Thrice married, thrice divorced and noted for pulling his fishing boat along on official business Virgil Flowers comes back in John Sanford’s new book  “Mad River”. Flowers is an investegator for the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) and is on the trail of a Bonnie and Clyde type young couple on a terror across Minnesota.  Much to his chagrin, he ends up battling the local authorities almost as much as the targets. His boss, fans will recognize the lead character in Sandford’s Prey series of books, Lucas Davenport – the head of the Minnesota BCA, makes a couple of cameo appearances in this story. As is the case with Sandford’s other work, the story line is well written and the character development is top notch. Highly Recommended.

Stone Barrington is up again in Stuart Woods new offering “Severe Clear”.  Those who have enjoyed previous Barrington exploits will find a real home here.  As is often the case, characters from other Woods’ novels make appearances, in this case CIA Assistant Director Holly Baker tags along.  In this episode Barrington and his entourage are confronted with the possible terrorist attack that if successful would make September 11th look like a picnic.  In Woods’ way everything is a little over the top but that makes the reading even more enjoyable.  Recommended

Now for the disappointment   As you know I am a fan of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series. So when I saw “Reacher’s Rules” pop up on Amazon I immediately ordered it.  The book is a distillation of the rules that Reacher lives by and many of the entries are directly from different books.  While those entries worked in the context of the overall story most of them  come up a little hollow here.  Some of the entries are amusing and it is an easy read but my recommendation is that you save your money.

Next up on the reading list is William Kent Krueger’s new book Tricksters Point” so you can look for my take on this one shortly. Also looking forward to a new Harry Bosch novel from Michel Connelly due out November 26th.