A wild ride on The Mad River by John Sandford

The 6th Virgil ‘effing’ Flowers novel written by that incomparable John Sandford is here.  And true to Sandford’s reputation he has served up another brilliant story.

Virgil Flowers as a character is hard not to like.  And he faces one of the most brutal and frustrating serial killers in the Mad River.  It is all the more thrilling because John Sandford has made the killers, in a sense, victims of circumstances themselves.


Unlike the other Virgil Flowers’ stories or the famous Prey series involving Lucas Davenport, this is a story with a lot of Greys.  The separation between the good and the bad isn’t as clear as in usual Virgil Flowers series.

The killers Jimmy Sharp, Becky Welsh and Tom McCall evoke some sympathy
while retaining their brutality. 

The law men under the Sheriff Lewis Duke of Bare County at times turn into beasts and do some ugly things. 
The good guys who are victims are also given the chance to make their own mischief.

The 6th Virgil Flowers novel has other surprises too:

• thugs Jenkins and Shrake look like pussy cats to be outdone by an even uglier brute. 
• the vintage rock band T-shirts usually worn by Virgil Flowers seems to have faded into background.
• this must be the first time that Virgil Flowers is beaten up badly - so badly that he needs hospitalisation.
• for a non gangland based story, the body count is one of the highest in a Sandford novel.

That said, Mad River by John Sandford has a smooth flowing style, though the carefully crafted plot twists sucks the reader right in.

All said, it is a must read novel.

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