by Gabriel Hunt, James Reasoner
“Take on part Indiana Jones, three parts Dirk Pitt, and add a dash of James Bond and you'd have a character like Gabriel Hunt. Hunt is the title character in a new series of adventure novels from Charles Ardai, the brains behind the pulp-crime publisher Hard Case Crime. With the Hard Case imprint, Ardai revitalized the hardboiled detective genre, brining back forgotten classics and inspiring new writers to update the paperback crime novel for a modern audience.
Now Ardai aims to pump new life into the paperback adventure novel. His vehicle of choice is the “Hunt for Adventure” series. The novels concern themselves with the exploits of Gabriel Hunt, heir to the Hunt fortune and the Hunt Foundation's “go to” guy. While his brother Michael minds the family interests in Manhattan, Gabriel travels to the far corners of the globe in search of artifacts and adventure.
If all of that sounds a little over-the-top, well, it is. The Hunt novels are intended to be larger-than-life and Gabriel is built along the lines of a classic movie hero; six-feet of muscle and brains equipped with a classic Colt 45, a Zippo lighter, and an endless thirst for action.
Wisely, Ardai has chosen to start the series smack in the middle of Hunt's career. Instead of slogging through a tedious origin story, we get to join Hunt on his latest adventure. The conceit of the series is that Gabriel Hunt himself is listed as the author with an “as told to” nod to the actual wordsmith. In the first book, this honor goes to Charles Reasoner.
“Hunt at the Well of Eternity” begins at a Manhattan fund-raiser that is interrupted by the appearance of a beautiful woman and an uninvited group of thugs. The woman vanishes, leaving behind a broken whiskey bottle and Civil War battle standard. Intrigued (and concerned for the woman's safety) Hunt follows these meager clues into danger.
Through the first half of the book, Hunt lives up to his billing, easily defeating and dispatching the many villains that pursue him. Although it's unclear why they want Hunt, he doggedly follows the clues from one exotic locale to the next, accumulating new friends and clues along the way.
Without a clear story arc to follow, the first half of the book becomes a straightforward exercise in following the clues. Hunt wants to find and rescue the mysterious woman, but other than that he comes across more a collection of quirks than a real character.
In these kinds of stories, it's a given that the heroic adventurer is nearly invincible. Whatever the danger, we know he'll come through more-or-less intact. However, the hero is supposed to show fear for his own safety. Hunt doesn't. His fearlessness makes it hard to take his predicaments seriously.
Fortunately, somewhere around chapter 14, the story hit its stride and Hunt emerges as a more interesting individual. As he catches up with the missing woman and we learn her story, he settles into the role of classic adventure hero nicely. He's still larger-than-life, but he has a humanness that makes it easier to care about him.
Along the way we learn a little about his back-story, including his reputation as an adventurer and the meager facts which are known about the mysterious disappearance of his parents. These tidbits are sure to come into play as the series progresses.
Although “Hunt at the Well of Eternity” started slowly, in the end it redeemed itself and left me looking forward to the next book.
Speaking of which, “Hunt through the Cradle of Fear” was penned by Ardai himself. Writing under the name Richard Aleas, he authored two brilliant Hard Case novels; “Little Girl Lost” and “Songs of Innocence”. I found both of those books to be engaging examples of the hardboiled genre On that basis, I'm anxious to see what he does with the Gabriel Hunt.”
