Hunted

Hunted

Terror stalks a small Virginia town.

FBI rising star, criminal profiler Evelyn Baine, knows how to think like a serial killer. But she's never chased anyone like the Bakersville Burier, who hunts young women and displays them, half-buried, deep in the woods. As the body count climbs, Evelyn's relentless pursuit of the killer puts her career - and her life - at risk. And the evil lurking in the Burier's mind may be more than even she can unravel.

Terror is closer than she thinks.

The Bakersville Burier knows he's got an FBI profiler on his trail. He knows who she is and where to find her. And he's biding his time, because he's planned a special punishment for Evelyn. She may have tracked other killers, but he vows to make this her last chase. This time it's her turn to be hunted!

I am so excited! Partly because this is the first book I've read/finished this year...

...and also because the author of Hunted, Elizabeth Heiter, commented on my teaser post from this book and expressed interest in being interviewed! 

I was super excited to read this because the synopsis mad it sound so intense! I was not disappointed . Elizabeth wove the plot masterfully! It was well paced and kept you guessing as well as mentally involved in the case, trying to figure out who did it before the characters did. She wrote it in third person omniscient which was refreshing and actually ended up lending it self quite well to the story and plot. I don't think it would have been as good written in any other point of view. I found Evelyn a little hard to love at first. I admired her dedication and held sympathy for her tough upbringing but she had a hard as nails exterior with no sign of a softer side for a really long time. She appeared fearless, and was the best at her job, strong, intelligent, cool, and a little anti social  or maybe just socially awkward. In short she felt untouchable, invincible and too unreal. She was a little hard to like and hard to relate to for me. I ended up falling in love with her vibrant, better balanced and more relateable friends first. Eventually she grew, she became more vulnerable and began to let people into her life, she began to have more of a personality and I came to like her more. However, it took quite a while to get to that point and I felt that she went from impenetrable fortress of stone cold near emotionless-ness to broken down, mushy, and vulnerable. Then, all the sudden at the end, she was strong, ready to move on, and ready to conquer the world. I felt that she needed more of a balance, that she tended to flip from one extreme to another. At the end I felt she was nearly perfectly balanced but that was about the last page or the last few. It was a little bit of a rough ride there. But that didn't stop me from enjoying the story. I LOVED Mac. I related strongly to him, and I appreciated the fact that I would probably dislike him if I hadn't found out the depth of  him and his admirable character. He is one of those good looking people that seems to flirt with everyone and those are the people that drive me bonkers (not in a good way) and I gave Evelyn a mental fist bump that she felt similarly at first before she knew him better. But dang once I got to know him I just wanted him to have the most amazing life ever and I related super strongly to him and just lots of feels in his general direction. However, I felt that the supporting and minor characters were again unbalanced, at one extreme or another. Still, the story wasn't ruined by this minor factor and they were still pretty real and there is a character for everyone to connect to no matter what your personality or experience there is someone in this book that is just similar enough to relate to. I thought Elizabeth was smart to adress the social gaps and sometimes not so subtle discrimination or stereotypes about women in fields such as the FBI and being the minority in a community. I thought she did a fairly good job with it however I did feel that it was a bigger problem for Evelyn than I thought it was in today's society, but I live in a highly diverse and open community so maybe this is normal for other areas. So I kind of let that slide by. I was however, quite annoyed that multiple times the story stated that her "mocha skin" made her stand out in a nearly all white community. (From mocha skin on is basically the paraphrased version of what the book said.) Elizabeth used this description repeatedly, especially the "mocha skin," I was ok with the fact that she was reiterating the theme or issue but I was annoyed that there seemed to be only one way she was able to say it! Each time it was mentioned it was nearly the same it felt and sounded redundant and got on my nerves. Despite all the small issues I had with the book, over all I loved it and they didn't stop me from enjoying it. I ate it up. The plot was awesomesauce and the story line was fabulous! Elizabeth had good writing and she obviously has put a lot of research and background knowledge into this novel to make it real. It wasn't very descriptive but it had enough to satisfy the reader. It would appeal to a wide variety of ages and personalities and is highly entertaining. Overall, I would recommend it and I give it 3 stars! Keep an eye out for an interview, add it on Goodreads , and find it through Liberty Bay Books by clicking the hyper-linked title beneath the cover picture!