna check out BJ's, the club frequented by Jason & Sean, looking for someone who hung out with them & might have heard the sex rumor & fixated on her. They meet a pleasant druggie actress, China Lake, who knew them both, but doesn't know anyone matching the guy's description.
Jason & Sean also knew an adult film guy, so they vandalizes his office, call him about the break-in & when he shows, Anna gets a good look at him & is sure he's not the guy. In the meantime Two-Face has nabbed China and gives Anna a call on her cell. To torment her, Two-Face cuts & kills the actress while on the phone with Anna, letting her hear China's final words as she bleeds out.
Who else could be the guy? They wonder about the mask wearing Rat, Steve Judge from the animal raid, one of the few guys she talked to before Jason was killed and the hunting of Anna started. He didn't get to complete the interview & his mishap with the pig running him over, repeatedly, was turned into a farcical news story, most humiliating to the Rat. After calling around & talking to the animal ranch gal Daly, they learn Judge is supposedly at a ranch up in Oregon & would also be running the river there. Once she gets Judge on the phone, Anna's pretty sure he's not the guy, not the same voice from the golf range.
To lure in Two-Face they decide to troll for the killer. Anna goes back to work in the news truck with Louis & an undercover cop filling in for Creek & operating the camera. Nothing, even the multiple surveillance cars following them see nothing suspicious. A new strategy, Detective Pam Glass (the cop gal who's now in love with hospitalized Creek), will dress up like Anna & go out in the news van. First they sneak Pam into Anna's house where she'll start her decoy job.
Clark, Anna's old beau is in town, she saw him from a distance at a gas station. He has a music fellowship for 2 years at UCLA, working as an artist in residence. They were very involved 7 years ago until he broke her heart. Harper wants the cops to check him out even though Anna is pretty sure he's not the guy. When they try following him from a distance, they lose Clark at the mall & give up for now.
Again they interview Bob the student working at Kinkos & McKinley the bloody nose student from the animal raid. McKinley has had more than his 15 minutes of fame being interviewed on numerous talk shows & after talking with him again & verifying his alibi they know he's not the voice. He also reveals the whole raid was a setup, a publicity stunt planned by Sarah the Bee, video cameraman Jason, McKinley the student working as a lab assistant and Steve Judge the Rat.
Detective Wyatt wonders if the guy might live in Anna's neighborhood by the canal since twice he easily disappeared, first after the back door break in & after he shot Creek at the news van. One of the residents suggested he might have escaped by swimming the canal. When Anna & Harper return to her house they find the window patch pushed in, a bloody handprint, Detective Pam gone & so is Anna's car. The stake out cops say they saw a person they believed to be Anna driving off in her car, no one else. After searching the yard, finding the missing flower pot & the kayak in the canal, they finally realize how we sneaked in--he came by boat.
They've got a bunch of cops watching the street & house. It's hard to believe they had no one watching the canal which is Anna's backyard. Going to have to call BS on that one.
Two-Face calls Anna's cell phone & she's sure he'll kill Detective Pam over the phone, just like he did to China. Instead Harper answers & tells the unknown caller who did indeed ask for Anna, that she's not here, that he's on the way to pick her up.
So who has a kayak? Well, Judge was said to be kayaking in Oregon & has a ranch in Pasadena. When the cops talk to Daly the ranch gal she verifies Steve has a wound on his face, supposedly a cat bit him. Not waiting for Wyatt and his task force, Anna & Harper drive to the ranch, come in on foot in the dark & find Anna's car hidden in a shed. No sign of Steve or Detective Pam. When Anna trips a gate alarm, Steve comes out holding a gun on Daly, calling to Anna & finally shooting this poor woman in the head. Harper & Anna fire back & pursue Steve as he retreats into the house.
What follows is a protracted gunfight, not as long as the hunting various suspects, but plenty long. Harper is hit & Pam is found badly wounded inside the house. They put her in the iron bathtub while they come up with a plan. No phone & no cell service. Anna makes a run for the car, driving it back up to the porch, but Steve is out in the bushes, circling the house, shooting a barrage of bullets & keeping them pinned down. Finally, calling out to Judge, Anna pretends Harper is dead, she's dropped her pistol & lost her glasses. She's helpless, sitting on the floor. Judge has planned a slow death for Anna & isn't going to just shoot her. He makes his way into the house & when he's close enough Anna pulls her pistol, firing a single shot that drops Steve, but a few seconds later he's up again. She fires three more times into his chest & when he's on the ground she empties the revolver, two more shots into his head & keeps clicking the trigger. Harper called out, "no more Anna" before she stood over Judge for the headshots. That's six shots in a row from her 640 Smith & Wesson, 5-shot revolver, hmm.
The last chapter is about a month later with Creek and his mostly healed girlfriend Detective Pam on his yacht, just docking after a boat race. Anna is forlorn over Harper, he claimed he loved her, but stopped seeing her. Apparently her overkill shots into Steve's head alarmed Harper, she frightened him. It ends with Creek going to see Clark. ‘‘I’ve come to see you about a woman,’’ Creek said.
Apparently Creek is going to try and help his BFF Anna by letting her old beau know she still has feelings for him & she's available. Not sure that'll work since Clark's break up had hurt Anna worse than the death of her mom when she was only age six. Personally I don't buy it--Harper dumping Anna cuz she overkilled a scumbag & her actions supposedly "frightened" him. Harper himself committed multiple felonies & severely busted the legs of a drug dealer for selling to his kid. Now we're to believe he's so frightened by his girlfriend because she emptied her gun into a into a killer who stalked & terrorized her, kidnapped & brutalized a cop and even shot a woman in the head right in front of them?
This character, an occasionally criminal cop-turned-lawyer wouldn't be this anxious about his gun toting girlfriend. Having Harper dump Anna seems more like the musings of the gun-squeamish author. Boo.
...
August 31, 2009
This is the first John Sandford book I've read - and I'm an instant fan! Sandford was recommended to my by a flight attendant in 2007 and also by fans of Dean Koontz looking for similar authors. I will probably start reading Sandford's Prey series but I wanted to try some of his stand alone novels first. I have already started reading Dead Watch and look forward to reading Rough Country later this year.
The opening scene in The Night Crew is extremely intense and the book contains a high-quality of writing throughout. I loved the character of Anna Batory and think Sandford's writing is superb - I like that his writing is so genuine and unforced. I must admit I'm not usually very good at figuring out who did it in a mystery novel, but I thought I had figured out this one - in the end it was someone else.
Here is a sample from The Night Crew :
"I couldn't help noticing that you're carrying a gun."
"Yup." She nodded.
"You got a permit?" he asked.
"Are you kidding?"
"Maybe you should give it to me - the gun," he said.
"Maybe not," Anna said
"I could take it," he suggested.
"Cop takes gun from woman stalked by serial killer who brutally murdered movie actress." She looked over her shoulder at Louis. "Could we get that on the air?"
"Are you kidding?" Louis said. "I could sell it everywhere. But it'd sound better if we said, ' Cop takes gun from woman stalked by serial killer who brutally murdered movie actress, while gangs run wild with assault rifles in South Central.'"
"That is an improvement," Anna said.
"It'd do okay," Louis said. " But if you could get him to rough you up a little bit, we'd get more than we got for the jumper."
"How about it?" Anna said, turning back to Coughlin and batting her eyes. " Do you carry a club or a sap or anything?" Could you push me around a little? I mean, I kind of ... like it."
"Louis said, " ' Cop takes gun from beautiful woman stalked by serial killer who brutally murdered glamorous, drug-abusing "90210" actress, abuses her with baton, while gangs run wild with assault rifles in South-Central -- and she likes it.' "
Coughlin hunched over the steering wheel and shook his head sadly, "Christ, this could be a long night," he said.
The opening scene in The Night Crew is extremely intense and the book contains a high-quality of writing throughout. I loved the character of Anna Batory and think Sandford's writing is superb - I like that his writing is so genuine and unforced. I must admit I'm not usually very good at figuring out who did it in a mystery novel, but I thought I had figured out this one - in the end it was someone else.
Here is a sample from The Night Crew :
"I couldn't help noticing that you're carrying a gun."
"Yup." She nodded.
"You got a permit?" he asked.
"Are you kidding?"
"Maybe you should give it to me - the gun," he said.
"Maybe not," Anna said
"I could take it," he suggested.
"Cop takes gun from woman stalked by serial killer who brutally murdered movie actress." She looked over her shoulder at Louis. "Could we get that on the air?"
"Are you kidding?" Louis said. "I could sell it everywhere. But it'd sound better if we said, ' Cop takes gun from woman stalked by serial killer who brutally murdered movie actress, while gangs run wild with assault rifles in South Central.'"
"That is an improvement," Anna said.
"It'd do okay," Louis said. " But if you could get him to rough you up a little bit, we'd get more than we got for the jumper."
"How about it?" Anna said, turning back to Coughlin and batting her eyes. " Do you carry a club or a sap or anything?" Could you push me around a little? I mean, I kind of ... like it."
"Louis said, " ' Cop takes gun from beautiful woman stalked by serial killer who brutally murdered glamorous, drug-abusing "90210" actress, abuses her with baton, while gangs run wild with assault rifles in South-Central -- and she likes it.' "
Coughlin hunched over the steering wheel and shook his head sadly, "Christ, this could be a long night," he said.
November 1, 2011
This was a great book for me. I really liked the author's style, and would like to read more of his work, based on the strength of this one. I'm not really interested in diving into Sandford's continuing saga of the "Prey" series, which at the moment is somewhere around fifteen books long, but that's the only thing that's kept me from checking him out a little more.
This one was about a group of kids who ride around in a van trying to get to the news stories before anyone else. They get caught up in some scrabble they shouldn't be involved in, and it makes for a fun story. Check it out!
This one was about a group of kids who ride around in a van trying to get to the news stories before anyone else. They get caught up in some scrabble they shouldn't be involved in, and it makes for a fun story. Check it out!
December 28, 2017
I thought I had read this back in the late 90s early 00, but as I was re reading the story I realized that I must have put it off. This time I kept after it and was able to finish it. Very good keep reading it to find out what happens next. Ending was confusing.. Spoiler. Why/what was Creek doing contacting Clark at the end of the book......?
Reminds me of the NightCrawler movie, although completely different story line except that they both videotape crime/disasters ect.ect.
Reminds me of the NightCrawler movie, although completely different story line except that they both videotape crime/disasters ect.ect.
July 12, 2021
I found this book in "take one give one" book box near my neighborhood's community garden. This is not something I would ever pick up on my own, I don't think. This might be the most boomer book I've read in a long time. It's definitely something my dad would read and think is pretty darn good.
Sandford's prose is fine, for the most part. Until the latter 1/4 of the novel, where verbs and adjectives start repeating themselves multiple times in the same paragraph or page, always a pet peeve of mine. If someone has just tossed something, or plopped into a chair, or squeezed a trigger, they or another person shouldn't be doing the same thing within a few sentences. I also don't like when someone is yelling or screaming something and exclamation points aren't used. Apart from this, Sandford's sentences are snappy and drive the momentum and tension of the story well. Even though I ended up not really liking this book, it is definitely a page-turner.
The story itself is fine, kinda boilerplate "oh no a psycho perv is stalking me, thank God I have a cop friend" sort of thing popular in the 90s and early 2000s. I had no problem with it. My main problem, and one which really kept this book from being enjoyable, is that the characters just kinda suck. They're two-dimensional with occasionally baffling motivations.
Anna, our protagonist, is described as petite, quiet, shy. In practice, she is bold, assertive, confident, sassy, and quick to throw herself into danger. She's the leader of the night crew, the one who calls the shots, and the one who calls around and markets their footage and hassles until they get a price she's happy with. Despite being stalked by a creepy sex pervert and at one point , she is quick to return Harper's frankly inappropriate sexual advances and shack up with him. She tries to pick a fistfight with some catcallers in a parking lot and relishes breaking and entering. She has the capacity for cold-blooded violence. Her clingy ex is in town but she's strangely super resistant to the cops checking him out.
Harper, our co-protagonist, is a lawyer and ex-cop who's been hardened by the streets. His son jumps to his death in the first chapter of the novel, and this suicide is recorded by Anna's team in gratuitous detail. Because of them, Harper's son's death is plastered all over the news for days and made a spectacle of. This doesn't seem to bother him much, and despite his son's recent splattering and working with the one who recorded the suicide to try to catch the person responsible for selling his son dirty drugs, he is quick to try to jump Anna's bones. I've never had a son die, but I don't think I'd be trying to get laid while trying to hunt the person responsible for his bad trip. Jaded by his work with drug gangs on the streets, Harper is adept at breaking and entering, physical combat/intimidation, and has no qualms about violently assaulting people to get information. We see him Despite all of this, he
Creek and Luis, the other members of the night crew, get very little screen time. Creek is a huge hulk of a man and good friends with Anna, suspicious of Harper's intentions. There's potential for him to be interesting, but he's injured and out of the picture for most of the book. At the end of the novel, he This is weird on a couple levels.
Glass, a cop who interviews Creek and Anna and is initially described as dark-skinned, falls for Creek immediately without much reason and spends her time at his bedside in the hospital. Even though she's introduced as vaguely not white, she later is used as a decoy double for white Anna and everyone talks about how similar they look.
I guessed who the stalker might be about 2/3 of the way through the story, but discarded it because it seemed too thin. The person I guessed had spent about 5 mins in Anna's presence. But that's it. We aren't given a good reason for his motivations. He rants a bit during his final confrontation with Anna and Harper, but it's still unclear why he fixated on Anna and developed this strong sexual jealousy. We aren't told if he has a history of mental illness or violence, even though we see the "two-faced man" break into Anna's house more than once with some real skill.
A cookie-cutter plot with paper-thin characters who sleep together because boomers think if people of the opposite gender work together for more than 5 minutes they have to get into a relationship. Sandford's prose has momentum and beat so I wouldn't be opposed to reading anything else by him, but I wouldn't go out of my way either.
Sandford's prose is fine, for the most part. Until the latter 1/4 of the novel, where verbs and adjectives start repeating themselves multiple times in the same paragraph or page, always a pet peeve of mine. If someone has just tossed something, or plopped into a chair, or squeezed a trigger, they or another person shouldn't be doing the same thing within a few sentences. I also don't like when someone is yelling or screaming something and exclamation points aren't used. Apart from this, Sandford's sentences are snappy and drive the momentum and tension of the story well. Even though I ended up not really liking this book, it is definitely a page-turner.
The story itself is fine, kinda boilerplate "oh no a psycho perv is stalking me, thank God I have a cop friend" sort of thing popular in the 90s and early 2000s. I had no problem with it. My main problem, and one which really kept this book from being enjoyable, is that the characters just kinda suck. They're two-dimensional with occasionally baffling motivations.
Anna, our protagonist, is described as petite, quiet, shy. In practice, she is bold, assertive, confident, sassy, and quick to throw herself into danger. She's the leader of the night crew, the one who calls the shots, and the one who calls around and markets their footage and hassles until they get a price she's happy with. Despite being stalked by a creepy sex pervert and at one point , she is quick to return Harper's frankly inappropriate sexual advances and shack up with him. She tries to pick a fistfight with some catcallers in a parking lot and relishes breaking and entering. She has the capacity for cold-blooded violence. Her clingy ex is in town but she's strangely super resistant to the cops checking him out.
Harper, our co-protagonist, is a lawyer and ex-cop who's been hardened by the streets. His son jumps to his death in the first chapter of the novel, and this suicide is recorded by Anna's team in gratuitous detail. Because of them, Harper's son's death is plastered all over the news for days and made a spectacle of. This doesn't seem to bother him much, and despite his son's recent splattering and working with the one who recorded the suicide to try to catch the person responsible for selling his son dirty drugs, he is quick to try to jump Anna's bones. I've never had a son die, but I don't think I'd be trying to get laid while trying to hunt the person responsible for his bad trip. Jaded by his work with drug gangs on the streets, Harper is adept at breaking and entering, physical combat/intimidation, and has no qualms about violently assaulting people to get information. We see him Despite all of this, he
Creek and Luis, the other members of the night crew, get very little screen time. Creek is a huge hulk of a man and good friends with Anna, suspicious of Harper's intentions. There's potential for him to be interesting, but he's injured and out of the picture for most of the book. At the end of the novel, he This is weird on a couple levels.
Glass, a cop who interviews Creek and Anna and is initially described as dark-skinned, falls for Creek immediately without much reason and spends her time at his bedside in the hospital. Even though she's introduced as vaguely not white, she later is used as a decoy double for white Anna and everyone talks about how similar they look.
I guessed who the stalker might be about 2/3 of the way through the story, but discarded it because it seemed too thin. The person I guessed had spent about 5 mins in Anna's presence. But that's it. We aren't given a good reason for his motivations. He rants a bit during his final confrontation with Anna and Harper, but it's still unclear why he fixated on Anna and developed this strong sexual jealousy. We aren't told if he has a history of mental illness or violence, even though we see the "two-faced man" break into Anna's house more than once with some real skill.
A cookie-cutter plot with paper-thin characters who sleep together because boomers think if people of the opposite gender work together for more than 5 minutes they have to get into a relationship. Sandford's prose has momentum and beat so I wouldn't be opposed to reading anything else by him, but I wouldn't go out of my way either.
September 8, 2016
Different from the novels for which John Sandford has become famous, but an interesting take on the independent crews who sell "news" stories to the stations on a daily basis. Good pacing, good dialogue, interesting mystery and a taut build-up to the conclusion. I still prefer his "prey" novels, and I wish he would write more in the Kidd series.
June 15, 2019
I only recently discovered Sandford, but I was disappointed in this book. The person who was the villain made no sense. He had virtually no contact with Anna, and there is simply no way this passing acquaintance was believable as the source of the conflict. Overall, I thought the last third of the book really dragged.
September 15, 2017
This is a good crime/stalking mystery as the leader of a night crew of film journalism is stalked by a mad man. Fast moving and well plotted this is exciting, but does not measure up to the Prey novels. Recommended to all Sandford fans.
November 6, 2017
It's Sandford, but early Sandford, it's a mystery, has all the elements of a whodunit, but Sandford's sharp wit is missing. The characters are okay, but they just don't click. I read the book and would say read at your own risk.
January 13, 2024
I always appreciate an author’s attempts to try something new, but this novel just left me feeling a little flat. The story and characters are fine; I just found it a little pedestrian.
October 4, 2014
Another mystery table pick-up at the library. It was ok, nothing special or exciting. A night video crew's leader is being stalked by a crazy man. Chaos ensues.
October 26, 2017
genre fiction capable of passing the time if it's the only book you've got.
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