Book of the year 2021! The Wolf Hunters by Amanda Mitchison
Without any doubt, I am proud to announce my book of the year for 2021 is The Wolf Hunters by Amanda Mitchison. Published by Fledgling Press on the 30th of September. The book ticked all my boxes and the writing is truly impeccably. Read my full review below and do please add it to your own TBR piles for 2022.
Kelly Lacey – Reviews – The Wolf Hunters by Amanda Mitchison
The crime fiction debut with bite!
I was taken straight away by the stunning and unusual cover for the Wolf Hunters by Amanda Mitchison. It doesn’t give anything away and it really drew me in. I love when a book comes along that knocks my socks off and hits all the right reader buttons for me. Although crime fiction at its core the dystopian thread of a harsh futuristic Scotland really grabbed my attention. It is a world I would love to visit again and perhaps even have a prequel where we learn more about Rhona’s family and how their dynamic came to fruition, that would be very interesting.
The Wolf Hunters is most definitely a book that evokes all the senses and I found myself re-reading pages as they were so beautifully written. I have read in other reviews that some readers felt the book to be a slow read. I can understand what they mean. It is not a book that has action past scenes and moves at heart-racing speed and it’s just not meant to either. The pace of the book is similar in nature to its setting. The Highlands has its own natural pulse and the book matches it perfectly.
The fenced-in Henderson’s estate is a character all to itself and you really feel the sensation of claustrophobia and add in the hidden threat of wild animals and goodness knows what else and the unsettling feeling created a unique reading experience for me.
The main protagonist DI Rhona Ballantyne is most definitely a marmite character. You will either like or dislike her. I utterly loved her. She is up there only on my list of top fictional characters. I love that she is ballsy and determined. I enjoyed how honest and unapologetically flawed she was too. All those traits mixed together made her incredibly interesting to read about and to reader ghost her as she goes about her mission to solve the case was such a fabulous journey.
Five huge muckle stars for The Wolf Hunters from me. If you love crime fiction you should order your copy today. I honestly hope Amanda Mitchison creates more Rhona Ballantyne books. There is so much scope to create and grow not only Rhona’s character but also the raw and rough futuristic Scotland too.
The Wolf Hunters by Amanda Mitchiso
This debut crime novel is set in a brutal, chaotic Scotland of the near future, where it’s business at any cost for the people who live there. Archie Henderson, a passionate hunter, has rewilded his vast Highland estate filling the mountains and woods with wolves and bears. Here he runs wolf hunts with a terrible difference.
But when a young man is killed by a bear on the reserve, DI Rhona Ballantyne is assigned the case. As her enquiries progress, she begins to unravel the dark secret behind the death, and uncovers a terrifying truth that will put her own life in jeopardy. Will the hunter become the hunted?
A new writer to this genre, Amanda Mitchison has hit the ground running with a new spin to Tartan Noir.
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Kelly Lacey & Love Books Tours 