Hunted

The Tracker

John Hunt

Black Rose Writing

March 1, 2018

4 stars

With only two novels out, John Hunt is the author to watch in the horror and suspense genre. His first novel, The Doll House is a tight mystery thriller that keeps you guessing. His new novel is The Tracker and while The Doll House was a mystery with strong elements of horror, The Tracker is all horror.

Taylor is an young but obese man with a even more obese mother who dies and leaves Taylor alone in their house. Taylor has no real friends and, like many with severe weight problems, grew up with his share of peer persecution and misery. Shortly after his mother dies, he begins to see a strange man in a fedora. That man starts breaking into his home although the police can find no evidence and no signs of entry by anyone but Taylor. The man finally reveals himself to Taylor as "The Tracker" with an ultimatum; Evade me for 2 days and you live. If i catch you I will brutally kill you. Do not reveal who I am or ask for help for there will be consequences. Taylor does ask for help, and the consequence only digs Taylor in deeper and makes him the subject for several murders.

John Hunt has a casual but riveting style. He gets into the meat of the novel rather quickly. In fact maybe too quickly since at first I thought the premise did not have enough grounding for the reader to believe the unbelievable. I was wrong though as the author throws a few curve balls at us and the reader is wondering who the killer really is. A good part of the novel centers around Taylor telling the interrogating detective his story. The detective is a good listener and a good questioner for it is the questions he asks that causes the first half of the book to unravel into something even more creepy. Of course I am not going to tell you what that is.

The Tracker is a book where the thriller lover may protest the strong domination of the horror elements, sort of the exact opposite of The Doll House where after a terrifying beginning it calms to a psychological aftermath story and a whodunnit. The Tracker starts out slower for a few pages then goes full terror fest. The amount of taut plot structuring is quite impressive and rarely allows the reader to take a breath. Hunt's novel is essentially a variation of the innocent man on the run and being terrorized by both villain and police. However once the twists show up in the second half it becomes something else. It will be interesting to see where Hunt goes next. Will he become a suspense writer, a horror writer, or will he dabble in a bit of both. He has the chops to do either or both and it will be intriguing to see what twisted little scenario he will conjure up next.