A Beautiful Madness

A Beautiful Madness by Lee Thompson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When a mystery man dumps a mutilated and near-dead senator's son on the lawn of a former governor, the former governor's life, and that of his children, spins out of control. Who is the mystery man and why did he leave the dying man on the governor's lawn? And is it connected to the governor's sons? That's what detective Jim Thompson means to find out...

I got this from DarkFuse via Netgalley.

When I saw the detective's name was Jim Thompson, my first thought was "Yeah, they're all fucked."

A Beautiful Madness is told from the point of view of Sammy, the ex-governor's oldest son, who happens to be a drug dealer. His sister, Delilah, is a manipulating gold digger. It seems that Andy is the only one of the Wood children who is worth a shit.

Sammy tries to keep his drug operation running while trying to catch The Wolverine, the mystery man who dumped the senator's boy on his father's lawn. Complicating things are his sister Delilah having a past relationship with the boy and Detective Jim Thompson trying to solve case himself.

A Beautiful Madness is full of twists and turns. There is a fair amount of blood, violence, and death. The characters were surprisingly three dimensional. The Wolverine was far from the one-dimensional scene chewing villain he easily could have been and even had a touch of sadness and pity in his backstory. Sammy is a drug dealing shit but still craves his father's approval and the love of his siblings. Delilah has a slight kind streak despite being a shitbag.

Once The Wolverine's story unravelled, the book become scientifically impossible to put aside. I loved the way everything ended for Thompson, Sammy, Delilah, even the Wolverine.

Darkfuse continues to be one of my favorite publishers and I'll be on the lookout for more Lee Thompson. Four out of five stars.

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