“If you want the literary equivalent of a summer blockbuster, “Hunt Through the Cradle of Fear” fills the bill nicely. The action is positively cinematic and the pace is breathless. Author Charles Ardai has managed the clever feat of invoking the style of other adventure writers without plagiarizing them. This book avoids the slow pace of the first half of the first volume in the series and leaves the reader eager for the next book.
“Hunt Through the Cradle of Fear” is the second novel in the new “Hunt for Adventure” series. The books’ hero is Gabriel Hunt, gentleman adventurer and heir to the Hunt family fortune. While his brother Michael stays at home to tend to the interests of the Hunt Foundation, Gabriel travels the globe. All of this was established in the first book and is reiterated nicely for new readers along with a clever footnote about the brother’s names.
While it would do the book a disservice to give away the details of that footnote, it is worth mentioning because it is an example of the wit that pervades the book. Ardai exhibits a craftsman’s touch in balancing the nail-biting tension of the book with brief moments of levity. It may seem odd to talk about the tension -- after all the publishers have promised at least four more books in the series -- but Ardai’s version of Gabriel Hunt is a man who knows his limits and is painfully aware of his own mortality. Hunt believes he is in real danger and so we do too.
The first page opens in the middle of such danger; with Hunt rescuing a damsel in distress from a handful of sword-wielding villains. Although, as readers, we’re curious about the whats and whys of the scene, we need no lengthy explanation to enjoy the action. Nor is the scene a flash-forward. Ardai has opted to start the book on a high note and keeps building from there. The important details are deftly dropped in to the story along the way.
As the story develops, Gabriel Hunt travels the world and Charles Ardai explores some interesting mythological territory. The locations are suitably exotic and the ideas are deliciously engaging. Again, though, it would be unfair to the book to reveal any details. Better that the readers should come to the experience as the author intended.
I will say this, though. There is a brief section of the book set in Turkey and the beginning of that sequence has a very clever in-joke which should bring a laugh from readers who are familiar with Ardai’s life.
Readers who long for a good, old-fashioned adventure story should take a trip with Gabriel Hunt through “The Cradle of Fear”.”
