Author: Iris Johansen
ISBN: 978-1-742-61319-2
RRP: $27.99
Hunting Eve is the second installment of the New Eve Duncan Trilogy, and the 14th Eve Duncan novel. I am very pleased to say that I have read the first of the new trilogy, Taking Eve, though it was my first introduction to Eve Duncan.
We pick up right where we left off, Eve is on the run from her captor and everyone that she loves is doing all they can to try and find her. Joe has pulled in more help, another expert who has worked with Eve in the past and has a connection to her. The task force searching for Eve grows constantly and with each addition there is a new and unusual talent to contend with.
I can’t say anything about the first twelve Eve Duncan novels having not read them but this New Eve Duncan Trilogy is becoming mired further and further into the mystical, and not necessarily supernatural or paranormal just I guess super-normal.
What seems to have started as a crime fiction series has changed to a very different track now and it may not be to the tastes of your more traditional crime fiction fans. There is still no shortage of intrigue, suspense and the baddest of the bad guys but there is so much more. There is also a lot more to some of the major players, it seems that not everyone may have the same ultimate goal in this chase.
Eve escaped the clutches of Doane and threw the reconstruction of Kevin off a cliff before going on the run, and becoming the hunted. She has some training from Joe but she hasn’t got the outdoors training that she will need to survive long term in the wilderness surrounding the factory she was imprisoned in. What she has got is the desire to live and the inability to give in. She learns fast and with every hour she spends away from Doane she gets smarter, but she also gets more tired. Eve is not the only one affected by the passage of time, with every passing hour Doane seems to get crazier, as do the methods employed by Eve’s loved ones in the race to find her.
The main focus of Hunting Eve is the search for Eve, both by those she loves and by Doane hunting her in the wilderness. The story takes place across the country depending on where the characters are, and where their search takes them.
There are lots of secrets that come to light in this second installment and I won’t spoil them for you but it was quite an interesting read.
Eve is trying to find a way out of the wilderness Doane held her captive in, preferably without him catching onto her direction, but she knows that she is far from civilisation and it’s going to be a long trek to someone who can help her get some real distance between them.
Jane is still struggling to heal from her gunshot wound and the more she pushes herself the further she puts back her healing until she ends up back in hospital. Hospital is the last place Jane wanted to be, sitting on the sidelines and keeping safe while others put themselves in danger in her place.
Eve’s partner is Joe Quinn, the ex-SEAL and police officer. Highly trained and even more highly motivated to get back the woman he loves, the centre of his universe. He is beginning to get more desperate, so likely to take more risks and go after information with a little more force because every day that she’s gone puts Eve in more danger.
I do have to admit that part of what kept me so engaged was trying to work out what was going to come next, there was lots of suspended disbelief. If you are someone who likes to believe only in what you can see, hear, and touch with your own 5 senses you are certainly not alone, you would be joined by much of the cast of the book. Many of those involved in the investigation are very much believers in what they can see and what can be logically explained. They are all getting desperate for answers so find themselves needing to set aside their scepticism and follow up every lead, even if sometimes they don’t want to know where it came from.
All of the ‘investigators’ get their leads from different directions and their follow up takes them all over the place, but as we move towards the end of the book all leads start to converge on the same area, as do the investigators, and it only remains to be seen if they will make it on time.
Hunting Eve was gripping, it kept me engaged for the entire 385 pages and I was cheering Eve on the entire time, wanting to make sure she was long gone before Doane’s end game could come into play. And I am, of course, now waiting very eagerly for the third installment which is not due for release until the end of the year.
I devour books, vampires and supernatural creatures are my genre of choice but over the past couple of years, I have broadened my horizons considerably. In a nutshell – I love to write! I love interacting with a diverse range of artists to bring you interviews. Perhaps we were perfect before – I LOVE WORDS!