Mad River by John Sandford

Reviewed by Gerti 

My John Sandford obsession has been going on for a few weeks now, and his “Mad River” is the first of his novels that has sounded a sour note for me. It’s the story of 3 teens, dysfunctional as all get out, who begin a crime spree ala Charlie Starkweather because they are just flat broke. The girl, Becky Welsh, knows a local Shinder girl who married well and wore diamonds to a recent party in the town, which Becky helped cater. Becky wants those stones. Her boyfriend, the impotent (or possibly gay?) Jimmy Sharp, was born mean, and he figures out a way to get those diamonds, and make some extra cash on the side by committing a murder for hire. The pairs’ ride-along buddy is named Tom McCall, who at first seems the best natured of the trio, but then turns into a cop-shooting rapist. These 3 inspire a manhunt the likes of which Minnesota has never seen.

Enter Virgil Flowers. While I love this crime-solving character in other Sandford novels I’ve read, he seems a little flat in this book. At one point, he gets the snot kicked out of him by two thugs and ends up with a concussion, but he almost seems to be handicapped from the start! Lucas Davenport, his boss and the subject of several other Sandford novels, also makes a short appearance here in this book, but he also seems toned down. It’s almost as though Sandford is tired of writing cute paragraphs to decribe his two most famous protagonists for those who haven’t read the series before, and so there is very little background information given on the pair. Which is a shame, because in previous books, it has been the details Sandford uses to describe these clever employees of the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension that have really made his novels sing!

I’m also missing Johnson Johnson, Flowers crazy fishing buddy who always livens up the storyline with his lunacy. Instead, here we have a tight-knit Catholic family of doctors (yawn) and a former high school girlfriend with whom Virgil finally scores. Just like the book itself, the investigation into the spree killers seems to stall. This is the first Flowers novel in which Virgil does not get his man. Several convictions fall through, that of 2 of the kids, and of the local good-old-boy sheriff who ordered their car fired on in ambush style while they were giving themselves up. As a result of that event, Virgil never does get enough evidence against the man who ordered the hit on his ex-wife, so the book, while providing closure in the end, doesn’t provide much satisfaction. It’s like Virgil’s high school relationship with Sally Long – all talk and not enough action. Sandford has written far better books than this one, and fans should seek them out. The journey on this “Mad River” leaves me high and dry.