Hunting the Hunter (Berkley Sensation) [Mass Market Paperback]

"Hunting the Hunter" is an enjoyable and interesting tale in a rather overcrowded genre - the vampire romance. Although at heart a 'lust turns to love' story there are lots of additional elements to keep the reader's interest.

Kendall is a female vampire, a Hunter whose mission is to weed out the 'evil' vampires, often partnered with werewolves or witches. Partnered with Duke, a shape shifter, they seek out vampires and terminate them. However, Kendall realises that someone is hunting her - a human. Kane Winter is a man with a mission, ever since his shapeshifter partner Duke was killed two years ago by a vampire. Kane has trained himself as a vampire hunter and has seventeen kills to his credit. When he sees Kendall he remembers her as the vampire involved in Duke's death and sets out to kill her.

A lot of novels in this genre would have drawn out the hero hunting the heroine angle to fill the entire book - in this story Shiloh Walker gifts her lead characters with a good dose of common sense and they very quickly realise that they are working together towards the same goal and stop trying to kill each other. It doesn't take long before Kane and Kendall act on their mutual attraction but before they spend much time together Kendall discovers a shocking secret - that the source of a significant amount of evil and murder can ultimately be laid at her door because of the actions of a vampire, Cat, that Kendall turned. Kendall and Kane must try to find Cat and kill her - but Cat is powerful and it's not that easy.

The romance, although a central part of this plot, wasn't the most interesting aspect. We are given several sex scenes between our two principle characters but far more interesting are the moral dilemmas that these characters face. Kendall has ultimate responsibility for Cat and it's something she has to deal with; Kane has to learn to accept that not all vampires are evil and to try to persuade Kendall to work with him rather than trying to protect him as a weaker human. We are introduced to a number of other characters including the intriguing witch Vax and the 500-year old witch Agnes.

This story is written with good pacing and it never drags. We are given back-story in small doses throughout the book which helps us to understand Kendall's singleminded dedication to vampire hunting. The main attraction between Kendall and Kane appears to be lust rather than anything more concrete and I would have liked some more attention to the other aspects that might have drawn them together but overall it was an enjoyable read with some good characterisation, an interesting plot and a satisfying resolution.

Originally published for Curled Up With A Good Book ([...]) © 2007 Helen Hancox

Kendall is a vampire; she is also a Hunter, one of a group of warriors who keep the other supernaturals in line. Kane Winters first met Kendall two years ago when he thinks she killed his bounty hunting partner, and he's been searching for her ever since.

This book has a problem, rather than having one coherent story here, we have two parts that don't quite work together.

The first part of the book deals with how Kendall and Kane meet and how they subsequently end up together. We learn very little about either character, so basically what we have is Kane chasing Kendall, then losing her. Essentially it's a problem with pacing, the first six chapters are too slow and repetitive, and I couldn't connect with either Kane or Kendall. There is no real plot here and this could have been condensed by at least half. I think the idea was to introduce the reader to the world of the Hunters through Kane. But it's as if Kane and Kendall exist in a vacuum of bars and alleys with the occasional vampire or drug dealer popping up.

The second part of the book is much better. The plot finally arrives in Chapter 7, along with a slew of interesting secondary characters - Analise and Brad, (they were written really well and I wanted to know more about them, hope they turn up in a future book), Cat, Vax and Agnes. The story is off and running. We have an antagonist, we have bad things happening to good people, we have secondary plot threads, and we have back-story. We have all the things that were missing in the first part of the book.

Shiloh Walker can also write hot love scenes - of which there are several. :) At least one of which comes under the heading - we need to rescue our friend but let's get it on first. But that's something that crops up a lot in this genre, so I'm not going to hold it against the author.

As this is the first Hunters book (assuming you haven't read the e-books) it does have a lot to do. Introducing worlds and their rules is not easy. But I think a lot of readers will give up before they get to the meat of the story and that's a shame because it's well worth hanging in there for.

The next book in the series - Hunters: Heart and Soul is released in April 2007.

Falling firmly into the Vampire Romance this isn't a bad example of the genre. It's not the best read but it did keep me reading past my bedtime. The romance between the two characters dominates the book, sometimes at the expense of the plot, which is a pity because it's a good plot and a well crafted romance.

I really liked Kane as a character, he's strong yet with vulnerabilities that make him an interesting character. Kendall was an interesting character as well but somehow she didn't have a certain spark that would elevate her into a great character. Agnes I would like to see more of.