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DEAD MEN'S HARVEST
by Matt Hilton
Hodder & Stoughton, August 2011
320 pages
17.99 GBP
ISBN: 1444712632


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

In DEAD MEN'S HARVEST, as the title suggests, Joe Hunter finds himself back up against his old enemy, Tubal Cain, the Harvestman, who was believed to have died at the end of Hilton's first book, DEAD MEN'S DUST.

Hilton likes larger than life villains, but he has an enviable knack of making them chilling whilst keeping them believable, and while I keep expecting him descend into caricature, he's managed to avoid that so far, so maybe he really can keep treading that particular tightrope successfully.

Joe Hunter isn't someone who gets close to people easily, but even he's shocked when he receives the news that his mentor, Walter Conrad, has been murdered. Things get quickly worse when Hunter's close friend, Jared ‘Rink' Rington, is kidnapped. It doesn't take a genius to work out that Rink is being used as bait and that Hunter himself is the intended prey. Hunter finds other people, also important to him, being put at risk in the name of revenge as well.

As ever, the book proceeds as high speed through a series of increasingly explosive scenes with Hunter displaying his usual inventiveness in getting out of a wide variety of tight spots. Hilton's action scenes are his strongest suit and he uses them to very good advantage in this book, especially during the tense and atmospheric climax on the vast, dilapidated container ship where Hunter's ex-sister-in-law is being held hostage.

It was nice to see Hunter's stylish friend, Harvey, getting to play a reasonably prominent role this time around, and the minor characters are – as usual – pretty well-served, which is something that elevates Hilton's writing over other books in this genre.

All in all, Hilton manages to keep serving up good, solid thrillers with a hero who still seems to have a reasonable amount of mileage left in him, but, as in previous books, I find his love interest, Imogen Ballard, thinly characterized and not in the least bit convincing. Hilton writes great male characters, but believable women in prominent roles is an area he needs to work on and it would be nice to see them do something more positive than simply be reduced to playing damsels in distress.

§ Linda Wilson is a writer, and retired solicitor, with an interest in archaeology and cave art, who now divides her time between England and France.

Reviewed by Linda Wilson, August 2011

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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