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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Joe Hunter Proves He Is Here To Stay, August 22, 2010
This review is from: Judgment and Wrath (Hardcover)
Matt Hilton's new character, Joe Hunter, a former Special Forces operative who is now a private operative for those in need, burst onto the scene in his electrifying debut novel, "Dead Man's Dust". "Judgment And Wrath" confirms that Hunter is a character that will be around a long while and one that should appeal to all Jack Reacher fans. While preferring the addictive nature of the first Hunter book, "Judgment and Wrath" is still a strong sequel that indicates Hunter will get better abd better as Matt Hilton hones and fine tunes his fine writing skills.
Joe Hunter is an appealing character based on his back story, his martial arts and combat skills, his personally honed philosophy of how to treat bad guys, and his intuitive/analytical talents. Watching Hunter's back and helping with his cases are his two former military colleagues, Jared "Rink" Rington and, to a lesser extent, Harvey Lucas. In "Judgment And Wrath", Hunter is paid to find and return Richard Dean's 17 year-old daughter Marianne who has run away with her boyfriend, Bradley Jorgenson, the scion of a mega-wealthy family deep into the financial pockets of the military due to weapons and vaccine development. Dean implies she is the victim of abuse and he wants Hunter to take extreme measures to keep them apart.
Hunter quickly determines something is amiss as Marianne and Bradley seem deeply in love and she has no intention of leaving him. Joe fortuitously interrupts a deranged contract killer named Dantalion who has been sent by an unknown party to kill Bradley and Marianne. Dantalion is one of those love-to-hate incredibly viscious villains who believes he is an invincible fallen angel. If anything, there is a little too much time devoted to Dantalion's thinking and plotting for my taste.
But Dantalion is a vindictive killer and soon begins an onslaught to kill not only Bradley and Marianne, but also Hunter and Rink as well as anyone else foolish enough to get in his way. A cat and mouse pursuit carries the middle section of the book as Hunter and Rink work to protect those threatened by Dantalion while seeking the opportunity to take him out. The book concludes with an electrifying chase through the Florida swamplands that turns into a personal battle mano-a-mano between the Hunter and the hunted that will have readers gripping their chairs and holding their breath.
My only quibbles this time around are an occasional snatch of dialogue that does not live up to expectations and an over reliance on bad luck and/or serendipity to forestall an earlier conclusion to the battle of wills between Hunter and Dantalion. But make no mistake, this new series by Matt Hilton should be high on the purchase list of anyone who enjoys edge-of-the-seat thrillers built around a basically good but lethal hero who, in the Jack Reacher tradition, is not someone to be trifled with or threatened. Never make it personal with Joe Hunter--the consequences are deadly. A recommended read for all who enjoy action thrillers.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Loaded with car chases, gun battles, fisticuffs, mayhem and also humor., September 24, 2010
This review is from: Judgment and Wrath (Hardcover)
Before I tell you how much I enjoyed JUDGMENT AND WRATH, I am going to attempt to correct a minor misconception about Joe Hunter, Matt Hilton's primary protagonist. Contrary to what you may have read elsewhere, Hunter is not a clone of the worthy Jack Reacher, Lee Child's creation. While Hunter is possessed with a skill set similar to Reacher's, the two men are very different in a number of ways. Reacher operates off the books and is a nomad, moving from place to place without attachments. Hunter works with a team and has a change of clothes at the ready; while he doesn't exactly advertise his services as a problem fixer, he's not really a shadow figure, either. I mention this only because much has been discussed of the characters' similarities; they are different, each very capable of standing on their terms.
Which brings us to that portion of the program where we discuss Hunter and JUDGMENT AND WRATH, Hilton's second Hunter novel, on their own merits. Hunter is an interesting character, blessed with a glib tongue and an intelligence of high enough range to make him one of the more dangerous creatures in the brush. He also knows when to ask for help, which is there in the form of his pal and business partner Jared "Rink" Rington, who has been to a rodeo or two in his time as well.
JUDGMENT AND WRATH gets rolling when Hunter is retained for a retrieval job by a man named Richard Dean. Actually, that's not entirely accurate. While it's true that Dean seeks Hunter's help in finding his adult daughter, Marianne, and returning her to him, he also hints that he wants Bradley Jorgenson, Marianne's millionaire boyfriend, singing in the choir invisible as well. Hunter is not a hit man, but when he hears from Dean about Jorgenson's abusive ways and sees Marianne's "after" pictures, he is inclined to make an exception. Hunter learns soon enough, however, that he is not the only one who has Jorgenson in his sights.
A mysterious, somewhat insane and extremely capable assassin who calls himself Dantalion has also been retained to do both Jorgenson and Marianne. Dantalion has taken the name of one of the fallen angels, and the appropriation, as one discovers early on in JUDGMENT AND WRATH, is fitting. Dantalion and Hunter cross swords and paths violently and repeatedly as they pursue each other across South Florida, leaving a swath through the rich and famous and those who wish they were. To complicate matters, Hunter discovers that the woman he is rescuing has no desire at all to be saved, and he has not been told the entire truth about a number of things. None of this matters to Dantalion, who is dead set on murdering his original targets: Hunter and whoever gets in his way.
Hilton must soak his keyboard in equal parts adrenalin and electricity. JUDGMENT AND WRATH is loaded with car chases, gun battles, fisticuffs and mayhem, but also humor. I managed to pick up within the pages of the book a couple of the nastiest and funniest insults I have encountered to date and even had the opportunity to use one of them. Reading JUDGMENT AND WRATH is the most fun you can have between the covers of a book.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
terrific but overly knotty mystery, August 20, 2010
This review is from: Judgment and Wrath (Hardcover)
Concerned and fuming Richard Dean hires Florida private investigators, former Special Forces operative Joe Hunter and Jared "Rink" Rington, to extract his seventeen year old daughter Marianne from Miami playboy millionaire Bradley Jorgenson. Richard shows the two sleuths a police photo taken of Marianne after allegedly Bradley beat the crap out of her.
Hunter and Rink figure the case will be a cinch as they assume the wealthy Jorgenson will be a typical bully and run from them. However, the simple snatch and rescue proves convoluted when someone hires experienced hit man Jean-Paul "Dantalion" St. Pierre to kill Marianne and Bradley and the detectives find the teen happy with no signs of abuse.
The second Hunter-Rink investigation (see Dead Men's Dust) is a terrific but overly knotty mystery as too much goes on especially with the additional denouements. Still, Judgment and Wrath is filled with plenty of action as the lead duo finds nothing is what they expected as Bradley and Marianne seem like a nice loving couple and the professional killer quite adept. Readers will enjoy this exciting South Floridian thriller as Matt Hilton keeps the heat on his heroes.
Harriet Klausner
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