Andrew Neiderman The Hunted

The Hunted

Andrew Neiderman

Pocket, August 2005,

ISBN 0743483209

Al Jones, a hunter who lives in the small upstate New York town of Centerville, goes into the woods a few days before hunting season opens to kill a buck. He is found naked, a bullet in his forehead. A few days later two local hunters who went into the woods at night to hunt were found murdered and naked, gunshot wounds to their heads. Shortly after that, a man who is hunting on his own land without a license is killed.

Police theorize that the killer is someone local who knows the area and its people, and is in law enforcement because all the victims broke a hunting law. Reporter Diana Brooks of the Middletown Post is sent to cover the story. She teams up with Aaron, a car repairman who gives her a crash course into the world of hunting so she has a handle of what makes someone want to shoot a deer. When Aaron's brother goes into the woods to kill a doe, Aaron follows him hoping to get him out of there before the killer ends up making him his next prey.

Readers can actually see a small Catskill town turn into a place ruled by fear as the residents realize one of their own is on a killing spree. What frightens everyone is that he walks among them and they don't have a clue who he is. The developing romance between Aaron and Diana is a much needed tension reliever because the book starts off fast and never slows down except for the relationship scenes. Though why his sibling, an avid hunter, would risk his life to hunt is shaky, Andrew Neiderman delivers another fantastic work of suspense.

Harriet Klausner