Mad River

Kind of a bummer. I guess I should be glad I got this far into the series before encountering a dud.
Tension of a manhunt fizzling out with a depressing denouement, no real answers, no real justice.
I suppose I could credit it for provoking thought around the idea of why people kill and why many seek to punish those who've wronged them, and how futile and haunting it can be to have tried murder as an answer to one's problems.
 But even as Virgil Flowers regularly holds forth with some existential ponderings, the balancing moments of levity felt sparse in this one. Furthermore, a lot more of this book was the action of the chase, rather than any particularly clever cat and mouse between investigator and criminal. I think I'd prefer to mosey out for more questioning, rather than speeding down one more road with the lights flashing. 
Even if I can credit that these books are often violent, even dealing with disturbing themes, this one didn't even come with the consolation of a solved mystery, just a lot of speculation! 🤷🏼‍♂️ 
And while we're on the subject of things that bugged me, three different women in this book are the victims of SA, with one scene briefly described, so please be aware before you read. 
Do I wish that authors were a Iittle more circumspect in reaching for the easy short hand of portraying a very bad man by showing him doing violence against women? Yes. Do I understand it persists because of how effective it is in conveying the sentiment to the reader? Also yes. 
On some level the gender binary of it all bugs me too. 
Separately, the long-running thread of low-income, not book smart, not exceptionally attractive, young people with traumatic pasts being automatically doomed, not qualified for redemption, especially in the context of one strongly hinted as gay but in denial in the face of internalized homophobia, feels both exceptionally hopeless, and also kind of overwrought and convenient to the narrative. 

I will try the next in the series to see whether this is a sign of steady decline or a one off slump.

⚠️SA, assault, intimate partner violence