Author: Bret Lott, b. 1958
Genre: mystery, suspense
Themes: family, sin, greed, love
Review: If Bret Lott's The Hunt Club were a movie, Nicolas Cage would be its star. Overflowing with murders, chase scenes, illicit lovers, and the discovery of national treasures, I keep picturing Cage's sallow face and receding hairline, melodramatically windswept, charging across the pages of The Hunt Club as Leland Dillard ('Unc') in this 1998 novel. This is not a compliment.
Leland Dillard is the strong and silent type. He's blind (he lost his sight diving into a burning house to save his dying wife), but he's no invalid. He and his 15 year-old nephew Huger ('YOU-gee') are the proprietors of a backwoods hunting club on the banks of the Ashepoo River in South Carolina.
On page two of the story, Leland smells blood and finds a brutally murdered body lying between hunting stands 17 and 18. The rest of the book is a who-done-it? narrated by Huger.
This is my second reading of The Hunt Club. I read it my senior year in college (I found a plane ticket stub dated December 2005 wedged in the back pages to prove it). At the time, I was studying Bret Lott to see what difference a writer's belief in Christ makes to his (or her) craft. Now I remember that I had to leave The Hunt Club out of my study.
Although Lott has 1 Timothy 5:24 printed before the title page ("The sins of some men are obvious, reaching the place of judgment ahead of them; the sins of others trail behind them"), there are just far too many f-bombs and ruthless acts of violence to enjoy this book as a Believer.
Christian convictions aside, the plot is also too fast and the characters are, consequently, unfinished, as if Lott wanted Leland and Huger to be more complex human beings, but lost control and let the need-for-speed and gut-gripping action mow them down.
Bret Lott is a talented writer. I've actually read everything he's written to date. I just don't think suspense writing is his genre. Mr. Lott, take my humble advice... leave the gun slinging and chase scenes to Nicolas Cage and stick to the insightful, people-based stories you do best.
Although Lott has 1 Timothy 5:24 printed before the title page ("The sins of some men are obvious, reaching the place of judgment ahead of them; the sins of others trail behind them"), there are just far too many f-bombs and ruthless acts of violence to enjoy this book as a Believer.
Christian convictions aside, the plot is also too fast and the characters are, consequently, unfinished, as if Lott wanted Leland and Huger to be more complex human beings, but lost control and let the need-for-speed and gut-gripping action mow them down.
Bret Lott is a talented writer. I've actually read everything he's written to date. I just don't think suspense writing is his genre. Mr. Lott, take my humble advice... leave the gun slinging and chase scenes to Nicolas Cage and stick to the insightful, people-based stories you do best.
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