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The Hunting Season
Salt Lake City, au cœur du pays mormon. Au printemps, l'hôpital est une fournaise. Mais ce n'est pas la chaleur qui perturbe le docteur Matt Seleckis. Dans les yeux d'un patient entre la vie et la mort, Matt a cru percevoir un regard. Un regard qui dit " je te connais ". Le même que celui de son père. Et le passé, refoulé, jaillit comme un torrent de montagne...
Les vacances dans les Rocheuses, les jeux avec les voisins, une voiture, un fusil, un homme mort... Les images affluent. Et la rencontre fortuite avec Steve, le copain qu'il n'avait plus revu, le force à s'y replonger. Tout indique l'impensable. Son père, Hirsh, aurait-il tué un homme ? Seul un face-à-face pourrait dissiper le brouillard de la mémoire. Ce sera une partie de chasse, entre père et fils, les yeux dans les yeux. Mais le prédateur et la proie ne sont jamais ceux que l'on croit. La saison est ouverte...
Les vacances dans les Rocheuses, les jeux avec les voisins, une voiture, un fusil, un homme mort... Les images affluent. Et la rencontre fortuite avec Steve, le copain qu'il n'avait plus revu, le force à s'y replonger. Tout indique l'impensable. Son père, Hirsh, aurait-il tué un homme ? Seul un face-à-face pourrait dissiper le brouillard de la mémoire. Ce sera une partie de chasse, entre père et fils, les yeux dans les yeux. Mais le prédateur et la proie ne sont jamais ceux que l'on croit. La saison est ouverte...
- GenresThriller
Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
October 20, 2012
Loved this. I bought this from my local thrift store, and I'm definitely going to keep this one in my bookshelf.
It's a big book, which can be overwhelming but I found myself up late many nights, unable to put it down.
The book opens with a hit and run, you don't know the driver or the person who's hit. Then the books begins to weave a tale around a doctor called Matt and his wife and son, aging father and mysterious memories of his childhood summers. The hit and run takes a back seat to the current story when a moral dilemma sees the doctor, Matt make a difficult decision which thereafter kicks in a mysterious red car which follows him everywhere and has him question his sanity. The car brings back flashes of a mystery from his past involving his parents and family friends.
I really enjoyed this, there were plenty of twists and turns through the whole story. Well written, great characters, a lot of intrigue.
It's a big book, which can be overwhelming but I found myself up late many nights, unable to put it down.
The book opens with a hit and run, you don't know the driver or the person who's hit. Then the books begins to weave a tale around a doctor called Matt and his wife and son, aging father and mysterious memories of his childhood summers. The hit and run takes a back seat to the current story when a moral dilemma sees the doctor, Matt make a difficult decision which thereafter kicks in a mysterious red car which follows him everywhere and has him question his sanity. The car brings back flashes of a mystery from his past involving his parents and family friends.
I really enjoyed this, there were plenty of twists and turns through the whole story. Well written, great characters, a lot of intrigue.
March 28, 2020
A book I liked very much. I started in it as a "bedtime" book, but I have now read the rest of it in one go.
I found it exciting, interesting plot lines and an ending that fits the rest of the book. What more could a reader want?
I found it exciting, interesting plot lines and an ending that fits the rest of the book. What more could a reader want?
December 3, 2012
Very good writing. I ordered a copy of this book from the second-hand dealer, as it is not easily available. I first became aware of Liz Rigbey's work with her first novel "Total Eclipse." She has only three books out, and this novel, "The Hunting Season" did not get the publicity and attention which it should have.
January 18, 2024
We see what we want to see, and memory can play tricks on us at any stage of our lives.
"Thriller" isn't the right word for this -- Rigbey doesn't set out to do anything as common as "thrill." She is the Queen of the Slow Burns, the Mistress of The Suspension of Disbelief as an extreme sport. At her best, her stories-- hmmm, psychological dramas? -- are about good, otherwise honest people who don't trust the evidence of their eyes. If that sounds less-than-thrilling, you would be so wrong, when Rigbey does it the way she does best.
This is all based on the three Rigbey novels that I know of.* I still feel that Total Eclipse (1995) is her mini-masterpiece, with achingly real characters who believe what they want to believe -- what they NEED to believe -- and see only what they want to see. I was less enamoured of her second novel, Summertime (2002) which, I felt, stretched the idea of wilful blindness to beyond breaking point, asking us to believe that a multiple murderer could have operated for decades without those around them connecting dots the size of a pickup truck.
The Hunting Season, published in 2006, falls neatly and satisfyingly between those two points on the Goldilocks spectrum -- not as good as Total Eclipse, not as clunkily unconvincing as Summertime. Didn't quite convince me that every single page of its almost-500 page length is totally necessary: there seems like a lot of repetition, and a lot of circling around and around the finer points of hunting elk, life in a remote mountain community in Utah, and life in Salt Lake City with its dominating "culture within a culture," the Church of the Latter Day Saints. Not all characters feel fully realised: Matt's friends Troy and Jarvis seem like cartoon characters --shoehorned in because Matt needs some friends outside his family circle, and untouched by the traumatic events of his past, to seem a bit more like a normal human being. But they're strident, cardboard cut-out jokes, characters you couldn't imagine spending more than one minute with, if you didn't have to. The scenes with them seem very long, and skimmable.
BUT, what's good is very good indeed. Love the relationship between Matt and his dad Hirsch. Loved the way Rigbey teases us, from the very opening -- two murders, within about ten pages, but perhaps one wasn't a crime. And the other might not have happened at all. Those two events hang over the subsequent events and revelations -- Do these events connect? What light do they shed on Dr. Matt Sedekis, his lovely wife, his beautiful but erratic mother ...? I also enjoyed the insights into living in the world of the LDS, and its how it affects everyone, even if you are not one of the "Saints." I thought Rigbey captured that well -- respectful (no "Book of Mormon" here!), but mindful of the potential for hypocrisy and harm. Intriguing for someone, like me, who knows little of that world.
So, not perfect, but highly recommended.
*WHY are there only three novels by Liz Rigbey? Why? WHY? If it's because she said what she felt she wanted to say, told her stories and decided to move on, I forgive you, Ms. Rigbey. Would have loved to see more from you, but life is a Vale of Tears, and we have to learn to live with disappointments.
"Thriller" isn't the right word for this -- Rigbey doesn't set out to do anything as common as "thrill." She is the Queen of the Slow Burns, the Mistress of The Suspension of Disbelief as an extreme sport. At her best, her stories-- hmmm, psychological dramas? -- are about good, otherwise honest people who don't trust the evidence of their eyes. If that sounds less-than-thrilling, you would be so wrong, when Rigbey does it the way she does best.
This is all based on the three Rigbey novels that I know of.* I still feel that Total Eclipse (1995) is her mini-masterpiece, with achingly real characters who believe what they want to believe -- what they NEED to believe -- and see only what they want to see. I was less enamoured of her second novel, Summertime (2002) which, I felt, stretched the idea of wilful blindness to beyond breaking point, asking us to believe that a multiple murderer could have operated for decades without those around them connecting dots the size of a pickup truck.
The Hunting Season, published in 2006, falls neatly and satisfyingly between those two points on the Goldilocks spectrum -- not as good as Total Eclipse, not as clunkily unconvincing as Summertime. Didn't quite convince me that every single page of its almost-500 page length is totally necessary: there seems like a lot of repetition, and a lot of circling around and around the finer points of hunting elk, life in a remote mountain community in Utah, and life in Salt Lake City with its dominating "culture within a culture," the Church of the Latter Day Saints. Not all characters feel fully realised: Matt's friends Troy and Jarvis seem like cartoon characters --shoehorned in because Matt needs some friends outside his family circle, and untouched by the traumatic events of his past, to seem a bit more like a normal human being. But they're strident, cardboard cut-out jokes, characters you couldn't imagine spending more than one minute with, if you didn't have to. The scenes with them seem very long, and skimmable.
BUT, what's good is very good indeed. Love the relationship between Matt and his dad Hirsch. Loved the way Rigbey teases us, from the very opening -- two murders, within about ten pages, but perhaps one wasn't a crime. And the other might not have happened at all. Those two events hang over the subsequent events and revelations -- Do these events connect? What light do they shed on Dr. Matt Sedekis, his lovely wife, his beautiful but erratic mother ...? I also enjoyed the insights into living in the world of the LDS, and its how it affects everyone, even if you are not one of the "Saints." I thought Rigbey captured that well -- respectful (no "Book of Mormon" here!), but mindful of the potential for hypocrisy and harm. Intriguing for someone, like me, who knows little of that world.
So, not perfect, but highly recommended.
*WHY are there only three novels by Liz Rigbey? Why? WHY? If it's because she said what she felt she wanted to say, told her stories and decided to move on, I forgive you, Ms. Rigbey. Would have loved to see more from you, but life is a Vale of Tears, and we have to learn to live with disappointments.
October 7, 2021
It took me a while to really get into the slow-building story, but by the end I was totally immersed in it. With great finesse, the author brings together several plots which at first seem unrelated, but at the end come together in one final spectacular showdown. At the beginning, I was tempted to put the book away, but I am one of those readers who just can't abandon a book. And with this one I am truly glad I didn't because it got so much better with every page turned. My patience was rewarded with a gripping and exciting story that is not just a thriller, but a dramatic story about family secrets, revenge, forgiveness and much more. Highly recommended!
September 20, 2014
The book is an epitome of equivocations of childhood memories. Initially started at a low pace but then gradually took speed and grabbed interest in the second half. No doubts, it’s a psychological thriller sodden with suspense till the last page.
August 19, 2013
So far this is my favourite stand alone novel. To say I was astonished to find that she hasn't written since would be an understatement. I loved the delivery and balance of the storyline and page after page I was captured to the world that Elizabeth had created. A very absorbing easy to read novel.
June 13, 2008
Good little thriller. A few twists, some surprises, some of it was a little unrealistic though. An enjoyable way to pass an evening
December 8, 2009
Thrilling indeed.
June 16, 2012
I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/11208619
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/11208619
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews