Jeffery Deaver has been thrilling readers for over three decades. HUNTING TIME, the fourth installment in his series starring self-proclaimed reward seeker Colter Shaw, proves that he is still at the top of his game.

Marty Harmon, an eccentric entrepreneur, hires Colter to find Allison Parker, one of his most effective engineers. Allison and her often obstinate teenage daughter, Hannah, are on the run after learning that her dangerous ex-husband, Jon Merritt, has just been released from prison. This is far earlier than Allison expected, especially since he was put away for nearly killing her. Merritt was a police detective with a lot of local juice and underworld contacts at his fingertips, so she knows that it will be nearly impossible to evade him for long.

"The last third of HUNTING TIME is run at breakneck speed, and the finale only seals the deal on Colter’s legacy as more than just a mere chaser of rewards."

Colter finds himself teamed with a very able woman, Sonja Nilsson, who is the head of security for Harmon Energy. First, though, he must shake himself free from Lemerov, a Russian operative who works under the code name Abe Lincoln. Only then is he allowed to work with Sonja on locating Allison and Hannah. This will be no simple task as Allison is not only a desperate, abused female, but also more than capable with her engineering skill set of remaining hidden if necessary.

Little do Colter and Sonja know at first that another duo is in pursuit of their targets --- Moll and Desmond, hired thugs who have a special reputation for making bodies disappear forever. When Moll and Desmond learn about their adversaries, they plan to take out Colter once they have gotten their mitts on the mother-daughter pair. The hunt is on, and readers will find themselves rooting for Allison, even though she and Hannah do not see eye to eye. There are some hard feelings, not to mention potential explosive information about Merritt, that constantly divide them.

Colter gets to Allison first (just barely), and then the novel turns into a fight for survival against the other set of hunters, which is by far the most suspenseful part of the book. The bottom line is that Colter Shaw is an extremely likable and enigmatic character, and one of Deaver’s best protagonists. The last third of HUNTING TIME is run at breakneck speed, and the finale only seals the deal on Colter’s legacy as more than just a mere chaser of rewards.