Three teenaged kids, nobodies going nowhere, decide one afternoon to load up on guns
and go on a killing spree through rural Minnesota. They kill a girl during a robbery, kill a man for his car, then thought, what the hell? Why not keep going? Virgil Flowers, an investigator with Minnesota's Bureau of Criminal Apprehensions, works for Lucas Davenport, and is brought in to join the hunt. Virgil is the son of a Lutheran minister, has been married and divorced three times, loves the great outdoors and has been known to tow his bass fising boat to crime scenes. He's tall and lanky with shoulder-length hair, a non-tradtional haircut for a cop, but because his instincts make him a great investigator, Davenport let's him slide on the hairstyle. The story is not told as a straight-ahead mystery, but told in parellel story lines following the good guys and bad guys as we watch Virgil close in on a group on teenaged killers. Mad River is an enjoyable and well-written read filled with quirky characters, and told with a touch of rumor. John Sanford is a brilliant and gifted suspense writer.