Zoey Drake has had a traumatic past. She was the sole survivor of a home invasion in her childhood that left her without parents. Claudia Bishop has suffered her own hardship, having been the victim of a brutal assault followed by the crumbling end of her marriage and life as a single mom to a sullen, misguided teenage daughter.

Zoey and Claudia don't know it yet, but their lives are on a collision course as they will soon find their destinies entwined. Both their futures are connected to a single house, and forces are converging to make their eventual confrontation with the monsters that haunt them a life-altering event. You see, Zoey is filled with The Red Hunter, an inner rage that is burning hot and about to explode like a ball of flame.

"The ending is quite satisfying, and Lisa Unger clearly relishes the opportunity to have worked with these unique characters. THE RED HUNTER is a terrific story, and Zoey is a dark heroine you will enjoy rooting for."

The setup for this stand-alone thriller by Lisa Unger is enough to make any reader dive right in. On the heels of her past two books, the stunning bestsellers INK AND BONE and CRAZY LOVE YOU, Unger has been turning more than a few heads in the psychological suspense world. In fact, she has become a must-read on my nightstand as her intricately plotted tales just seem to get better and better.

THE RED HUNTER is a slow burn of a novel. A good part of the story is spent on character development, which is a good thing since each character here is a complex, deeply layered personality. The house that plays a pivotal role in the book is a farmhouse located in Lost Valley, New Jersey, and is the current domicile of Claudia and her daughter, Raven. It was once Zoey’s home and happens to be the place where she was tortured and her parents were killed. Unger begins to lift the veil on that fateful night when Zoey's life changed forever, as we witness in flashbacks the horror and trauma inflicted on Zoey and her family.

The section of the novel entitled “Ghosts” is where we get to revisit the night that The Red Hunter was born. It seems that a large sum of drug money --- approximately a million dollars --- was hidden away in a farmhouse somewhere, and there are some really bad men who want it. The thing that is always scratching at the back of Zoey's mind is the possibility that a police officer may have been involved in arranging for the theft of these funds. She refuses to believe that it could have been her own father.

Turning back to the present day, Claudia is introduced to a handyman who she hires to work on her farmhouse. His name is Josh, and he is eager to help get things patched up for her. When his shady brother, Rhett, arrives freshly from prison, it becomes obvious that Claudia and her family are about to go through a really bad situation. Readers will be turning the pages, holding their breath and awaiting the appearance of Zoey.

The ending is quite satisfying, and Lisa Unger clearly relishes the opportunity to have worked with these unique characters. THE RED HUNTER is a terrific story, and Zoey is a dark heroine you will enjoy rooting for. The Red Hunter watches, waits and then acts --- and anyone in proximity of her explosive being will become a victim of the blast that is certain to come.