Dave Matthes

Return to the Madlands Dave Matthes

A decade or so following the events of "Paradise City", Arlo Smith finds that he is still somehow clinging to life. Fueled by the revelation that Constance may also still be alive and waiting for him somewhere out in the world, Arlo Smith, now feeling older than ever, decides to make one last stand against himself. Obliging to the last wishes of a recently-deceased love one, and perhaps succumbing to his own obsessions, Arlo embarks on an open road quest one last time in hopes of finding what he's been searching for since that fateful day near the end of his high school years. What he discovers is an unexpected, and obligatory companionship with his estranged father, self-exiled in a lonely Nevada town, and more revelations that could either cement his perception of his very existence, or tear it down completely, rendering him beyond saving. Feeling the promise of death in one direction and the lure of Constance in another, Arlo is forced to decide to stay or leave... to obey the itching bones of his lusts, or to do what is right... and finally put to rest what may have started him on his path to damnation all those years ago."Return to the Madlands" serves as the final chapter in "The Mire Man Trilogy", and will bring to a close the ugly, messy, horrible story that is Arlo Smith.