Hunting the Hunter
Shiloh Walker
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Buy *Hunting the Hunter* by Shiloh Walker online

Hunting the Hunter
Shiloh Walker
Berkley
Paperback
320 pages
July 2006
rated 5 of 5 possible stars
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Hunting the Hunter is an enjoyable and interesting tale in a rather overcrowded genre - the vampire romance. Although at heart a 'lust turns to love' story, there are lots of additional elements to keep the reader's interest.

Kendall is a female vampire, a Hunter whose mission is to weed out the 'evil' vampires, often partnered with werewolves or witches. Partnered with Duke, a shape-shifter, they seek out vampires and terminate them. However, Kendall realizes that someone is hunting her - a human. Kane Winter is a man with a mission, ever since his shape-shifter partner, Duke, was killed two years ago by a vampire. Kane has trained himself as a vampire hunter and has seventeen kills to his credit. When he sees Kendall, he remembers her as the vampire involved in Duke's death and sets out to kill her.

A lot of novels in this genre would have drawn out the hero hunting the heroine angle to fill the entire book. In this story, Shiloh Walker gifts her lead characters with a good dose of common sense, and they very quickly realize that they are working together toward the same goal and stop trying to kill each other. It doesn't take long before Kane and Kendall act on their mutual attraction, but before they spend much time together Kendall discovers a shocking secret: that the source of a significant amount of evil and murder can ultimately be laid at her door because of the actions of a vampire, Cat, that Kendall turned. Kendall and Kane must try to find Cat and kill her, but Cat is powerful and it's not that easy.

The romance, although a central part of this plot, isn't the most interesting aspect. We are given several sex scenes between our two principle characters, but far more interesting are the moral dilemmas that these characters face. Kendall has ultimate responsibility for Cat, and it's something she has to deal with; Kane has to learn to accept that not all vampires are evil and to try to persuade Kendall to work with him rather than trying to protect him as a weaker human. We are introduced to a number of other characters, including the intriguing witch Vax and the 500-year-old witch Agnes.

This story is written with good pacing and it never drags. Back-story is doled out in small doses throughout the book, which helps us to understand Kendall's single-minded dedication to vampire hunting. The main attraction between Kendall and Kane appears to be lust rather than anything more concrete, and I would have liked some more attention to the other aspects that might have drawn them together.  Still, overall this is an enjoyable read with some good characterization, an interesting plot and a satisfying resolution.



Originally published on Curled Up With A Good Book at www.curledup.com. © Helen Hancox, 2007

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