A stunning review of “HUNTER”

Roger Donway, reviewing HUNTER for The Atlasphere, opens with the words:

“I demand a sequel.”

Then this:

To say that HUNTER is a well-structured novel is an understatement…. There is nothing of philosophizing or pontificating or preaching in HUNTER. Nevertheless, it is this philosophical conflict between the two main characters’ passion for the virtue of justice…that drives the novel’s plot…. The profound harm that evil men wreak on good people is portrayed here in the most heart-wrenching terms. On occasion, it brought me to tears…. This is the first reason that I am impatient for a sequel to HUNTER: I want to return to the exhilarating moral atmosphere of Bidinotto’s story.

“But the second reason that I want a second helping of HUNTER has to do with its characters…. From the reader’s perspective, characters must not appear as mere chess pieces. They must seem like real people, acting from internal motives of character and personality, and Bidinotto’s characters always do.

For example, the well-plotted actions that occur when Dylan’s crusade and Annie’s crusade conflict would not be believable unless you first believed — not only that their crusades are right — but that their passion for each other is no less right. And you do believe it. I said that I approached HUNTER not as a thriller reader but as a romance reader, and so I cannot tell you that this is a great thriller. But I can assure you that it is one of the great romances.

Going beyond the main protagonists, even the lesser characters are vividly realized. Even the minor evil characters, whom we meet only as they are about to be dispatched, are memorably etched with a few deft strokes. Bidinotto seems incapable of creating a cardboard figure. An author who, just by the way, gives us a cat’s tail swaying “like a wobbly periscope” is clearly a born poet.

And this points to the second reason that I demand a sequel. In creating the benevolent characters of HUNTER, both major and minor, Bidinotto has introduced us to a coterie of folks that we love, that we yearn to meet again, that we want to know better.

There’s more, much more. It’s the kind of review every author lives for, and that a Vigilante Author would kill to receive.

Read it all.

UPDATE: While I’m at it, let me share an excerpt from a 5-star review left on Amazon by thriller writer Claude Bouchard, author of Vigilante and other novels:

A journalist by profession, Bidinotto’s writing is flawless and precise. He uses words to create scenes much like an accomplished artist uses paint and brush to create a masterpiece. His characters are three dimensional; they are real, flesh and blood people with true emotions. The story itself is an intricately woven tapestry of details which all perfectly mesh together resulting in a highly believable, suspenseful read. . . . [T]his novel is the best in the crime thriller genre I’ve read in a while. I can only give one piece of advice to you readers out there. Buy this book!