The Killer By Wade Miller - Pulp Fiction Review

           Wade Miller wrote a series of books on a private detective, Max Thursday. The Killer is one of Miller’s stand alone books. 

           Jake Farrow, a safari hunter, is hired by Walter Stennis. Stennis’s son was killed during a bank robbery by Clel Bobock, head of a gang of robbers. The police have had trouble tracking the Bobock as well as the rest of the gang. 

            In any case, Stennis wants revenge so he asks Jake to track down Clel Bobock. The deal is that if Farrow finds Bobock, he is to call Stennis. Once Stennis arrives, he will kill Bobock. 

            There didn’t seem to be much reluctance in Farrow taking this mission on. It wasn’t so much about the money than it was to track a human being instead of an animal. Farrow agrees to this and the hunt is on. 

            The plotting of the novel is good since it is unpredictable. Farrow starts on Bobcock’s trail by going back to where he lived with his wife. Evidently, his wife didn’t participate in the robberies and she had no idea where Bobcock or the gang was hiding out. These were the answers she gave to the police.

             There were a lot of surprises coming out about Bobock and the gang and that made the hunt more difficult for Farrow. Much of the story has Farrow tracking Bobock before being stranded with his wife in a cabin that no one knows about. 

              Along the way, Farrow meets people who wants to find Babock also but will stop Farrow from looking for him as well. Even the police will make Farrow’s hunt more difficult before Farrow finds Bobock. 

              The supporting characters in the story play a good role in making Farrow’s hunt more difficult. The other character would be his wife, which is a surprise considering that she would have a good reason to see Babcock being hunted down and killed by Farrow. 

              While there are a lot of surprises along the way, the tension is good and it seems that Farrow may fail in his mission until he has a little luck at the end of the hunt. That, along with Bobock’s wife, who doesn’t want Farrow to kill Bobock. 

              To me, the ending was a little flat but the story was fast paced and you didn’t know what was going to happen next. It’s kind of hard for me to buy that Farrow wanted to do this for the hunt but the story was good enough for me that I would give it four stars. 

Ron Hummer