“Mad River” By John Sandford – The Loss of Innocence

While these thoughts may be considered as demented and perverted, the truth is that there is some kind of freedom to be had in being past the point of return, on the run, and being able to do literally anything, knowing that it doesn’t matter how much worse things get because the end will be the same.

This line of thinking is perhaps what drove Bonnie and Clyde on their rampage (amongst other things), and it seems to be driving three murderous teenagers from rural Minnesota in Mad River by John Sandford.

While their first victims may have been circumstantial, it can’t be said that the trio, consisting of a couple and a sidekick, didn't take pleasure in them. As a matter of fact, soon after taking care of their second victim they decided to go ahead and repay some "debts"... at which point they stopped caring altogether, decided to go on the most (and perhaps the last) thrilling adventure of their lives.

However, these teenagers aren't exactly dumb ... as a matter of fact, they are quite smart as they manage to elude capture by investigator Virgil Flowers, hell bent on bringing them to justice.

The premise of this story may remind some of you of The Devil’s Rejects¸ where an inspector (played by William Forsythe) became obsessed with hunting down a family of serial killers and giving them a taste of their own medicine. Unlike that movie though, this book feels more intelligent, and rightfully so as each of the teenagers carries much beyond his or her simple appearance.

It felt to me like Mad River was an experiment by John Sandford, to see what lengths a justice dispenser is willing to go in order to bring justice to an extremist group of hedonists who find their pleasure in murder.

All in all, if this sounds like your kind of thing, if you are looking for a breath of fresh air, to read a story that doesn’t follow a cookie-cutter template and explores dark themes with absolute brilliance, I definitely recommend you get Mad River.

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John Sandford Personal site John Sandford is an American novelist and Journalist who has a Bachelor’s degree in American History as well as a Master’s in Journalism from the University of Iowa. He is best-known for writing novel series, with his most acclaimed ones being the Prey and Kidd series.