Tracker Time
Review of the Penguin Audio audiobook (November 22, 2022) narrated by [author:Kaleo Griffith|5359198] and released simultaneously with the G.P. Putnam's Sons hardcover.

I had never even heard of, let alone read, any of the Colter Shaw books before the TV premiere of Tracker late in the 2023/24 television season. When I saw book #4 Hunting Time available in a 2-for-1 sale on Audible recently I decided to give it a try.

See poster at https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTBhMzljMTgtMTc2MS00Y2UwLTk5ZjEtNjFlZDg1...
Actor Justin Hartley as Colter Shaw in a promotional poster for the CBS television series. Image sourced from IMDb.

Having seen the TV series first, the differences are immediately apparent. The Colter Shaw in the novels has no apparent team of handlers or tech assistants in the background but operates alone. He travels the country in a motor home with a motorcycle for his flexible movement. In the TV show he is driving a GMC truck which pulls an Airstream trailer. The backstory is the same though, he was brought up in a survivalist family from where he learned all his tracking and survival skills. He travels the country taking on finding missing persons (sometimes items) for reward money.

I did not warm to the character or the plot in this novel immediately. The 'hunt and evade' aspects were weak compared to the sub-genre intricacies of a master such as Thomas Perry (author of the Jane Whitefield and the Butcher's Boy novels). The number of characters and subplots were too much at times, involving industrial espionage, the Ruzzians, a paroled father seeking revenge, contract killers, a backwoods meth-lab family, a mother and daughter on the run (the daughter being a whiny brat) etc. etc. I was getting a bit tired of it, but then...

The final 1/3rd or so of the book became interesting. The whiny teenage brat bonds with Colter Shaw over his backwoods survival skills, which allows for flashbacks to Shaw's own upbringing when first learning them from his father. Then the family on the run plot also has a very clever twist which causes you to reassess everything that you had read up until that point. So well done on that writing by Jeffery Deaver. The book had been heading to a 2 or 3 rating before then, but I'm happy to call it a 4 now in retrospect.

The narration in all voices by Kaleo Griffith in the audiobook edition was excellent.

Trivia and Link
Watch the extended trailer for the Colter Shaw Tracker TV series on YouTube here. The series has been renewed for a Season 2 after the shortened 13-episode Season 1. It is actually filmed in British Columbia, Canada although it is an American TV series on the CBS network. ( )

I haven't read the first three Colter Shaw novels, but found him an engaging hero. At first he is hired by a businessman, Marty Harmon, to find out who has stolen a prototype developed for his company. Then Colter is asked to find and protect the woman who developed the prototype, Allison, and her daughter Hannah, who have gone into hiding after Allison's husband Jon is unexpectedly released from prison early.

There was quite a lot of clever misdirection and the plot moved quickly, although I lost interest in the gun battle at the end.

SPOILERS

I found some of Allison's actions hard to understand - if she was determined enough to break her own cheekbone to get her husband put in prison, surely she was determined enough just to leave him...? Did the author decide to give Jon cancer so that we would feel less bad that he died? Why was it OK for Allison to execute the gunman at the end? Were we supposed to feel sympathy for Jon's actions at Beacon Hill? They seemed out of character and very unlikely - would anyone, let alone a police officer, throw a child in the line of fire to save themself? I hope I wouldn't. Were we supposed to feel he had redeemed himself? ( )

Great book...read it straight through... couldn't put it down. What a suspenseful book! ( )

Fourth in series is action packed and full of clever twists and turns.

Colter Shaw, the son of survivalists, works as a reward seeker and goes where the money leads. This time, he’s hired to find Allison Parker, a brilliant nuclear engineer, and her daughter, Hannah. They are on the run from her abusive ex-husband, John Merritt, who’s just been released early from prison. Shaw runs into a situation almost immediately — it seems that there are two hitman who are also tracking Allison.

This was well written and kept me entertained. I like the main character, Colter Shaw, who is enigmatic and competent while also often proving to be the romantic interest of at least one woman or two. The details about Colter’s childhood training up in the mountain wilderness with his family are also interesting and educational. I like the series and definitely will continue.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for this ebook ARC to read, review, and recommend. ( )