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THE HUNTER

Albert B York

Self (410 pp.)

$12.99 paperback

ISBN: 9798218851873

December 11, 2025

BOOK REVIEW

In York’s police procedural, a teenage girl faces off against a sadistic murderer.

Dannie Bauer is 18. She lives in the town of Chardon, Ohio, with her mother and her trusty bloodhound, Forrest, who’s undergone three years of search-and-rescue training. If local authorities need assistance finding someone, they can call on Dannie and Forrest to offer civilian assistance, and that is exactly what happens in the opening pages when the two help find a 6-year-old boy who’s gone missing in the woods. Unbeknownst to Dannie, someone has been watching her, and he hardly has good intentions. (“His fantasies grew, and he focused on his plan. Nothing would happen spur of the moment. His strength of will and mind were superior.”) When Dannie’s stalker is unable to get to her, he goes after her peers. First, a girl named Julie French goes missing on a night she’s supposed to meet Dannie at a movie theater. Later, Julie’s friend Carrie also disappears. Both girls are killed, and when their bodies are found, it’s clear that their murders were sexually motivated. But Dannie is not one to cower in fear. The novel takes an unusual approach to the serial-killer narrative—the protagonist is, after all, not a hardboiled FBI agent but rather a high school student. It’s a striking conceit that will keep readers guessing as to what might come next. After all, how involved can a teenager be in such a serious case? (Dannie is warned, “You stick to your schoolwork and your search activities. That’s it.”) Throughout the story, some information is repeated, to an irritating degree—readers learn more than once that Dannie will be attending Case Western Reserve University in January of the following year. Still, they’ll be compelled to learn whether Dannie will be able to stop her adversary before more innocent lives are taken.

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A highly suspenseful and far from typical hunt for a killer.