The Committee

The Committee Description

"A captivating read and an absorbing tale about the abuses that can arise from intolerance and prejudice. It carries a warning from the past to the siloed, fractured communities of today." --Historical Novel Society"Sterling Watson's new novel, The Committee, transmutes Lavender Scare investigators' ruthless assaults on suspected homosexuals in 1950s Gainesville into heart-racing fiction that's every bit as spellbinding as Watson's noir masterpiece Suitcase City...Even in the midst of its historical and political pre-occupations, as well as its expertly paced progression into danger and violence, The Committee has its moments as a finely nuanced academic novel. With its richly drawn cast of identifiable English department types, from the brilliant and ambitious to the middling and jaded, their covert alliances and prickly departmental meeting dynamic, The Committee at times feels like a darker counterpart to Richard Russo's Straight Man." --New York Journal of Books"A well-written story with many layers, that Watson skillfully peels away in each and every chapter." --Bookstr, Three to Read pick for the week of Febraruy 3"The Johns Committee, a real, if lesser-known, McCarthy-esque group active in Florida, hovers over this tense, character-driven novel set in 1958...Watson ably evokes a sense of the McCarthy era's regional impact in this thought-provoking story." --Publishers Weekly"[Watson] does an excellent job of portraying a time, place, and culture without assigning contemporary values where they didn't exist...The dialogue is realistic, and the pacing, especially toward the end, is quick and intense. Any reader wanting a history lesson wrapped in a compelling, believable novel will find much to contemplate here." --Kirkus Reviews"Whether he's stoking his narrative or letting his mind wander, Watson writes crisp, beautiful prose." --Booklist"This academic mystery takes us into the depths of the Cold War, Florida edition, as a bunch of professors find themselves targeted by the mysterious Committee, dedicated to using law to control morality. As The Committee begins, a professor commits suicide, and a curious onlooker gets more than he bargained for when he opens his own investigation." --CrimeReads, included in CrimeReads' Most Anticipated Crime Books of 2020In the late 1950s, Gainesville, Florida, seems to be a sleepy university town. Its residents live, by outward appearances, ordinary lives. And yet the town is far from ordinary. The most private acts of professors, students, townspeople rich and poor, and politicians are under the close scrutiny of a shadowy group of men--the Committee--who use the powers of government and the police to investigate, threaten, and control this increasingly fearful community.The Committee pits friends against friends and threatens careers and lives in a struggle for the soul of a town, a university, and an ideal. Based on actual historical events and set against the backdrop of political, cultural, and class turmoil, this is a story of love--both licit and hidden--war, friendship, betrayal, compromise, and finally the necessity to stand firm against the encroachments upon freedom by men who believe they are doing God's and the government's righteous work.