Book Review: Unintended Consequences by John Ross (1996)
A book that is freighted with the weight of many misunderstandings is Unintended Consequences, the first, and to date only, novel by St. Louis financial advisor John Ross.
Some in law enforcement consider it an anti-cop violent fantasy, but that’s not what it is.
Some in the gun culture consider it a great work of art, but that’s not what it is, either.
It was an inspiration for at least one other author: former SEAL Matt Bracken, whose novels have sold well.
It is a rarity: a didactic novel, an entertainment intended to instruct or teach, that is, at the same time, entertaining. Most such didactic tracts fall far short of entertainment. Unintended Consequences doesn’t. It leads you on a character’s journey beginning with his ancestors and leading to a dystopian “present” that is a mere logical continuation of the Clinton Administration and the ATF of the 1990s.
Prophetic? Hope not.
