I read “The Final Hunt” in one sitting yesterday! It’s been awhile since I sat down and did nothing but read one book for the afternoon. This was the perfect book to do that with too. It grabbed my attention in the first chapter and did not let up. It’s fast paced and you just keep wanting to know what else Cameron is going to find out about her husband after discovering he is a serial killer. Even though this book is set in the Alaskan wilderness, it is a great book to pack and read on the beach this summer!

Thank you @netgalley and @booksgosocialgroup for allowing me to read this book ahead of publication in exchange for my honest review.

Dentist Cameron is grieving the loss of her husband John who died three months earlier. According to accounts a bear attacked and killed him in the Alaskan wilderness. Her recent loss is compounded by the terrible discovery of compromising photographs of John. His friend and lawyer Simon digs a little deeper, as do the police. Of course there are secrets galore which add to the deliciously chilling atmosphere.

Written with quick short chapters, author Audrey Cole captivates with a rapid and thrilling pace and a wonderful isolated wilderness setting where there are hunters and there is prey, not all of which are animals. Not only is the pace compelling but books which focus well on few characters are incredibly appealing in my view. The epilogue and prologue are wonderful.

If you need a quick suspenseful escape, do read aptly-entitled The Final Hunt.

My sincere thank you to BooksGoSocial and NetGalley for the privilege of reading this thrillery book!

This was my first book by Audrey J Cole and I loved it! I loved the setting in Alaska and how fast paced this book was. I really enjoyed all of the characters in this book. This story switches between Cameron’s POV and Thomas (which is the main detective) POV. Cameron is grieving the loss of her husband and she finds some evidence that he was a serial killer. I was able to predict some parts of the ending, but there were definitely a few elements that I didn’t anticipate. And I really enjoyed that about the ending!

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!

Thank you to BooksGoSocial and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

When I saw that the author has a new book out, I knew that I needed to add it to my TBR list right away! I am a huge fan of the author's previous book The Pilot's Daughter. The Final Hunt by Audrey J Cole is a fast-paced survival thriller that will have you out-of-breath turning the pages. The story revolves around Cameron, whose recently-deceased husband is now suspected to be the terrifying Teacher Killer. Could her husband have been a serial killer? And how will Cameron deal with the fallout from the general public?

Here is a captivating excerpt from Chapter 1;

"John kept long hours and would often work around the clock when preparing for a trial. This cabin, however, was his retreat from it all. When John was alive, the cabin was always more of his place. She joined him on occasional weekend trips, but she preferred life in the city.
Since he died, she’d been coming to the cabin, nestled in the North Cascades, every weekend. And sometimes it felt like he was still here.
Cameron’s hand stopped on an elk hunting guide. She pulled the well-worn book from the shelf when something clattered lightly atop the hardwood floor beside her bare feet. She laid the book on the shelf and reached down to pick up the small plastic case, surprised to see it contained an SD card."

Overall, The Final Hunt is an absolutely amazing survival thriller that will appeal to fans of Breathless or Dark Night. All of those books were released in the past year and deal with survival in a desolate setting in a cold winter. However, I found The Final Hunt to be the best one I've read. One highlight of this book is how action-packed it is. I had to keep turning the pages to find out what happened next. I ended up finishing the book in a day. It was unputdownable. If you're intrigued by the excerpt above, or if you're a fan of thrillers, I highly recommend that you check out this book when it comes out in June!

Thank you Netgalley and BooksGoSocial Media for this advance reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. I liked that it was somewhat of a police procedural, but it didn't focus the attention of the story on the investigation. I'm not a huge fan of police procedural novels, but this one was good.

Cameron's husband has just died in a horrible bear attack. While mourning his loss at his hunting cabin in Washington, she makes a very grim discovery and realizes that she didn't know her husband as well as she thought she did.

This is my first novel by Audrey J. Cole, but it won't be my last. This was a page turner that I finished in a day. I toggled between the print version and the audio version, which were both fantastic. I give this book 4 stars as it gripped me from the prologue. Very well written and very thrilling. Especially while listening to the audio version. I was on the edge of my seat a few times. Although I did predict one of the twists at the end, it didn't ruin the story for me.

This is the first book I’ve read by this author, and it is very good. The story begins with a fatal hunting accident, and the building suspense gripped me until the end of this page-turner. I will definitely be reading more books by Ms. Cole. Recommended!

I literally couldn’t put this book down from the moment I picked it up. What would you do if your husband died - mauled by a bear on a hunting trip? Then. You find out he could be a much sought after serial killer. Would people believe that you had nothing to do with it? Would your life suffer? Your career? Your friends? Would they stay around? This book was so well written and while I had a good guess on how it would end it still had me wanting to read it all the way until the end with five stars. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

How does it feel to find out your deceased husband, the man whom you loved and spent your life with, was a serial killer? Cameron faces the answer in Audrey J. Cole’s latest book, The Final Hunt.

The Final Hunt drew me in immediately, and although the main plot twist is easy to figure out early in the book, there are still many unsuspected, near fatal accidents, murders, and deceptions headed your way throughout the book.

This novel is set between the states of Washington and Alaska. I felt the book was well-researched, and I enjoyed learning a little about Alaska’s harsh terrain.

Thank you, NetGalley and BooksGoSocial, for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed above are my own.

This is my first book from this author and I liked her style. This book is fast paced, it’s action from beginning to end. The characters were well developed. Super quick read. You won’t be able to put this book down.

While the actions in this story are all pretty implausible, it was still a fast paced, enjoyable story about a woman who finds out her husband was a serial killer after he is supposedly mauled by a bear while away on a trip with a coworker, has to do some investigating on her own before the FBI agent who is questioning how involved she was, finds out about her past secret.

I am a huge fan of Audrey J Cole and have read all her books. The Final Hunt is a good addition. The story was engaging from page one. I noticed that it got a bit tedious to read toward the end. I just wanted to get to the meaty part and felt it took a bit of time for that to develop. I liked all the characters, and they were developed well. A surprising ending for me.

I would recommend this book and this author. Can't wait for more stories!

#TheFinalHunt #NetGalley @LPOBryan

This book started with action, which didn't fizzle out. There were parts I guessed, but many more I didn't see coming. A strong female lead character and I don't want to give spoilers away, but I was cheering her on.

What would you do if you found out your husband was a serial killer? Months after her husband’s supposed death, that’s exactly what Cameron is faced with. How is it possible she never knew any of this, never even suspected? And if she never knew about this, how can she be sure of anything about him…like is he really dead? Can she discover the truth?

A thoroughly engaging and fast-paced thriller, The Last Hunt will keep you flipping pages late into the night. And even though I figured out a number of things and saw some of the twists coming, that didn’t diminish my enjoyment any. After all a well told story is a well told story.

Thanks so much to BooksGoSocial and NetGalley for the giving me the chance to read and review an eARC of The Last Hunt.

This book is set in the wilderness and is a thriller. My two favorite things all in one book. Cameron is grieving her husband’s death and soon finds out that he was harboring a secret. She has secrets of her own. When the blame comes to her she heads out in the dangerous Alaska wilderness to find out the truth. Despite figuring out the ending very early on in the book, I was hooked from the very beginning to the very end. Loved this book so much. Looking forward to reading others by this author.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.

Cameron's husband John is attacked by a bear and disappears. Some months later Cameron discovers evidence that he is in fact a serial killer called Teacher Killer. The police have also been investigating John in secret. Cameron's life is turned upside down and she loses everything and in the chaos after the revelation the police think Cameron may be John's accomplice. She sets out to find John and ends up in Alaska.
Cameron is a complex character with a dark past. John's character is more one-dimensional and the other characters are mainly extras. I enjoyed the description of the rough Alaskan wilderness and survival in the snow. There were many occasions that I felt like I was there with Cameron. The story held its grip until the end. I think the insta-love story-line was unnecessary plotwise. There is enough action and tension to keep the story flowing without it. I really enjoyed the writing style and the journey with Cameron.

The Final Hunt by Audrey J Cole is another high adrenaline thriller from an author who has very quickly become a must read for me. As with her previous offerings, I was propelled through the pages at full throttle, and remained firmly engaged throughout.

Cameron is a dentist who is grieving following the loss of her second husband, John, when she finds evidence of his true identity that will shock her to her very core. Losing everything, including her home and dental practice, because of her connection to an alleged serial killer, Cameron decides to travel to Alaska where she hopes to clear her name of any guilt by association once and for all. Risking her own life to exact a final revenge on John will be perilous and harrowing, and the atmospheric details will have you flying through the pages in breathless anticipation.

This was another fast-paced and compelling read from Ms Cole, and I cannot wait to see what she serves up next.

Many thanks to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for an ARC.

“All these years being married to John, she thought she’d been the one with a secret.”

While I usually love giving a fuller review, this particular book needs to be read ‘cold’. Giving you too much information would spoil what Cole has meticulously plotted. You are about to open a fantastically breathtaking, adventuresome, thrilling and captivating novel. I might venture to say it’s one of the best of its kind and Cole’s best novel to date! She’s certainly cemented herself as one of my auto-read authors.

You’ll love Cameron. She’s a determined woman who won’t sit back and let society pigeonhole her and she certainly won’t let her circumstances define her.

You’ll love the chase. Cole has brought the untamed Alaskan wilderness alive for her readers; snowmobiles, ice fishing, winter camping, traversing frozen lakes, desolate cabins, bears, wolves, and hunting.

You’ll love being a detective. Is John Prescott really dead? Is Cameron Prescott really who she says she is? What are they really hiding? Who else knows?

Go pre-order it. Buy it. Read it. Now. You won’t regret it.

I was gifted this advance copy by Audrey J Cole, BooksGoSocial, and NetGalley and was under no obligation to provide a review.

This was my first book by Audrey J Cole and I really enjoyed it. It was fast paced and I loved the setting in Alaska where it seems to be mighty cold!

Cameron, a dentist and pilot is grieving the loss of her husband when she finds evidence that he was a serial killer.

He is also missing and Cameron and a local detective Thomas are on the hunt.

This is a story that has everything with believable characters, good chase scenes, a few twists and vivid, cold descriptions.

Loved it, lying on a sunbed in Egypt.

Thanks to Net Galley and BooksGoSocial for the chance to read and review.

Final Hunt
Audrey Cole
Mystery
Nancy
3

Grieving the death of her husband John, Cameron Prescott is thrilled when she finds an SD card in his North Cascades cabin. Hoping to find new photos of him, the thrill turns to horror when, instead of images of John on his last hunting trip, the trip during which he had lost his life, she sees graphic pictures of a woman’s corpse lying on the bed in this very cabin; the bed where she had been sleeping during her weekend trips. Further, the dead woman is not alone in the photos: reflected in the room’s mirror, his face partially obscured by his camera, is John.

Terrified, Cameron takes the card to the police where the information she learns only feeds her confusion and fear. Not only do the police already know about John, the case they’ve been building against him proves that John killed not only the woman in the photo, but ten others as well.

The more Cameron learns about John, the more she becomes convinced that John’s death in a bear attack was faked, and that John is somewhere ready to kill again.

More a novella than a full-length novel, Final Hunt is a fast-paced and twisty read, but an off-kilter ending diminishes its impact. A decent read, but not a fabulous one.

My thanks to Ranier Publishing and NetGalley for the chance to read this pre-publication copy.

See more of my reviews on Facebook at NancysBookNook.

My 12th read of 2022 is my first @netgalley one. I always enjoy @audreyjcole’s books. While there were no major twists, the short chapters and frequent cliffhangers made for a fast and enjoyable read. This was a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ read in my books, even though I guessed the end early on.