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A review by brettt
Blood and Ashes by Matt Hilton
2.0
Joe Hunter has spent his life working for -- sometimes unknowingly -- a sort of global intelligence initiative called Arrowsake. He's semi-retired now, recuperating from wounds suffered in a previous mission. Then Don Griffiths, a man with whom he has a not-so-fond past while working with Arrowsake, calls him for help. Griffiths' daughter has died in a car accident, but he thinks it was murder, at the hands of a former Arrowsake target who's supposed to be dead. Joe at first doesn't believe Don, but events soon help him change his mind, and he's on the run with Don and his family, squaring off against a crew of violent hired killers who outnumber and outgun him about ten to one.
Blood and Ashes is the fifth Joe Hunter novel from former police officer and security consultant Matt Hilton, and follows in its predecessors' path of action, action, action and then a little more action. Although technically not 100% following his injuries, Joe has a pretty simple operating plan for dealing with bad guys: 1) Point. 2) Shoot. If those options are not available, they may be replaced with Stab, Punch or Kick.
You have to know a lot of the history from the earlier Joe Hunter books in order to get a good handle on him, and the places where Hilton pauses to catch you up on it show he's a lot better at writing Shoot, Punch, Stab or Kick than dialogue and exposition. The story is strangely disjointed, with characters and set pieces appearing for no real reason except to provide targets for the aforementioned Four Horsemen of the Joepocalypse. The Hunter novels don't do anything to single themselves out as really poorly written or executed, but they don't do much to single themselves out as better than average, either. You'll probably have a hard time recalling much of the book once the last page turns over.
Original available here.
Blood and Ashes is the fifth Joe Hunter novel from former police officer and security consultant Matt Hilton, and follows in its predecessors' path of action, action, action and then a little more action. Although technically not 100% following his injuries, Joe has a pretty simple operating plan for dealing with bad guys: 1) Point. 2) Shoot. If those options are not available, they may be replaced with Stab, Punch or Kick.
You have to know a lot of the history from the earlier Joe Hunter books in order to get a good handle on him, and the places where Hilton pauses to catch you up on it show he's a lot better at writing Shoot, Punch, Stab or Kick than dialogue and exposition. The story is strangely disjointed, with characters and set pieces appearing for no real reason except to provide targets for the aforementioned Four Horsemen of the Joepocalypse. The Hunter novels don't do anything to single themselves out as really poorly written or executed, but they don't do much to single themselves out as better than average, either. You'll probably have a hard time recalling much of the book once the last page turns over.
Original available here.