Hour of the Hunter

By: J. A. Jance

Narrated by: Gene Engene

A brutal, psychopathic murderer is released from prison - and stalks his prey with intent to kill.©1993 Books in Motion (P)1993 Books in Motion

Critic reviews

"Drawing on Native American life and lore as it describes the hunt for the killer of a Papago Indian girl, Jance's contemporary novel delivers suspense through rich layers of flashbacks and gritty characterization." (Publishers Weekly)

"Rarely do a book and its audio counterpart merge as spectacularly as they do in Hour of the Hunter.... Engene speaks the native names and tongues beautifully. The tension between the hunter and the hunted remains terrifying until the last second." (AudioFile)

the narrator he made it come to life with different voices and emotions

A great story very enjoyable I love all of JA Jance books . good to read or listen to

Great book

I had a hard time putting this book down. It was not only a good story line, but the history lessons were fascinating. I will be listening to it again soon.

this is my 3rd time listening to this book

Each time I listen to it, I like it a little mor although by the third listen I may pass forward on some of the parts but in general it is a wonderful book to read and read

Not sure about this book

I did not find this book to be as good as many of Ms Jance's others. I don't know where it was recorded because I constantly heard scratching sounds & people talking low & low music at times. At one point I thought I left the tv on in the front room before I went to my bedroom! It was very distracting & annoying. I looked at the information on the 2nd book in this series & it seemed very much like this book except Diana Ladd had a daughter who is kidnapped & it seemed as if it was the same criminal from the first book that kidnapped her. If it is, I think it defies imagination to think that he was released because he should be on death row. I assume the daughter is his. Toward the end of this book it went much faster. Anyone who cannot tolerate violence should avoid this book. I found the criminal's behavior most disturbing because he was a sadist with no redeeming qualities. I read a lot of Crime Fiction, but have real trouble with sadism. I rated it with 3 stars because the reader sounded so good using both English & the language of the Desert People. It was the background noises that really made the narration problematic. Also, despite the many characters, the plot brought them all together in the end. I just wondered why the main character decided to murder & mutilate women in adulthood although the inclusion of torture of an animal was characteristic of others like him. The other point that was disturbing was the description of anal & oral sex in prison. I am well aware of this happening, but the description in the book was too much. I hope that this series gets better & leaves out so much description of sadism. This book was published in 2007 & I wondered if it was written before her Ali Reynolds & Sheriff Brady books.

Love the narrator

I loved this book, but am so happy to have this particular narrator back reading a j.a.jance novel. Way to go.

Not as good...

Would you try another book from J. A. Jance and/or Gene Engene?

yes

What does Gene Engene bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

easy to listen to, speaks clearly. He saves the book

Any additional comments?

Not as good as her other books, took forever to get INTO the book, once I did it was interesting but a lot of flashbacks- so you have to listen carefully to follow.

Mixed review

I love JA Jance stories, and when I started listening to Hour of the Hunter, I liked Gene Engene's narration. Unfortunately, as the pages went by, I found his rendition of characters voices quite irritating - they were whiny, childlike, and I started hating all of the characters because of it. If the characters had just been read in the narrator's voice, I would have been fine. This is a DNF for me - did not finish. I'll finish by reading the book.

Least fave storyline

I love J. A. Jance. But this is just a headache to follow. Won’t continue w/this storyline. 😢

Very Hard to Folloe

I had to go back many times because there were so many story lines it was hard to remember all the details. I liked the book but I like her Brady and Beaumont series better

unfortunately

This is so boring I couldnt finish it. Maybe another day when I am done with other books