Hunting Evil

Fantastic book

I was really looking forward to reading this. The cover suggests it's as "addictive as a crime TV box-set" but I was sadly disappointed from the off. And here's why.The book is overly descriptive. To the point that things are mentioned in one paragraph, repeated in the next paragraph, then described again in dialogue in the next. There were many instances where the middle paragraph (see the first page of chapter 72 for an excellent example) expanding on the first could have been omitted during the editing phase and wouldn't have affected the next paragraph in any way.The constant information dumping which is completely unnecessary for crime readers who know exactly what they're getting without the jargon explained at length afterwards was unnecessary. We're told constantly how evil Lucien is, but only shown it a few times during some great scenes where he is an expert on human anatomy, and I never got any proof he was any worse than any other serial killer. Lucien is also a pantomime villain, able to alter his entire appearance, accent, and mannerisms at will (an actor) to evade police. He apparently hypnotised the prison guard to escape (anyone who's ever done any training in or researched how hypnosis works knows this is impossible, pretend, implausible). Hypnotism is basically visualisation, no one can actually hypnotise a professionally trained prison guard into opening a cell door, not even Lucien.The FBI are incompetent, they don't interview any of the remaining surviving prison guards to find out what they might know about who allowed Lucien the charmer/manipulator/narcissist psychopath to gain access to the fourth locked gate - something that's supposed to happen immediately after a prisoner goes AWOL - (all cells are locked, double, triple, quadruple from the wardens office via several security doors off the wing) to escape the infirmary inside a maximum security prison, get out of the courtyard and over the twenty foot high razor-wired fence, past security cameras and a trained shooter up in the tower and escape. They also put this highly dangerous man in a maximum security prison instead of the Supermax wing of a federal prison because it was closer than the federal prison to Quantico which no longer exists as a training and monitoring Behavioural Sciences Unit (forensic psychologists do that now freelance or for certain companies of state, federal, or social expertise) to interview him and study him but don't appear to have been paying enough attention to prevent him escaping (it would have been more realistic if he'd been accidentally released on a technical mistake instead of another prisoner). But then the dialogue is interspersed with interesting anecdotes about the villain ("you know he's the worst/most dangerous/most evil killer in existence." "Yeah, I know." But what does the LAPD detective do? tell us he's not bothered that his ex friend has escaped and that he'll wait for the US Marshall's to find him. Even though he knows the serial killer is going to come after him because he's the one who captured him and led him to jail in the first place. By this point point (early on) I felt if Hunter didn't care that this dangerous psychopath was on the loose why should I? Hunter is not even offered any form of protection by the FBI and is allowed to continue his investigation into the missing escapee who could be nearby, which allows Lucien to find Hunter's girlfriend and kill her parents. And still Hunter shows zero emotion when this occurs, in fact he came across to me as far more emotionless than Lucien!I give this book 3 stars because I know how much time, effort, blood, sweat, and tears goes into writing one.

.......I fail to comprehend how ANY intelligent reader can possibly rate this trash above a one star! Then again I am probably more intelligent than the average reader.I put up with this trash to page 50 something!......reasons?1) Mr. Carter would have us believe that this killer hypnotized the guard in the control room in the high security prison in order to facilitate his escape.2) Mr. Carter would have us believe that the killer "found" a discarded shotgun in the aforementioned control room together with a length of fishing line.3) Mr. Carter would have us believe that after killing three guards the killer would take time to elaborately connect the shotgun and the fishing line to assemble "a trap" instead of making good his escape.4) Once he has killed the guards and laid the trap in the control room we are not told how he made his escape from the actual main prison building...pass other guards etc etc.5) This killer has apparently murdered hundreds of victims across the USA for over twenty years. He also, apparently, has never worked anywhere and is able to change his voice, his accent, his appearance, his personality at a moments notice......READS LIKE A JUVENILE COMIC! Mr. Carter.....(IF this had been my first Chris Carter book it would have been my last......fortunately, for ME, it is the last !!)

I'm absolutely gutted to be writing this review but I am so disappointed. I'm a huge Chris Carter fan, I have followed him from the beginning and I have loved every one of his fantastic books. An Evil Mind (this book's prequel), is one of my favourite ever books.This was just nowhere near his usual standard, unfortunately. I found it rather boring, overly descriptive and lacking all the usual punch we find in every other book. The ending... Oh my goodness, ridiculous and quite frankly, lazy! Sorry, Chris.It was a drag to read and this was such a let down. Perhaps because we already know Lucien, perhaps because it seemed rushed and careless, lacking the attention to detail needed while focusing far too much on pointless descriptions, maybe Chris has begun to rest on his laurels and not try as hard... Maybe it's all of the above! I just don't know. But please Chris, listen to your loyal fans and our reviews.I hope the next book is much, much better!

I love Chris Carter and I pre order his books as soon as I know one is coming out. I did the same for this book and couldn't wait to get started.Unfortunately, this book did not live up to expectations and I found it really boring. Not sure if it was because we knew the bad guy from the start or because of the overly descriptive paragraph after paragraph of everything the various law officials were doing but I honestly found it a chore to get to the end. Another thing that irritated me too (and I know it sounds petty) but there seemed to be a lot of typos in the book. All in all the book seemed rushed from start to finish. Not the usual standard I am used to from this author.

I only received this on the day of its release, and I must say it was amazing as always, suspenseful and utterly gripping. I have been waiting for this book for a while and I wasn't disappointed. Chris Carter does it again.