Customer Reviews

Dead Men's Dust

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This novel hits all the tough guy novel buttons. Ex special services military, check. Combat expert, check. Tough guy name, Hunter, check. Sidekick, check. Evil nemesis, check. Works mostly outside the law, check. Heart of gold under a jaded exterior, check.

The plot moves quickly. The bad guy is truly evil. There's plenty of action. And there's promise of more to come.

I've been a fan of this category of fiction since I first read the Travis McGee novels. For the category this is not a bad first novel. I think there is enough promise here to prompt me to read the next in the series. As another reviewer said, Hunter is no Jack Reacher, nor Travis McGee, nor Spencer. Hopefully Matt Hilton will grow as a writer and Hunter as a character. There's enough here to give me cause to look forward.

Joe Hunter is a problem solver. As the story opens, he lands in Florida to help is sister-in-law, Jennifer, who is being threatened by a criminal nicknamed "Shank." Who is attempting to intimidate Jenn because of debts her former husband, John, didn't pay.

Joe removes the threat and Jenn asks him to find his half brother, John. John left Jenn for a woman named Louise Blake. Although Jenn doesn't love her former husband, she doesn't want harm to come to him, since he is the father of her children and the children would suffer. She tells Joe that she believes John is in grave danger.

John had grown dependent on his brother, Joe, to repay many of his gambling debts and when Joe attempted to get him to change his ways, the half brothers became estranged.

In the Southwest, a cold-blooded, thrill killer is active. Tubal Cain enjoys killing and then cutting off his victim's thumbs. One day, while on the road, he stops where a car has broken down and is robbed of his prized possessions, his knives. Unfortunately, the robber is John. Cain is insensed and wants to find the person who got the better of him and make him pay.

The story describes what Cain and John are doing and Joe's search for his half-brother. It's the heroic man against the killer and John is the wild card in the chase.

If the object of a book is to entertain, the author did his job. He also does nicely in setting the scene and permits the reader to get a good vivid picture of the action. It would be easy to adopt the story for screen.

I enjoyed the novel but think that Joe needs a bit of humility. He has too high a view of himself and not the empathy that Jack Reacher or many other heroic characters possess. I think this can happen and look forward to more of the author's work.

I really enjoy the books featuring Mitch Rapp, Jack Reacher, Lucas Davenport, Elvis Cole, Bob Lee Swagger, Harry Bosch, and others in the genre when they're well done. The advertising blurb for this book sounded like it was right up my alley, and I really like discovering new (to me) authors. That's one of the great things about Amazon's Vine program.

Unfortunately, this book fails to hit the mark... badly.

The first and most glaring problem is that in the chapters that focus on protagonist Joe Hunter - told in First Person - we have Hunter himself telling us how tough he is. "I'm the guy they send in when all the other options have failed", or words to that effect. REAL tough guys don't go around bragging about how tough they are. Further, this is the kind of character quality that should be SHOWN and not TOLD.

You don't hear Rapp or Reacher talking about how tough they are. Elvis Cole's self-assessments are always self-deprecating and humorous. Harry Bosch and Bob Lee Swagger dwell on how age is depleting their abilities. We SEE their true qualities through how they handle the situations the stories throw at them. But in this book, the Hunter character never misses an opportunity to brag himself up, seeming to do so about every other chapter or so. Very annoying.

Serial killer Cain (how subtle, I'm sure) - the antagonist of the piece - is a cartoon character; Yosemite Sam without all the red hair, chewing up the scenery at every opportunity without any effort made to give us an insight into the character at all. His function is purely mechanical: a target for Hunter. Period.

The story itself is a plain old shoot-em-up. Gunfight to knife fight to chase to next gunfight to next chase, etc., ad infinitum, ad nauseum. There's a little bit of CIA and mobster stuff thrown in to try to leaven the boredom, but it's pretty much irrelevant, as there's no real STORY in this story.

So, why am I giving it a second star?

Beats me. I guess I'm in a good mood. I think there may be some potential here for the future. Maybe.

Geeze, I hate giving a new writer a mediocre rating, and I do certainly hope Matt Hilton gives us more about Joe Hunter because the potential is there.This starts out as two unconnected stories. First, you have former military operative Joe Hunterenlisted by his sister-in-law to trace down his way wayward brother, John, who has disappeared and is being sought by some very dangerous mobsters. Seems like John is a bit of a rotter, having abandoned wife and family for a new lady and has gambled away money that should go to support his family. Nevertheless, brothers are brothers and Joe travels from England to Orlando, Florida and then across the country in search of his sibling.Meanwhile, Jubal Cain, a crazed but highly intelligent serial killer tours I-10 sadistically torturing and killing random victims. Acting as a good Samaritan helping a stranded motorist, but sizing the man up as a potential victim, he finds the tables turned on him as the motorist is a small time crook who steals the killer's car and treasured Bowie knife. The insane Jubal is intent on tracking the thief.It should come as no surprise that there is as connection between these two plots and they soon come together.Unfortunately, Joe Hunter comes off as too similar in many ways to Lee Child's Jack Reacher, but just not as interesting. Jubal Cain is suitably evil and nutty, but we've met him before under various names such as Hannibal Lector. In no way am I saying this is bad. But it failed to keep me glued and I had no problem putting it down when interrupted. However, I will quite likely resd Matt Hilton's 2nd book whenever it comes out and is available at my local library. As I said, I do think there's a potential here.

Matt Hilton has created a badass character in Joe Hunter and a freakin scary villain in Tubal Cain. If your and action fan pick up this book.

Fantastic book! I can't wait for the next in the series, this book is a great read for the summer--something that you want to give a bit of excitement for a light summer read where you know you enjoy it but might not remember it later on, other than that warm feeling that you did really like it. Fun action, carries you away for a while. Perfect for a long flight!

All around badazz buttkicker, Joe Hunter is a James Bond type of character. He comes to America to find his loser brother who has gone missing and is tangled up with some shady criminals. If that weren't bad enough, he's been abducted by a serial killer who's roaming the country.
This may not be the most original of stories, but it's a highly entertaining book. It's a literary equivalent to a straight to a video action/suspense film, and to me, that's not a bad thing at all. I hope to read more of Matt Hilton and his tough guy, Joe Hunter.

First of all let me say that I am a woman. I likely have too much estrogen to really fall in love with this book but that did not hamper my general enjoyment of it.

The main character is Joe Hunter. He's about as macho as they come, which would also be my only real grievence with the book. He's a bit too macho and a bit too egotistical for my taste, but I can see how many a male reader would lavish in this protagonist.

I tended to enjoy the main antagonist, Tubal Cain, far more in fact (what does that say about me? hmmm...). I think he was better drawn than Joe was and I can tell the author put a great deal of thought into his villain. His mindset was explored and he even had quirks in place that worked well in conjuntion with the little idiosyncrasies one would expect from a prolific serial killer.

The plot was well done and action packed. I would recommend this book to any if not all of my male friends. Guys will love this book and no doubt so will many women. Hilton would do well to tone down the ego on Joe just a bit for his next novel but otherwise a really good start.

OK, maybe not quite as good as Lee Child, but pretty good! Ex-military officer and all-around tough guy Joe Hunter, just may be the next Jack Reacher. While not quite as interesting a character as the protagonist in Lee Child's books, Hunter is a really tough good guy!

One of the great things about doing a series of books is that you don't have to spend a lot of time developing a character's past and personality. Those things will be added as each edition of the series comes out. There is an advantage, because sometimes these little insights, as valuable as they are to a story, sometimes overwhelm the reader. In this case, we know enough about Joe Hunter to make the story flow, but not enough to get tired of him. Also, like the Spenser novels of Robert B. Parker, it will be interesting to see if the character grows or matures as time goes on. Spenser in the early books is a very different person than the newer additions to the series. One real small beef, though. It appears that Hunter is British, and yet his language is American, and he rarely, if ever talks about England. It's almost as if the author just decided that he would be English, and wrote the story that way, but there isn't enough definition of that part of his character (which contradicts my earlier statement about taking time with developing the character, doesn't it).

As far as the actual plot, it's pretty good. As the dual story of a truly horrific "bad guy" who has been running around killing people for years and Hunter's search for his brother come together in an interesting plot twist. I look forward with some anticipation to the next edition. If you like suspense novels you'll like this one.

Matt Hilton's debut novel introduces us to the greatest action hero to come along in a decade, Joe Hunter. After spending much of his life in special forces, he is called to the US by his sister-in-law to find his missing brother. At the same time, a serial killer is traversing the US collecting trophies of victim after victim. This book is non-stop action from the opening scene, cumlinating in an amazing showdown between Hunter and a villain so frightening, he'll have you looking over your shoulder for days. For fans of Jack Reacher, Joe Pike, Repairman Jack, or David Trevellian this is a can't miss book. My advice, don't start this book before you go to bed, because you won't be able to sleep until you turn the final page.