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.
Sandford Branches out into the night in Los Angeles. Check another one off the Sanford list of books I have to read that he has written. If Sandford hadn't written it, I probably wouldn't have picked it up in the first place. That being said it was a decent book. It is not on the same level as a Lucas Davenport Novel, or even Virgil Flowers, but it isn't bad. It is pretty fast paced, and enjoyable. There were a few times I found myself wandering and not paying attention, but overall it was decent. Anna and her night watch crew, who are out each night trying to scoop stories bring an interesting angle and something not covered in a lot of books. I found the bad guy to be a little bland and a disappointment, he/she didn't really sell why they were after Anna. Although, Crazy people don't usually make sense. If you like Sandford, you probably will enjoy this book. If you haven't read Sandford, start with his Prey series which is some of the best fiction I have read.
What do You think about The Night Crew (1998)?
I read Noodsprong by John Sandford (The night crew in English) a while ago for the mystery category of the 2015 reading challenge.Mysteries aren’t really my thing, so the writing style threw me off and it took me some time to get into it. I thought I knew exactly who the bad guy was from the start, but fortunately there was a lovely twist where it turned out it wasn’t. That did turn my opinion of the book around: I was slogging along because I felt like I had already figured it out.Also, I read this in Dutch (I got the book from someone, I would never buy something in Dutch if I could read the original language), and it was so obviously translated. Not that the translation was bad per se, but I could constantly read that this was not the language it was written in.All in all an entertaining read, far from my usual comfort zone. Not going to pick up a book like this soon though, it doesn’t entertain me in the way reading should for me.
—Siriusly
An exciting update of the noir genre that stacks up well next to Ellroy and other contemporary writers of this style. This book gets dismissed unfairly because it's not what Sanford's Prey series readers are expecting, but The Night Crew has a lot to offer. You don't even need to be patient, the opening pulls you into a mysterious scenario that definitely feels like a setup. The story of Anna Batory's quest to get to her stalker before the cops is a bit dated, very late 1990s (mobile phones not working in all areas? Hmm maybe not too much) but don't hold that against the book. Make room for this one on the shelf between LA Confidential, Poodle Springs and Light Before Day.
—Daniel
In LA,the Night Crew, a mobile unit of video freelancers, prowls the midnight streets for news to sell to the highest network bidder. Murders. Robberies. High-speed chases. For them, it is an exhilarating life. But tonight, two deaths will change everything. Anna Batory, the night crew leader, her partner Creek, and Jake Harper, lawyer and former cop investigate.The only problem with John Sandford novels is that it takes a monumental effort of will to put them down! This was great - tense, edgy (what a great word) and of course full of wonderfully drawn characters. I hope there are more Anna Batory books.
—Mary
