This novel, the latest John
Sandford, is very Bonnie ‘n Clyde, except that the loved-up couple also has a
moronic sidekick.
All three of the dead-end teens are absolutely crackers and
they’re killing people all over rural Minnesota, just for the hell of it.
But BCA agent Virgil Flowers, one of
my top 5 literary heroes (largely because he’s also a nut job; imagine a
poetry-writing Matt McConaughey in a rock ‘n roll T-shirt, without a gun) is on
the job. And trying to out-run a host
of moronic cops.
Here’s a quick taste:
Jimmy
said, "Shit," looked down at Ag, who'd gotten to her knees. He could
have changed his mind, then, and everything that came after would have been
different. He hesitated, then pointed the gun at Ag's head and pulled the
trigger.
The
Smith flashed in the dark, Ag went down, and Jimmy ran after the others.
Tom and Becky had already gone through the front door, which
stood open to the streetlight, and as Jimmy crossed the front porch he heard
the other sister scream, "Mama, mama. He killed Ag, he killed Ag."
If you’re a Sandfordian, read Mad River. If you’re not, you will be.
So start today.
Keep in mind, while doing so, that
the killing-spree-by-mad-teens theme has been done before, but this author is
so very, very good that it’ll feel like a fresh, new topic.
What’s more, this isn’t a whodunnit.
It’s an intelligently written police procedural with a host
of eccentric characters. As one reviewer puts
it, Sandford’s novels aren’t “mysteries in the sense that there is anything for
us to figure out… Crimes are solved through interviews, and require legwork and
street smarts rather than science and tech. The appeal [is in] watching the
protagonist close in on the criminals.”
Especially when he brings in a prison full of convicts as ‘consultants’.
Genius.
