3.5 stars

Anna Koray had her memory wiped as a child. As the daughter of a serial killer, that was probably for the best. When she shoots and kills a man in the line of duty something inside of her comes undone, and the gruesome memories start emerging alongside something sinister.

To add to Anna’s horrors, a serial killer emerges, mimicking her father’s past murders. Is her father still alive, did he have a partner all that time? Or is there something truly wrong with Anna?

I’ll start by pointing out that there are a lot of supernatural aspects to this story. I wasn’t expecting this. I of course loved the use of it (in this case the god, Veles, is haunting Anna). It was even more enhanced by Anna, our very unreliable narrator. Is the god real? Is Anna imagining things? Is someone messing with her? I’m honestly still not sure!

For a serial killer story I kept waiting for it to get really gruesome and dark, but this was much more psychological. I found the story engaging overall, but I figured out what was going on quite early on and the ending felt a bit rushed.

Definitely an entertaining read. I will be keeping an eye out to see what this author writes next.

*Thank you to Berkley Pub and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC to read and review.

I loved this book! It was really hard for me to put this down. The storyline was so intriguing to me, and it had me wondering the entire time if our main character Anna was unreliable or were things just really this coincidental or was it something paranormal going on. Towards the middle to end of the book I thought I had it figured out, but I was wrong this time around and the end twist I did not see coming. I think this was an amazing debut and can’t wait to read more from the author. I think fans of police procedurals or psychological thrillers will enjoy this one. Many thanks to Berkley Publishing for my eARC. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗛𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿’𝘀 𝗗𝗮𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝗲𝗿 is out now.

The Hunter's Daughter is a nerve crunching, haunting serial killer thriller that will absolutely be on of my favorite reads of 2024!

Anna Koray is doing everything she can to be a good cop, but the memories of her serial killer father have been leaking into her mind and making her question her own good-ness. When she was a child, she underwent an experimental therapy to lock the traumatic memories away, but the lock has come undone just as a copycat serial killer shows up killing women in the same way her father did. At first, she tries to stay away from the case, but can't help but get pulled into the messy web of murders. She's changed her name, and no one in her present life knows about her past, but as the clues pile up pointing to her past with her father, she wonders if she will be able to maintain the mostly happy life she's created for herself.

I can't say enough good things about this book - I was absolutely glued to every single page, and struggled to put the book down. Every chapter, every scene, is rife with tension and questions, and Anna's eerie relationship with the forest ratcheted up the moody, haunting vibes of the story.

Fans of Dark Places by Gillian Flynn, The Night Bird by Brian Freeman, Karin Slaughter and serial killer thrillers in general will devour The Hunter's Daughter!

Looooved! Not too dark, and was hooked from the beginning. A great serial killer story mixed with a police procedural. Definitely recommend to thriller fans

THE HUNTER’S DAUGHTER is a multi-genre debut that combines a crime procedural, a psychological thriller, horror/supernatural elements, character study, and an unreliable narrator together to make a super compelling read with plenty of twists and turns to keep readers guessing until the end.

This book drew me in from the first page and kept me compulsively reading until the end. I could not put this book down. The writing is far superior than one might expect from a first-time novelist.

Police Lieutenant Anna has repressed the memories of her childhood with a father who is a serial killer, but then a police shooting brings back memories and all of the childhood trauma. And now there are murders mimicking her father’s handiwork. What is going on?

The well drawn and complex characters are what make this book for me. Highly recommended.

The cover synopsis of THE HUNTER'S DAUGHTER describes a dark period of the main character's life that was hidden from her but has now surfaced. This is the main section of the back story but it's really more than that. As a young girl, she idolized her father and spent a good part of her life exploring with him, bonding in nature. Then she finds that the time she spent with him was not what she thought. The discovery is so traumatic that the adults in her life erased her memory. But now she's remembering. As a police officer, she must investigate murders that replicate her father's crimes. The BIG question????? Nope, not going to tell you!!! Nicola Solvinic spent the time and effort to build up to some major tension building, and it's appreciated by this reader. While the story may not be totally original, Solvinic took it places that you'd not predict.

I am so impressed that this book was a debut novel. This story was intense, gritty, and pulse pounding, and I enjoyed it all. Talk about broken relationships and toxic upbringing. Anna was raised by her mom and dad, but mainly, she learned everything she knew from her dad. A skilled and agile hunter, he is slso a very dangerous man.

Surpassing her childhood trauma, Anna becomes a decorated sheriff, trying to have a normal life. All that changes when she kills a man in the line of duty. Her buried memories of the past will come rushing through her, and we, as the reader, will experience every heartbreaking moment. This has such a great combination of horror, suspense, and thrilling. I literally couldn't put it down.

Happy Release Day, Nicola Solvinic! Special thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of The Hunter's Daughter. This gripping novel kept me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. The storyline was fantastic, and the rich details truly painted vivid scenes for the reader. However, the transitions between present-day events and past memories were sometimes abrupt and could have benefited from clearer labeling. Despite this minor issue, the characters were relatable, and the writing was superb. The Hunter's Daughter is a compelling psychological thriller that I highly recommend!

This review was originally posted on Books of My Heart


Review copy was received from NetGalley, Publisher. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I really enjoyed listening to this police procedural but much more. Anna is a police detective of fairly high rank. When murders which resemble her father's crimes of 20 years ago, she starts remembering that time. We follow her point of view with the present of wanting to figure out the crime, and the past memory flashbacks from what happened when he was at home with his family.

Anna loved the woods and learning about the plants and wildlife. She spent quite a bit of time with her dad in the forests near their home. Then he went away to prison. She and her mother were protected for a bit partly to help shield them from the media. Anna (then Elena) was in a mental hospital briefly to help with her trauma but more because her mother was horrible, and gave her up for adoption. She then had a wonderful life with loving foster parents.

Now Anna is afraid of her past being discovered. She is working on the history of the "Forest Strangler" to find out who was close enough to carry out the current crimes with the held back aspects. It's twisty with many possibilities. There's the reporter who is a fan boy of the crimes. There's Anna herself who is losing time as her memories resurface. There's her boyfriend Nick who has some strange disappearances and a big new SUV. There are other possibilities too. And there is her stalker who says he knows who she is.

Anna works the case and learns much about her father and his death. She learns a lot about her history and what became of her mother. Anna does many things which are not allowed in the police, because she is too close to the case. She does a few things outside the law to get more information. I worry for her and about her. I was glad to have a strong resolution to the case.

This is a good one, folks. Right from the start, I found myself sucked into this thriller, and I couldn’t put it down. I stayed up way too late reading because I had to know what would happen next. There are plenty of twists and turns to keep you guessing right up until the end. I was surprised to learn this is a debut novel; it is very well done.

I loved the premise of the story. I’ve always loved the idea of a serial killer’s family. Did they know? How does it impact them? This story has an extra added layer because Anna had her memories essentially erased as a child via hypnosis. After she kills a man while investigating a domestic call, her memories start to return, and she turns to the original doctor who treated her for help. Together, they unlock more of her memories, and things start to get weird. Of course, this happens just as new murders mimic her father’s pattern, adding to the drama.

The story is told from Anna’s point of view, and I love her character. She is smart and complicated. A good cop, she felt driven to her career by a desire to help people. As her knowledge of her past comes to light, things get strange; lines start to blur, and nothing seems as black and white as before. The deeper she gets into the investigation of the new murders, the more she remembers from her past. There is a bit of a supernatural element to the story in a presence Anna feels. Is it all in her head? Or is it real?

Dark and atmospheric, you won’t be able to put The Hunter’s Daughter down.

4.5 stars, rounded up. What an excellent and accomplished debut. This combines fascinating psychology and investigation work with atmospheric setting and lyrical storytelling. This one absolutely sucked me in and there were a lot of unexpected surprises in it.

Thank you @netgalley @berkley for the advanced copy!

The Hunter’s Daughter follows Officer Anna Korey as she investigates recent ritualistic murders that have a haunting similarity to a well known serial killer. A serial killer Anna herself has ties to… he was her father. Or is? Has this killer returned? How can Anna help solve murders she is so closely tied to? How long can she keep her secret?

This book was explosive! I powered through needing answers, reading until way too late until I got them. The author, Nicola Solvinic, has built a dynamic character in Anna and folded her into an elaborate, well done narrative. The descriptions of the crime scenes were visceral and beautiful, matching horror with fairy tale for just the right tone that matches the intent of the killer. I do wish some of the motive was fleshed out more, but that’s more me wanting more. Not having those details makes sense for the character and story.

This was a really well done thriller with a touch of the supernatural to keep you unbalanced. I was on the edge of my reading chair trying to figure out what was happening. Anna's character pulled me in and definitely had me going back and forth on whether or not I trusted her. I loved this book and how the author ended it!

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for access to this arc.

“No one ever knows the secret lives we lead.”

ER. MEH. GERDDDDD. I knew within the first two chapters that this was going to be a five star read! Yayy me for my accurate prediction.

Read this if you:
▪️love serial killer documentaries
▪️are addicted to the ID channel
▪️have a morbid fascination with murder
▪️love TWISTY TWISTS

Anna, a police officer who is secretly the daughter of a notorious serial killer, finds herself in the precarious position of investigating the copycat murders of her own father. Man what a wild ride this was! And it’s a debut?! Sign me up for all future works by Nicola Solvinic…please and thanks.

Thanks you so much to Netgalley, Berkley Publishing, and the author for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

#TheHuntersDaughter:⁣
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Thank you @prhaudio @berkleypub for my gifted copies! #PRHAudioPartner #BerkleyPartner ⁣
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Police procedural, serial killers, true crime podcasting fans, boy do I have a book for you. The Hunter’s Daughter was a fast action detective story that had my interest from the jump and I never lost interest.⁣
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The audio was really good. Just enough sarcasm and wit to really hit with Anna Koray’s troubled past and well, present. Samantha Desz does a great job, and I really liked the pacing. It gave me very much Annalisa Vega from Joanna Schaffhausen series. ⁣
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Overall, this book was so good. I didn’t suspect the killer or one of the twists, and I am throughly entertained. Out Tuesday!⁣
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Predict text: The hunters daughter…⁣
The hunters daughter is a little bit of a monster. (Well the accuracy)

This book contains one of my favorite tropes for a mystery thriller, a police officer with a father who's a serial killer. Now no one else on the force knows this about Anna, and she would like to keep it that way. But after she is involved in a shooting, and her childhood memories begin to come to the surface bodies start to show up. Ones that are eerily similar to the bodies her father left behind. Only they can't be his because he's dead. Right?

Anna made some pretty poor decisions during this book, but I think it really shows how worried she is about becoming like her father and how the memories affect her everyday life. I loved the kind of supernatural twist, along with all the other twists and turns, and I completely thought I knew where the story was going with who the killer would turn out to be, and I was wrong. I loved the direction the story took and the final climax at the end.

Thank you to the publisher for providing me a free eARC for review! This one is out May 14!

Rating: 3/5 stars

Anna is the daughter of the notorious Forest Strangler, who killed 27 women before he was apprehended when she was a child. Now a police officer, Anna’s memories of her father—previously repressed by hypnosis—suddenly return, at the same time a copycat killer becomes active in her county.

I loved the concept of this one—I’m a sucker for a serial killer thriller, and the addition of the police procedural aspect and the issues of missing/distorted memories were really interesting. I was quickly drawn into the book, which also had an engaging and intriguing writing style.

Unfortunately, the plot here ultimately was not for me—I was frustrated by Anna’s decision-making throughout and by the halfway point was not that invested in the whodunit aspect. The reveal at the end felt simultaneously random and too easy, and left me with plot holes and questions that lessened my overall enjoyment.

All of this said, I think this novel showed tremendous promise as a debut, and while it wasn’t a favorite it certainly wasn’t *bad* either. I’ll be keeping an eye out for whatever this author does next!

CW: Death/murder; blood/injury/violence (including gun violence); mentions of sexual assault

Thank you to the publisher for my copy - all opinions are my own.

Going into this one, I was ready for a traditional police procedural / serial killer vibe and while this book serves up both those things, it also manages to twist in almost a literary fiction vibe making it a really interesting take on how the story unfolds.

The combination of police procedural, horror, and supernatural elements are incredibly well done together. I admittedly was fully invested in Anna's increasingly bad decisions as she grapples with her secret identity as the daughter of a notorious serial killer, all while she lives and works in the life as a police officer who has never previously stepped a moral toe out of line. Her slow descent into a morally grey area was well done, and with every chapter I was both rooting for her and terrified for her.

I also love a great serial killer / copycat story and this one serves up that aplenty.

Overall, this is a really tasty thriller with just enough malice to keep you on edge.

Whoa was that crazy! Very atmospheric and just a wild ride! Intense to the point that sometimes I had to remind myself to breathe. Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for this early copy for read and review

The story promises an interesting concept, but there was something about the writing that I just couldn't get into.