Customer Reviews

Hour of the Hunter (Sheriff Brandon Walker)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

**PLEASE READ THROUGH TO THE ADDITION AT THE END**
This isn't a review of the book per se, but a warning to other Kindle owners as to what to expect from this freebie. You are about to get what you paid for. Harper Collins should be ashamed at themselves for rushing to market a very poorly scanned edition of one of Jance's older works in order to plug her newest book. It's what literary marketing has become, and it won't change until we readers start complaining. While it's hard to complain about something given for free, I feel a small entitlement since I've been a faithful Jance fan for 20 years. I've paid my dues with many full priced books.

That Harper Collins would allow this to be published without having even an intern proof the OCR for miss-reads is a sad commentary on the greed of the publishing world. Let me say this as clearly as possible: this book is painful to read.

One of the joys of reading a good book is being transported via the author's skill to another place and immersing yourself in the world they've created. I find it virtually impossible to do that when the gibberish typos keep drawing me back to the real world. Don't misunderstand- I will put up with the OCR mistakes in many other free ebooks when they are classics that have been scanned and formatted by volunteers. For a world-wide leader in publishing to do so is beyond excuse.

Additionally, Amazon should be ashamed for using the e-publishing date instead of the original 1991 publication date.

When all is said and done, this is a good book marred by sloppy publishing. It's not Jance's best, but it is still a worthwhile read if you are willing to deal with the jarring typos.

**9/22/10- As I discussed in the comments which follow, Ms. Jance got this fixed! If you've previously downloaded the typo laden version, you'll need to delete it (go to "Manage My Kindle" and click the plus sign next to the title, then delete) before you can download this one. I haven't looked at the revised edition yet but I have faith that it is what it should be.

I have to give a grudging thank you to Harper Collins for making this right, but mostly this was due to Ms. Jance's efforts. We corresponded several times after I brought this to her attention and believe me when I say her concern for her readers was very evident. Congrats JAJ!!
I have also upgraded my rating to 4 stars, which is what I said I'd have given it without the typos.

I haven't finished the book, but wanted to go ahead and write part of a review. It took me a little bit to get into it, because it's set in 1975, and has frequent flashbacks to explain how the characters got to the current point in their lives. It also has stories/legends from the local tribes. I'm assuming they are real, since this book is set partly on the reservation. Because of all the flashbacks, it took a while for it to really gel for me, but now I'm really enjoying it. Some of the unwritten social commentary is especially telling, looking back at how differently society treated women in the 1970s, as well as American Indians. Having lived in the Southwest, I can tell you that some things haven't changed.

The main problem with the book is not the author's, but the publisher's. I'm at 70% finished and I am running into a lot of typos, including misspellings and lost punctuation marks. It's like who ever published the digital version got 2/3 of the way through and decided to hell with the rest of it. In fact, some of the misspellings look like what you get from a bad OCR (scan) job, which, since the original was published in 1991, is entirely possible.

That said, it's still a good book. I've always enjoyed Tony Hillerman's novels, and this gives you a more feminine perspective.

Until the end of chapter 20, I planned to give this book four or five stars. I enjoyed the native legends. I cared about the two heroines, Rita (formerly Dancing Quail) and Diana Ladd, not to mention Diana's young son, David. The flashbacks to the characters' pasts were absorbing. However, I hated what happened to Diana in the climax. Ms. Jance gave us plenty of warning that her villain was a homicidal sociopath. That was enough for me. I didn't need for Diana to suffer as she did. True, what she went through was probably no worse [and didn't last as long] than what the heroine went through in *The Hellfire Club*, but that was by Peter Straub. When I read his books (or those by Stephen King or Barbara Hambly, etc.), I know what I'm getting into. I'd read only three other Jance books before this one, and they certainly didn't lead me to expect that the climax would be so brutal. What made that climax even more offensive to me was that Diana, up until then, wa! ! s portrayed as a reasonably smart and strong woman preparing for the probablity the psycho would be after her. Suddenly she jettisons most of her brains and common sense so the psycho's tricks work. I don't accept the period the book is set in as an excuse for her [initially] poor showing. Years before Diana was even born, my Granny took a frying pan to the head of a big drunk who was trying to beat her up and knocked him out cold. I admit that the book improved once Diana got her smarts back. I liked the end. I'm sure I would have enjoyed this book more if I'd known what I was letting myself in for. Well, you've been warned. Enjoy. Tip for readers: "Tucson" is pronouced "too-sahn", not "tuck-sahn." Ann E. Nichols

Protagonist Diane Ladd may not be strong woman Joanna Brady, but J.A. Jance's native American lore and unveiling the evilness stalking Ladd was page-turning. Although another reviewer berates Ladd's stupidity during the climax of the story, a parent might understand her actions. Or any reader who has experienced unexplainable violence. The fluidness of Joanna Brady series is missing, so thus the 4 stars. But I liked the break from Brady and J.P. Beaumont series, and look forward to reading Kiss of the Bees.

Neither a J. P. Beaumont nor a Joanna Brady story, this is a real page-turner. A widowed mother and her son are the targets of an ex-college professor who is a sadistic serial killer, who has just been released from jail after serving a sentence for the killing of a Native American girl.

The sympathetic portrayal of a native american culture is reminiscent of Tony Hillerman's novels. A thoroly enjoyable story.

watziznaym@gmail.com

As an older JA Jance it reminds me more than a bit of early Tony Hillerman when the stories were more thrillers than character-driven. It drags some and goes on a bit too long. Nevertheless, in the long run provides its share of entertainment.

On the other hand, while the price is certainly right (and I do appreciate this fact), I agree with the other readers that the sloppy, uncorrected OCR 2/3 the way through is both distracting to the reader and insulting. Elsewhere, HarperCollins e-edition titles are priced quite high--between paperbacks and hardcovers. With electronic editions they don't have to pay production costs for printing, warehousing or shipping of hard copies of these editions, leaving them more leeway for paying authors fairly and earning sufficient profits for themselves. Electronic format readers are NOT red-headed stepchildren and don't deserve to be treated as such. This is a new and growing market for publishers who should be pricing books fairly, providing esthetically-pleasing editions and treating its readers well. Apparently this publisher does not know how to approach or appreciate this market and I, for one, will not be buying from them until they adequately address these issues.

This was a Kindle freebie. Good thing because if I had actually paid for it I would have been 9 kinds of ticked off! Don't get me wrong. The whole book wasn't crap, but whomever entered this one as an ebook needs a good smack!

There are so many places where the word "hi" is in the place of "in" and "bat" is there instead of "that". I am sure there are many more but those are the two that stuck out like flashing hazard lights on a dark stretch of country road.

I did enjoy the Papago stories. I used to go to Arizona every summer with my Mum to visit one of her friends, so Prescott, Casa Grande and Tempe are all familiar to me. Every time the author wrote about popovers I screamed internally that it was frybread. Thankfully, she explained that the name was a tribal thing.

When I read the "bonus" material, the first couple of chapters of Queen of the Night, I grew VERY frustrated. I understand the use of flashbacks but to bounce around time in a single day like Ms Jance did is just plain annoying! ,

I'm used to J.A. Jance's Sheriff Joanna Brady series, so this book was a pleasant surprise. Much rougher and edgier than the Joanna Brady series, Hour of the Hunter was a well-plotted, exciting book. A few minor issues -- the ending seemed to arise out of nowhere, very abrupt after the lead-up. And the final punishment for the criminal wasn't nearly harsh enough. All the same, a nice change from Jance's series.

If you liked this book, particularly the native American references, you'll love Tony Hellerman's series.

HOUR OF THE HUNTER is very suspenseful and has one of the most diabolical villains created for the reading audience. Overall it's very good, but minor flaws detour from making this an excellent read.

Widow Diana Ladd is raising her son, David, on the Tohono O'Othham Indian Reservation near Tucson, Arizona, with the help of Rita Antone. Rita is a Papago Indian basket-weaver/wise woman and has taught David the O'Othham language and customs since he was a toddler. Six years ago, Diana's testimony had put Andrew Carlisle in prison for the murder of Rita's granddaughter, which also resulted in the death of Diana's husband (Carlisle was involved with her husband and his death was staged to appear as a suicide). Now Carlisle is out of jail and looking for revenge. Sounds like a typical mystery, but it's definitely not typical.

Gruesome is the one word I would use to define Carlisle. His signature is to bite the nipples off of his victims. He thrives on torture, and a quick kill does not make him happy. He has plans on exactly how he wants Diana Ladd to suffer and this is described in great detail, sometimes to the point of turning my stomach. The victims he encounters on his hunt for Ladd are tortured and eventually killed but instead of appeasing his appetite for death, they only add to his need to reach Diana Ladd.

The Papago legends are written at the beginning of each chapter, which give an interesting twist to the story. At times it does take away from the tale, and I found myself wanting to skip the legends and get to the story at hand. Every chapter seemed like overkill. The O'Othham language is translated, but is difficult to read and understand. It does not flow smoothly.

Character development was excellent. Jance delved into each personality so I felt as if I personally knew each character. She left little to the imagination in this aspect. But in story development, she left a lot to the imagination, or lack thereof. It seemed as if her outline dictated the droning on of the story. It was predictable for the most part. The ending left me wondering why Jance had done the unthinkable to her heroine. What Ladd endured at the hands of Carlisle was unnecessary.

There were so many surprises during the story and for there to be no twists at the end made it very anti-climatic.

Hey I've tried. I really have. But this bomb just doesn't hold my interest. I even fast forwarded (as much as you can on a Kindle) thinking I could skip a lot of the mish mash stuff at the beginning and it would pick up. Wrong. I even put it aside and read something else...Shakespeare, really! But when I returned, I was still bored. Thinking I was having a bad (reading) day I put in Archives to let my attitude change. That didn't work either. So this puppy...more correctly, dog...is getting zapped. Heck, I didn't even pay attention to the typos other reviewers complained about. I was too intent on trying to see where this thing was going and keeping track of fuzzy multiple story lines. It's gone.