Book Review: Robert James Bidinotto's "Hunter: A Thriller"

   First off, Bob says it all in how he goes about things; here is the link for him:

http://bidinotto.blogspot.com/2011/07/newbie-author-why-i-turned-down-two.html?spref=fb

   I have never met Robert in person, but I feel like I have.  It goes back many years, when I first encountered him on the various Ayn Rand-based philosophical forums.  Many long debate campaigns did we go through, together, along with many other strong thinkers.  In the rough-and-tumble world of cerebral debates, he always had this measured, reasonable way about him.  

   So, that is one reason that I decided to keep tabs on him, with great interest, when I found out he was mounting a thriller novel.  I could see that he was working away on the thing, and getting excited for the final moment of release.  

   The book first came out in e-book mode, and I bought a copy, for a whopping, what, 3 bucks, was it?  I understand he now has hardcopy available.

   I can't do a spoiler on it because I am only about halfway through it, being busy.  What is interesting to me is that, even this being the case, Bob has already taken me through a lot of damn changes--hell, there were enough twists in turns by a few dozen paragraphs in.  

   Now, that is not an easy thing to do.  For one thing, you run the risk of burning out early.  For two, you can create mass confusion in the eyes of the reader. None of this happened, because Bob has a very, very strong ability to maintain pace.  That is one of his strengths.  Another one is that he is contemporary, realistic--the things that happens to his characters, while electric to read, are in fact very much in alignment with what goes on in the world in which he writes, which is international, political, and intrigued.  

  Talk about airport books (and I don't use that as anything other than a compliment)?  This is an airport book.  It takes about three sentences and your ass is on the roll.

   It is very interesting, for me, to read Bob doing prose, because I was so used to his forum writings.  But the promise of a novel was always there; at least I think so because in his forum writings, his essays, and so forth, well, it had that "flow" required in order to even take a decent whack at a book.

   This book got me going a lot more than I expected, because I normally don't read thrillers--I fancied that I had already read the real Great Works in that area.  

   But the wheel turns, and it turns with Bob on board.  Additionally, and for what it is worth, the market has taken very kindly to this book--what a treat to see it doing so well.

   Thumbs up, Bob.  As good as and probably better than most of your contemporaries in the field.

   A very, very exciting and well-crafted (and edited) read.

R.D.Engle

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