Review: The Hunt by Tim Lebbon

Title: The Hunt
Author: Tim Lebbon
Publisher: Avon
Publication Date: 18th June 2015 (eBook) / 16th July 2015 (PB)
Pages: 400
ISBN: 9780008122904
Source: Review Copy
Rating: 4.5/5
Purchase: Amazon

Escape and they’ll kill your family. The cruellest game. The highest stakes. Only she can bring his family back alive…

Rose is the one that got away. She was the prey in a human trophy hunt organised by an elite secret organisation for super-rich clients seeking a unique thrill. She paid a terrible price. Every moment since she has been planning her revenge … And now her day has come.

Chris returns from his morning run to find his wife and children missing and a stranger in his kitchen. He’s told to run. If he’s caught and killed, his family go free. If he escapes, they die.

Rose is the only one who can help him, but Rose only has her sights on one conclusion. For her, Chris is bait. But The Trail have not forgotten the woman who tried to outwit them. The Trail want Rose. The hunters want Chris’s corpse. Rose wants revenge, and Chris just wants his family back.

The hunt is on…

I stupidly forgot to reply to the email offering me a copy of this book and so consequently missed out on this brilliant marketing campaign. Never fear, a NetGalley copy appeared and I eagerly downloaded it. The very same night I sent a tweet saying 'There's fast-paced, and then there's The Hunt' and that statement is so true. For pure excitement and adrenaline rushes, The Hunt is probably one of the best books you could read this year for them.

The Hunt is one of those books you can't say too much about, but in typical me fashion I'll probably end up saying anyway... Chris returns home from his run to find that his family have disappeared and there's a stranger in his kitchen who delivers a cryptic message. Chris discovers that his family have been kidnapped, and he's told to run. If he's caught and killed then his family can go free but if he escapes, they die. It has all been organised by The Trail, an organisation that provides rich people with somebody to hunt.

The Trail are a pretty scary and organised group of people. Even pressing 9 on his home phone alerts them to the fact that Chris is attempting to call the police. And they have even managed to get to his family and friends. Chris has nobody to turn to, until help (I use the term quite loosely) comes in the form of Rose. A woman who managed to escape from The Trail, but lost her family in the process. Rose has revenge in mind, and will not rest until she has killed those responsible for killing her family. All the while I wanted to scream at Chris to not only run from The Trail but also Rose, but at the same time my heart was pounding with excitement as I read on. I actually found the idea for the story quite inventive in a genre where most things have been done, and when you actually think about it, it is actually quite plausible - there's people out there that would set up something like this, and there's rich egomaniacs who would happily pay to take part.

In terms of the setting I do think something like this might be slightly more believable on a grander scale, say America, but the fact that Tim set it in the UK, and in an area he knows perhaps does give it more of an authentic feeling. Plus I think the idea of The Trail operating around the world is a pretty scary idea, and probably highlighted the scale of which these people work. Tim Lebbon clearly knows what he's talking about when it comes to all things running and the outdoors and he uses that knowledge to great effect in writing this story and it never comes across as know-all, it all adds to the overall story. It's one of those books where it feels like you are part of the story yourself, witnessing the action from afar, even feeling like you should be looking over your shoulder at times.

The character development in The Hunt was probably one of my favourite things about the book. I think in this genre some authors tend to focus too much on the action, resulting in at times some pretty one dimensional characters but despite this book very rarely letting up on the action, the characters don't suffer because of it. Rose in particular was one of my favourites, despite never fully knowing what I thought about her. A character such as her fills you with excitement but also a little bit of fear, she literally has nothing to live for, and is driven solely by revenge which makes her quite unpredictable. I wondered just how the story would end, after all to save his family Chris must sacrifice himself and so it does add some real excitement to the read. My heart was pounding right up until the very end of the story.

The Hunt is a book that would be perfect for reading by the pool for those lucky enough to be jetting off to sunnier climes over the coming weeks, but it's also a book that would be perfect for reading right now! So don't even hesitate to go ahead and download it to your Kindle. At 99p how can you say no?! I really hope we will be reading more from Tim Lebbon very soon.

4.5/5