Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
I chose this book because of the description and the cover. My family members work for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife, so I was excited to see this pop up. The book had a slower start but quickly got interesting. The characters were written to complement each other, and it works for this book. You could tell the author spent a lot of time researching the methods they wrote about instead of just writing about what they thought. I do recommend this book because I couldn’t stop reading.

I was hooked from page one. The whole concept of “canned hunts” needs to be outlawed in the United States ASAP! Killing a wild animal for food is acceptable but killing an animal that has been purposedly maimed to make it easier to kill so someone can hang a trophy on their wall is sick and so is the person who does this!!! I received an ARC from NetGalley, and the opinions expressed are my own.

I was intrigued by the premise of canned hunting as the basis for a thriller. I am familiar with what canned hunting is, so I'm grateful to Cox for not going into a great amount of detail on the methods used to subdue the animals (the detail we did get was sad enough). It was good to see examples of different wildlife crimes: large mammals (canned hunting) and butterflies (trafficking).

I read this over 2 days and initially I went back and forth on it a lot in the first 100 or so pages, mainly due to lines like: "a bustline that gave the uniform buttons a workout" and (in reference to a climb) "five thousand feet had Tanner panting like a porn star". However, after the first 100 or so pages this became less frequent and the plot picked up. I didn't find Tanner particularly likeable (perhaps due to the aforementioned quotes) but I did like Martinez. Her and Tanner had good banter and she was just more likeable, as was Danni. My favourite character by far though was Ray! The overall atmosphere of the book was probably the best thing about it (besides Ray!). It really did feel like I was reading about a corrupt little town, where people are so detached they just make up their own rules and authority.

I am constantly on the lookout for ecothrillers but my last one (Eden by Tim Lebbon) was a disappointment. This one was way better!

Canned Hunt is action-packed thriller with unexpected twist and turns that will keep you invested in this riveting thriller. The story is well-written and plot can be easily enjoyed and understood. To sum it up it was an interesting, intense read.