Product Description

After spending a year in prison, Ralph Fisher has explicit plans for his first night of freedom: tonight, someone will be held accountable. He goes to murderous lengths to obtain the address of his former wife -- the woman he blames for his fate and against whom he has sworn vengeance. Determined to bring her to his idea of justice, Ralph's next step is to travel from Florida's sandy beaches to Dayton, Ohio, where his ex-wife is struggling to make ends meet on Mad River Road. Also in Florida, Jamie Kellogg wakes from an agonizing nightmare of her mother's funeral, and assesses her life: a pretty but unaccomplished twenty-nine-year-old woman in a dead-end job, with an ex-husband in Atlanta, a married lover in the hospital, and a virtual stranger in her bed. But this stranger is everything the previous men in her life weren't: tender, attentive, and adventurous. After convincing Jamie to quit her miserable job and ditch her judgmental, perfectionist sister, he proposes a romantic getaway. While Jamie wonders if this thrilling man might finally be her Prince Charming, they plan a road trip to visit his son, who lives with his mother on a street called Mad River Road.... As riveting and beguiling as Joy Fielding's previous New York Times bestselling novels, Mad River Road is a novel about courage, truth, and the strength that comes only when you believe in yourself.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #912212 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09
• Format: Large Print
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 672 pages

From Publishers Weekly
In the nail-biting 18th suspense novel from Fielding (Puppet), a trio of women trapped in a web of lies, danger and self-revelation must confront their deepest fears. Lily and Emma, each a young mother with an adorable young son, are carving out new lives in a depressing Dayton, Ohio, neighborhood that caters to single mothers, while Jamie, in Florida, is a 29-year-old single dealing with the recent death of her mother and an affair with a married man who's been hospitalized. Both Lily, an aspiring writer, and Emma, a compulsive liar and shoplifter, struggle to recover from tragedies that led both to assume new names. When a sexy but dangerous man Jamie meets in a bar persuades her to quit her job and escape her perfectionist sister, the pretty but insecure blonde winds up on a wild road trip to Ohio that will inextricably link her fate with that of Lily and Emma. Packed with breathless twists and turns, Fielding's latest set of women in jeopardy excite and delight. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From AudioFile
Judith West's voice resonates with tension and fear for a trio of women trapped in dangerous relationships and a web of lies. Lily and Emma are young mothers escaping abusive husbands, and Jamie is an insecure young woman, berated by her mother and sister, who impetuously embarks on a wild cross-country adventure with a handsome, dangerous stranger. Effective plot twists will keep the listener engaged. West uses regional accents, as well as pacing and volume, to effectively differentiate the many female characters. Her child voices are perfect and charming. West is a fine narrator who is controlled in scenes depicting violence and thoughtful when the women become introspective. S.C.A. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
With Whispers and Lies (2002), veteran best-selling author Fielding delivered a novel with Hitchcock-level suspense, and she has been trying, somewhat desperately, to match that level of excellence ever since. Better than her previous effort, Lost (2003), but not as good as Whispers Fielding's new novel tracks the movements of a man recently released after spending a year in jail on domestic-abuse charges. Ralph, who blames his jail time on a nosy neighbor, breaks into her apartment and forces her to give up his ex-wife's new address. Meanwhile, flighty Jamie Kellogg, constantly berated by her mother and her sister for her lack of a career and a steady boyfriend, meets a handsome stranger in a bar who talks her into quitting her job and traveling across the country to Mad River Road. Fielding uses a number of inventive techniques to keep readers involved in her story, including clueing us in to the identity of Jamie's new boyfriend from the get-go and showing her downward spiral from infatuation to disillusionment to sheer terror. She also throws in a delicious plot twist. Unfortunately, uninspired dialogue and a one-dimensional villain detract from her pointed commentary on relationships and her imaginative plotting. Still, Fielding's fans will want to check out her latest offering. Joanne Wilkinson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Excellent
I'm on a Joy Fielding binge at the moment and most often wonder a bit about her women who tend to act much differently than I would or I would expect them to, so I have never given any of her books a 5/5 - UNTIL I READ THIS ONE. Cover to cover a spellbinding read, great characters, the story neatly finishes up. And the usual surprise is included. Hope the next one I read is just as good.
Comment

Madness on Mad River Road
I will admit that this was a vast improvement over PUPPET, 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.

PART ROMANCE, PART REVENGE - ALL GOOD LISTENING
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