Hunting Evil – The Next Psycho Serial Killer by Chris Carter

The compulsive new novel from the author of the Sunday Times Number One bestseller The Caller and Gallery of the Dead.
AS ADDICTIVE AS A TV BOXSET!

‘Every story one day comes to an end.’
As roommates, they met for the first time in college. Two of the brightest minds ever to graduate from Stamford Psychology University.
As adversaries, they met again in Quantico, Virginia. Robert Hunter had become the head of the LAPD’s Ultra Violent Crimes Unit. Lucien Folter had become the most prolific and dangerous serial killer the FBI had ever encountered.

Now, after spending three and a half years locked in solitary confinement, Lucien has finally managed to break free. And he’s angry.

For the past three and a half years, Lucien has thought of nothing else but vengeance.
The person responsible for locking him away has to pay, he has to suffer.
That person … is Robert Hunter.
And now it is finally time to execute the plan

Duffy’s Thoughts On Hunting Evil

I had such high hopes for Hunting Evil and I think I may have set an impossible expectation after the gripping Gallery Of The Dead. Page five of that book stays with me and I still cannot look down a dark hallway whilst on my own.

Detectives Hunter and Garcia are a great pair in the best selling Hunter series, but I felt with Hunting Evil it was all about evil Lucien with very little shared about the lives and character development of Hunter, Garcia or any other of the good guys.

Hunter tended to fawn over super evil serial killer Lucien which got a little repetitive for me. I even thought I was re-reading a page at one point, I hadn’t, but the sentences were clunky and repetitive and a few pages blurred into one. At one point in the book, Garcia raises this point and warns Hunter of his fangirling. I thought that this would trigger a deeper reason or reveal conflicting inner demons in Hunter as a reason for this almost obsession, but aside from one page of explanation, I was left high and dry.

Lucien, as a serial killing psychopath, is very polished with Hannibal Lecter charisma in spades, but again the story arc of how he came to be could have been explored in more detail and the whole ‘Grasshopper’ thing irritated me. Gallery of The Dead had an X-Factor about it, making it unique in storyline, evil deeds and plot twists and unfortunately, I found that Hunting Evil underdelivered on all these points.

However, something kept me reading. The pace, the suspense and the anticipation of seeing where Lucien would pop up next and what carnage he would inflict on the world was enough to carry me through the 500 pages.

It’s a shame because Carter has something very special here and has amazing talent. Off the back of previous books and due to his skill as a thriller writer, I know that thousands of copies of Hunting Evil will fly off the shelves. I am concerned that tried and tired tropes such as ‘evil killer playing cat and mouse with a maverick cop who clashes with authority/FBI/Jurisdiction’ will make his readers weary for Robert Hunter.

I hope that Carter’s next read brings back his dark, smart, and unique best self. Maybe next time a sharper, shorter thriller will regain my attention.

Not my favourite in the Robert Hunter series, but certainly won’t be the last one I pick up.