Customer Reviews

Mad River Road: A Novel

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Lilly Rodgers and Emma Frost are single mothers and neighbors on Mad River Road. Both live in fear that their secrets will be discovered one day. The prologue captures the reader's attention and does not let go. Jamie Kellogg hits a low point in her life when she discovers a secret about her lover. She hates her job and decides to leave Florida with her new and exciting lover Brad Fisher. Jamie has never meant anyone like Brad. As Jamie slowly questions and discovers the details of his life he has told her are false; his behavior becomes more erratic. All three stories are on a collision course as Brad and Jamie reach Ohio. Not to the very end will you know all the answers. Mad River Road is a thrilling work of fiction!

Though not as good as her best work (which, in my opinion are See Jane Run, Grand Avenue and Whispers and Lies) it is a VAST improvement over the debacle that was Lost (which kept me away from Puppet.)

Mad River Road has some nice twists and turns which kept me guessing and I was appropriately creeped out by the menacing Brad. Overall, a solid thriller.

I have been a fan of Joy Fielding since Grand Avenue but her last two books have been a let down to me. Since I was able to get Mad River Road from the library, I figured I would give her another chance to redeem herself and all I can say is Wow. I read this one in a day.

Mad River Road opens with a man in Florida breaking into a womans house for two reasons. One to get even with her for being an intrical part of him being sent to jail, and two, to find out where is wife is hiding with his son.

We then meet Jamie. A 29 year old woman who hates her job and has always been put down by her mother and sister. She has an ex husband in GA and a married lover. When she meets a handsom stranger at a bar and falls into bed with him she thinks her life is about to change. On an impulse, this new man invites her to take a road trip to Ohio so he can see his son. They pack up the car and head to Mad River Road.

Finally we have two single mothers, Emma and Lily, living on Mad River Road. A haven for woman who had a past and whos futures were unclear.

As the story unfolds, Jamie and the man of her dreams begin to head to Ohio and we slowly begin to learn what the connections are between these 4 people and the secrets that they are hiding.

Mad River Road is a page turner with an ending that you wont want to miss.

I really enjoyed this book. I have read just about every book Fielding has written and she used to be one of my favorite writers. Her early novels were the suspense equivilant to Olivia Goldsmith's more chick-litty variety of "girls getting back and the men who did them wrong" However, Fielding lost me with the two most recent books Grand Avenue and The First Time, I couldn't seem to get into either of those. Mad River Road was a refreshing step back to the books of her early years, though the formula she used back then is absent, I think thats a good thing. The worst thing an author can do is become formulaic. Mad River Road sucked me right in and I had trouble putting it down. I recommend it to those of you who like that edge your seat variety of writing.

Jamie Kellogg thinks she has found the man of her dreams when she meets Brad Fisher one night at a bar. He convinces her to go on a road trip with him, and it isn't long before Brad changes into a dangerous psychopath. She finds out that Brad is going to Mad River Road in Dayton, Ohio to find his ex-wife and his young son. This book is thrilling and exciting, and it will keep you reading long after your bedtime. Joy Fielding's books rarely fail to be immensely compelling reading.

Joy Fielding has a knack. Once you start one of her novels it's impossible to put it down or, in this case, once you hear the opening words of her story you don't want to stop listening. With Ralph Fisher she has created one of the most rapacious, goosebump raising psychos in fiction.

This author is known for starting off with grabbers, and she does it again as we hear that Fisher has just been released from prison and the only thing on his mind is vengeance. It doesn't take him long:

"He lowered the knife to her cheek, drew a line in her flesh starting just beneath her eye, then dragged it toward her chin.
"No!" She was screaming now, thrashing from side to side, the blood flowing from the cut on her face onto the white of her pillowcase as he positioned himself between her legs. "I'll tell you the truth. I swear, I'll tell you the truth."

And with that "truth" Ralph heads for Ohio and Mad River Road where his former wife is now living. He's not the only one traveling to that street by the river, just north of Dayton. Jamie Kellogg is an attractive almost thirty young woman who has been suffering nightmares since her mother's death. Her professional life is heading nowhere, and her lover is in the hospital.

It seems Jamie's life might change for the better with the appearance of a stranger. She finds him irresistible and agrees to go with him to visit his son who lives with his mother on Mad River Road. Other residents of that same road are two young mothers, very different women indeed.

Before long these character will find their lives enmeshed in a way none of them ever dreamed possible.

Judith West delivers a fine-spoken, compelling reading of this story which is equal parts romance and revenge.

- Gail Cooke

I will admit that this was a vast improvement over PUPPET, MISSING PIECES, WHISPERS & LIES and LOST which I thought were genuine stinkers. Although I didn't like the protagonist Jamie Kellogg or her pompous sister, the story was compelling.

Jamie Kellogg is a Grade-A fool. A law school dropout, she has a divorce and a married boyfriend on her scorecard. Her late mother was a judge and her pompous younger sister Cynthia is a hotshot attorney enjoying the fruits of a lucrative career. Jamie has been hounded by the pair for years for her impetuousness and foolish, rash decisions. Picking a stranger up in a bar is her most recent stupid move. It is also her most dangerous.

Brad Fisher appears to be the man of her dreams. Jamie throws what little common sense (if she ever had any) to the winds to take off with Brad in her car, a Ford Thunderbird which she obtained after her divorce. She and Brad head off to Dayton, Ohio where Brad claims his former wife absconded with their 5-year-old son. En route to Ohio, the pair do some foolhardy things. Jamie willingly sleeps with Brad; eats up his blandishments and, over the course of a few days his dangerous side crops up. His temper flares; he attacks several boys in a parking lot after they hit on Jamie and he insists Jamie show him where her former mother-in-law lived. Why she agreed to do this and help him break into the woman's home made absolutely no sense at all.

That was bad enough, but meanwhile on Mad River Road two women are living under cover. One woman with her 5-year-old son fled a marriage that went bust and the other, an aspiring writer has her eye on a local police officer and works in a local gym. Both women have sons the same age; both are involved with the gym. One works there; the other cases the place.

In time their lives collide; the "mystery," such as it is was pretty easy to figure out by the time that Thunderbird rolls into town from Florida. The ending is disappointing, but all in all it is better than the last few books. I did like the Ford Thunderbird, though.

I've read her past novels and loved them. I thought this was good, but yet I instantly knew which woman Brad was after. It was still a good read, but very predictable.

This book was well-written, and it is a definite page-turner. Joy Fielding really took you into the life of the main character, so much in fact that at the end of the book I felt a little letdown. I was a little disappointed at the ending and some of the events leading to it that were so abrupt. There were several exciting turns that could have taken place that didn't, and a few situations that I prefer not have happened they were so graphic and uncomfortable.

I wouldn't recommend this book to people who want their suspense fiction to be a relaxing escape. I didn't feel better after reading this, or a sense of relief. It left a depressing aftertaste in my mind!

This mystery is really a character study in mental and emotional disorders. We have a particularly nasty and vengeful villain, a chameleon of a man who can go from Prince Charming to Jack the Ripper in the blink of an eye. His enjoyment comes from taunting and playing mind games with his victims before disposing of them. Then we have a trio of women characters, Jamie, Lily and Emma, each leading a somewhat shabby existence due to something or someone in their past. Each of the protagonists are weighed down by assorted secrets, compulsions and an excessive amount of emotional baggage and each, it appears, has a date with destiny that culminates in a house on Mad River Road.

This is a suspenseful and psychologically engaging thriller. It has some moments that will make the hair on the back of your neck stand up while others will disgust and anger you. The Jamie character was gullible and annoying in her insecurity, but at the same time believable (I have worked with a couple of Jamie's in my life and have wondered how they would ever survive in the big world).

Joy Fielding is a perfect seamstress and she has taken the varied pieces of each characters story, added in the colorful threads of adjunct individuals, like the controlling ex-mother in law), and neatly pieced them all together to give the reader a compelling crazy quilt of a tale.