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Deer hunting season has just begun at Sullivan County, located near the Catskills Mountains, and the first hunting casualty has surfaced. However, it is not like any other. The hunter was shot in the back, then left stark naked with clothes strewn around, and finally a bullet hole right between the eyes. Is there a hunting vigilante on the loose or is this the beginning of something worse? When another body shows up killed under similar circumstances there is fear that there is a serial killer on the loose. What makes it even worse is that the killer is not a stranger but one of their own. How long can he stay in hiding before things get worse? Read THE HUNTED and find out. Andrew Neiderman's work does not read as a novel but as an editorial. He introduces a reporter who is sent to the Catskills to write on the killings and make a report on the hunting culture. When she finds a source of information the author spends about two chapters discussing the history of hunting. She spends too much time learning from this hunter why they do what they do and why it is part of human nature. Neiderman goes on and on until it becomes tiresome. The only thing missing was a chest pounding and a grunt to accentuate the point. The story regarding the killings is underdeveloped in part because the book is so short. There is little to no time for the author to design a credible motive for the killer. Once it is all revealed readers may be left dumbstruck asking themselves, "Where the heck did that come from?" It resulted in an unconvincing and frustrating ending to the book. THE HUNTED might have worked better had the book been split into two separate writings. One could be a short story regarding a hunter serial killer (with a better motive) and the other an editorial or an article for a journal on Sociology doing a moratorium on hunting. As a novel it just does not work, as it tends to be a frustrating argument. If you consider yourself a pacifist or a vegetarian, you've been warned about this book. To everyone else, do what you will.
Reviewed by Angel L. Soto, August 2005
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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