THE HUNTER

4 stars out of 5

This book actually caught my eye because it's set at least in part in territory familiar to me - Ohio - but the concept resonated a bit as well. Hotshot New York Detective Leigh O'Donnell returns to a sort of hole-in-the-wall police department in the Copper Falls after pulling some kind of stunt involving a gun that landed her on the indefinite suspension list in New York. Besides her job, her interracial marriage to her NYPD captain is going down the tubes (partly because what she did - and I'm still not totally sure exactly what that was - was something he was unable to excuse either personally or professionally. When she made the journey to her hometown, where she hadn't been in 14 years, she took their young daughter Simone with her; they'll stay in the huge family home with three of Leigh's uncles and her brother and police officer Ronan. It was Ronan, in fact, who enticed the former homicide detective to come "home" by pointing to the recent suspicious deaths of three young men.

Leigh, needless to say, brings all kind of mental baggage to her former hometown - a place that has nasty secrets of its own that, if discovered, threatens its very being. There's also a sort of supernatural thread winding through the story, mostly in and out of caves that lurk behind the town's waterfall. And that, I must say, was my first sort of disillusionment; given that Ohio's tallest waterfall - which is in the general vicinity where this story takes place - is only 65 feet tall, it was a little hard to believe there'd be room for all those caves. Then again, the town is fictional so why not the topography - and in this case, both are central to the story so I went with the flow (so to speak).

Investigating the three recent deaths, and those of three other young men not that long ago, takes Leigh to the caves as well as into "seedier" parts of town where she and Ronan really aren't welcome (raising the question of why). All the while, Leigh is pining the loss of the love of her life - her husband back in New York - who appears to have moved on. Maybe, I thought, that's why she didn't always think things through clearly - I'm quite sure I would never have left my daughter in the all-day care of unmarried male relatives I hadn't seen for decades until I was certain she'd be safe with them. And if I were still madly in love with someone, I wouldn't be likely to get the hots for a long-ago boyfriend who conveniently shows up, in part in the hopes of rekindling a lost love.

Here and there are hints at racial tension, but that theme really goes nowhere and seemed to me to be totally irrelevant to the story. As readers might expect, there's a last-minute do-or-almost-die race to the finish (done with a totally irrational rationalization about not calling for back-up). In the end, all the lurid details are unearthed even though it appears only one of the guilty parties will pay for his or her sins - what, if anything, happens with the rest remains a mystery. Overall, the story held my attention throughout, though, and I'll call it a good debut effort that showcases the writing skill of this clearly talented author. Thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review this one.

The Hunter by Jennifer Herrera (G.P. Putnam's Sons, January 2023); 351 pp.