The Manhattan Hunt Club

by John Saul

The acknowledged master of psychological suspense and heart-stopping terror, New York Times bestselling author John Saul now invites you to descend to chilling new depths of darkness--and discover a secret, savage world that exists beneath our very feet.

The promising future of New York City college student Jeff Converse has suddenly been shattered by a nightmarish turn of events. Falsely convicted of a brutal crime, Jeff sees his life vanishing before his eyes. But someone has other plans for Jeff, in a far deadlier place than any penitentiary. He finds himself beneath the teeming streets of Manhattan, in a hidden landscape of twisting tunnels and forgotten subterranean chambers. Here, an invisible population of the homeless, the desperate, and the mad has carved out its own shadow society.

But they are not alone. The pitch-dark tunnels and abandoned subway stations are haunted by the unmistakable sounds of predators in search of game. Someone has made this forsaken civilization beneath the city a private killing ground . . . and the hunt is on.

Trapped in a treacherous underground maze, cut off at every turn by ragged gangs of sinister "gamekeepers," and stalked relentlessly by unseen hunters, Jeff faces overwhelming odds in the race to reach salvation and elude capture. With no weapon but his wits, and an unimaginable threat lurking around every dark corner, Jeff must somehow move heaven and earth to escape from a living hell.

The Manhattan Hunt Club is the most thrilling and suspenseful novel yet from the ingenious mind of John Saul.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Audiobook, Mystery Thriller

320 pages, Hardcover

First published July 31, 2001

About the author

John Saul is an American author best known for his bestselling suspense and horror novels, many of which have appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list. Born in Pasadena and raised in Whittier, California, Saul attended several universities without earning a degree. He spent years honing his craft, writing under pen names before finding mainstream success. His breakout novel, Suffer the Children (1977), launched a prolific career, with over 60 million copies of his books in print. Saul’s work includes Cry for the Strangers, later adapted into a TV movie, and The Blackstone Chronicles series. He is also a playwright, with one-act plays produced in Los Angeles and Seattle. In 2023, he received the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement. Openly gay, he has lived with his partner—also his creative collaborator—for nearly 50 years. Saul divides his time between Seattle, the San Juan Islands, and Hawaii, and frequently speaks at writers’ conferences, including the Maui Writers' Conference. His enduring popularity in the horror genre stems from a blend of psychological tension, supernatural elements, and deep emotional undercurrents that have resonated with readers for decades.

Reviews

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my opinion this in John Saul's masterpiece! I first got hooked on the horror of John Saul when I stumbled upon The Blackstone Chronicles, but have found some of Saul's novels disappointing (as word of advice: don't bother reading The Devil's Labyrinth published in 2007). Saul has a history of writing bad or simply off the wall endings to his stories. I loved The Manhattan Hunt Club - a story of homeless people living underground (literally) by accessing subway tunnels. Saul clearly put a lot of work, time and research into this manuscript. Other Saul books I would recommend: The Blackstone Chronicles, Black Lightning, Perfect Nightmare, The Homing and Shadows. Midnight Voices and Black Creek Crossing were good stories with terrible endings. John Saul has been writing stories of horror since 1977.

2011 Update: I re-read this book with the John Saul Lit Group (come join us if you like John Saul or Horror - I'm Moderator). Unfortunately, my audiobook from the library was damaged and I had to skip through much of it. I still think this is a great story with twists and thought provoking issues - power and authority, manipulation, judging, right and wrong, etc. Saul tells a good story that comes full circle.

[Anja Henriksen · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5-4*
On the surface this is a story about a high class society (guild/cult) who hunts felons for the fun of it in the Manhattan undergrounds. This theme might have been less beaten down when the story was written, than it is now, where we have several stories, series, movies with rich people having fun with hunting, hurting, etc. other people (The Hunt and Squid Game to mention two recently released).
But this story is much more a tale of homeless/homefree (or Houseless) people living in the undergrounds.

Both themes are interesting imo, but I can't help sitting back with the feeling of this story fails to deliver; my immediate thought was, it felt like 80% introduction and 20% unfolding the story, and I need more. I want to know more about the people living in the undergrounds, I want to know details of the Hunt Club, and such. The epilogue was a bit lifetime-movie-like, but it didn't ruin my experience.
It had so much potential.
The afterword from the author explaining his research of both the legal system/correctional facilities, and the invisible "society" in the undergrounds in Manhattan, did make me appreciate the story more, but on the other hand, it also strengthened my feeling of this story really had more potential, because the author has put so much effort in the background research.

All in all, I don't feel I've wasted my time, and the authors afterword offered me a context that actually made me enjoy the story more

[Maicie · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of Saul's best books.

Jeff Converse is falsley convicted of attempted murder. While being transferred to prison, the van is involved in an accident. He is declared dead but in reality he has been led into the underground tunnels beneath Manhattan. And he is being hunted by the elite members of the Manhattan Hunt Club.

There is quite a lot of set up in the book but hang around for the last ten chapters. Good stuff.

[Veronica · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75 stars

This wasn't as suspenseful as one would expect from a story about the wealthy and powerful elite in New York having a secret club that hunts human prey. It was also probably unnecessary to give background on every single character who has significant dialogue.

[Piker7977 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well... it was campy, cheesy, slightly predictable, sometimes nauseatingly sentimental, and over the top... but I liked it.

Chalk this one up to a guilty pleasure. The Manhattan Hunt Club tells the story of a young man who is falsely accused of a heinous crime and finds himself in the clutches of an affluent club who have dangerous plans for him. This club gets their thrills by hunting humans in the tunnel systems located under New York City amongst the homeless population. I thought the modern spin on 'The Most Dangerous Game' was neat and the location unique also. There is some satisfying "rat-a-tat-tat" and some wonderful conspiracy-based ideas about a city's powerful citizens being involved dark secrets.

I found the main characters to be clichéd and the dialogue sometimes offensively stupid. Just as an example the mother of the main character constantly saying all problems encountered are "God's will". "God's will" this and "God's will" that. Come on.

This is my first John Saul book. I picked this one because I heard it was more on the mystery/suspense side rather than supernatural. I was satisfied and would recommend it to those who enjoy cheesy-twisted TV shows.

[Maurean · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an entertaining read. Although there were a few obvious plot points, there were also a few unexpected twists that kept it interesting. Overall, a suspenseful and gripping tale. I was particularly enthralled with the details revolving around the transient population and the subterranean citizens. Definately worth the reading time.

[hotsake (André Troesch) · Rating 3 out of 5]

An average, run-of-the-mill thriller only slightly elevated by John Saul's writing.

[Adam Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Manhattan Hunt Club was yet another unstoppable and incredible novel by John Saul. It reminded me a lot of novels like the Long Walk or In the Dark. I have always greatly enjoyed novels where the characters have to go through some kind of game that they are playing in order to win their lives. In this novel, Jeff, tone of the protagonists, is falsely accused of brutally raping a woman in New York. Later, as he is being transfered to another prison, the van he is in is attacked and he is taken from the wreckage of it. He is taken deep into the unused tunnels below Manhattan and told that if he makes it to the surface alive, he can go free because they made it look like he died in the accident. He would be an entirely free man if he could get out, but he is being hunted by men who get a thrill out of hunting people like game. This is a novel that you can't put down. It is the most vulgar Saul novel I've ever read as well. There is one of the most disturbing sex scenes I've ever read in it, as well as one of the most aweful ways for a person to die. It's a great novel and I'd recommend it to anyone, but especially fans of horror.

[Vicky · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really like this. Very different.

[Chris · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oof. Now I know why I've stayed away from Saul in the past.

So I began this novel full of hope... but it rapidly became a teenage summer horror movie - young lovers separated by a horrible injustice, demented criminals and drug-addled "houseless" peoples, and so on. The characters are so cliched (evil, power-mad lawyer guy without empathy, brilliant and kind-eyed young hero protagonist, faithful beautiful affluent young girlfriend, streetwise and snarky street girl who helps to save them, tough, gritty, and never-gives-up father, etc. etc.) that I developed a sort of nervous tic to my eye - wince, grimace, groan, tic. It's just unfortunate, how very bad it is.

Because I wanted the premise to deliver! It's a great idea, and I love how it works in urban fantasy like Mieville's King Rat! This might as well be fantasy - the way injured people are devoured by swarms of rats and bugs in the tunnels of Manhattan.

The conclusion might just as well be fantasy - somehow, this dead felon guy manages to return to society without any issues... in fact, he immediately gets married and bangs out a kiddo. Oh, and none of the folks that he killed on his way out of the tunnels - none of their bodies are ever recovered, of course. They just "disappeared" or died of natural causes somewhere else, or committed suicide, or whatever. Because it's that easy to cover up a bullet-riddled corpse, obviously.

It's sadly obvious that Saul thought his few "twists" were shocking mind-benders, but in context, they're laughably unlikely and ridiculous. His "bad" characters are all amazingly sympathetic at first - and then suddenly grow horns and dispose of people with automatic weapons for fun. I feel like Saul is one of those guys who probably believes in the Illuminati and the Masons and the Knights Templar - there's obviously this secret society of incredibly powerful people who engage in whatever sort of debauchery they choose to. You know, because everyone takes that for granted. They also murder criminals, because the justice system doesn't work. Because they totally don't have better things to do with all of their time and money and power.

This is probably the worst book I've read in years. All of the stereotypes and cliches could so easily have been worked out by a good editor! It could have made a great story without all of the saccharine nonsense and inevitable terrible endings for the baddies - it's just so utterly predictable that the tension can't be sustained - or even built at all, for that matter.

Garbage. You see shit like this in made-for-TV movies constantly. Skip it.

[Димитър Цолов · Rating 3 out of 5]

Средна хубоС... Ясно е, че сюжетът - "лов в урбанистична среда" - е дъвкан и предъвкван през годините - шедьоврите на Стивън Кинг Бягащият човек и на Робърт Шекли Десетата жертва са само малка част от заглавията, които изникват в ума ми... Джон Сол обаче се е пуснал по лекия наклон - плоски образи, монотонен сюжет, който можеше да бъде доста повече окървавен, предвидим край... Абе-е, както започнах - Средна хубоС...

[Arista · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was ok, pretty imaginative and always made you wondering what would happen next. But still a typical creepy john saul book

[Gregory · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book to read, difficult to put down. Enjoyed it very much, some parts are tricky, but than so is life.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Saul is usually hit or miss with me, but this is probably his best work.

[LibraryCin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jeff has been falsely convicted of a crime. But when he is “transferred” out of the prison, he is taken… somewhere and locked in a room with another man. It’s not long after that they are released into the tunnels underneath New York and are told that they’ll “win” if they make it to the surface. Meanwhile, his family and girlfriend think he died in a crash.

I really liked this. It didn’t take long to get sucked in, though it takes a little bit to figure out what’s going on in the book. It’s told from different viewpoints, so the reader is partial to things that the characters aren’t as they try to figure out what’s happening, as well. This was one I didn’t really want to put down – I wanted to keep reading. And, there were a couple of twists!

[Edward Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had not read much John Saul and was surprised at the level of depth (no pun intended) he would go to create the atmosphere in this book. Wrongly convicted Jeff is forced to fight his way out of the underground labyrinth of Manhattan's old sewer, transit, and shelter tunnels. If this sounds like a bad Nicolas Cage movie, then you are right. The book is well written, fast-paced, and delivers on what you want to happen to the main character and his life but it is just shy of 4 stars.

It's not that it is not a good book, but the story and the twists and turns are formulaic and hit all of the tropes of their ilk. Wrongfully accused and forced into some sort of life or death yet totally unbelievable situation? Yes. Replaced bodies? Check. Misplaced blame and money making deals behind closed doors by an evil cult of rich assholes? Oh yeah, quintuple check...

[Smiley III · Rating 5 out of 5]

"There Were People You Kept Waiting, and People You Didn't":
Class Hierarchies as Revealed Under Duress
in John Saul's The Manhattan Hunt Club

Christopher Snyder
April 5, 2013
Little Red Schoolhouse
(undergrad vers.)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 1 -

¶ Published the month before the attacks on the Twin Towers,

John Saul's The Manhattan Hunt Club (2001) uses the

potboiler structure to give the reader a guided tour of the

echelons of power — from top to bottom — that would only be

“encounterable” in a state of constant emergency (which is

to say: under the tension most “thrillers” aspire to provide).

Given that the novel is a National Bestseller with claims to

socioeconomic criticism on a par with Dickens, Hugo, and the

American Social Realists, one would expect critical acclaim

to be more forthcoming that it, perhaps, has been (which,

perhaps inarguably, leaves the U.S. with a widely-read,

proletariat-cum-bourgeois “fan base” who are better appraised

of the social schemata than anyone, save themselves, are

aware!).

¶ Nonetheless, what one finds on encountering the novel is a

carefully-planned — one is reticent to simply say, “carefully

plotted” — x- and y-axis drawn from the map(s) of post-

millenial, barely-internetted N.Y.C. replete with overlapping

failures of social order, from the judge whose “own satisfaction

in his judgments had been diluted, and then washed completely

away by the steady trickle of decisions from the courts above

him” to the Ivy League college student whose good deed ends up

setting the plot in motion to the people “below ground” who

have to make their own subdistinctions about the company

they keep.

¶ In none of these cases is anything less than day-to-day

survival at stake: the people may be trapped by their routines,

but it's the only routines they know. It is only under the

guise of a “thriller” that Saul could dare to show us how

dim the chances are, in practice, of breaking beyond the

rim of one's personal horizon: “They knew that people in their

position never discussed their true desires in public … The

truth, always, was reserved for intimate conversations in the

most private of settings.”

¶ In these sorts of circumstances, the odds of the Truth

getting aired, maintained, or even validated to begin with

are dim at best: these people, with more power than 99%

of the population of the city they “rule” could imagine

of being possible to wield, are as constantly protective of

their own backs and place in the pecking order as the street

denizens Saul's hero Jeff Converse falls in amongst

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 2 -

with: “You don't look at people, they won't look at you. You

don't talk, they won't talk. An' if you just keep walkin',

they transit cops won't even bother you.”

¶ Already, the possibilities are dimmed to a dull resignation

of one sort or another: it is precisely between the unknowing

hopefulness of the child and the seen-too-much-to-kid-oneself

“maturity” of most adults (in the novel, and thus, begging the

question, in the macrocosm outside it) that Saul places

his still-hopeful college student in the “protagonist” role of

his work, a bildungsroman of opportunities available, not

opportunities hypothetical: “Whatever Jeff expected as he

stepped through the door, it wasn't this.” Even in the incidental

references, down to the minutiae of what the characters come

across, Saul is careful to frame it in terms of how they,

inwardly, approach the situation — in other words, “where”

they came “from.”

¶ “And always the homeless”: like the mind-chatter of the hive

mind of culture & commerce residing above, the situation of

cast-offs is revealed to be endemic, a collateral damage of

progress, as much an inevitability of a healthy ecosystem as

the “parasites” of the well-known aphorism: with only so many

opportunities to go around, they are only so many choices

available, as well.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
B-

Christopher: on the one hand, the scope of the ideas you're trying to put across in the first two paragraphs — certainly more admirable than a dearth — beggar your ability to ably find an apt quote from the text to cover them all. On the other hand, stick to the "one citation per paragraph" rule: you'll find it delimits the argument YOU want to make, not the other way around. Sound clear? As it is, this paper somehow manages to feel both a wee bit short and, at the same time, as though it would be better served if expanded to ten pages — or , alternately, three others of commensurate length. Make sense?

Still, though: this is part of the process, wrestling through your ideas to come up with a single, tangible thesis, one with backbone. My comments above, befitting the purpose of this class, were not meant to "discourage" you: it is simply a process we all have to go through, of vetting our best ideas to come up with even better ones, that I am trying to impart.

And . . . you certainly have no shortage of those! Keep wrestling!

Johnson de Johnson
Prof. Emeritus, Eng. Lang & Lit.
Univ. of Chicago

[Linda · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was repulsive! My book club chose it. I did not read it all. I skipped whole chapters throughout because it was nauseating. The idea of humans hunting other humans purely for sport is not something I care to read about. I read to be entertained or to learn; I do not read to become nauseated.

The only reason I rated it a 2 was because some members of our club liked it. I don't want my humble opinion to take it off someone's to be read list.

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

A B grade thriller from Saul. Our lead is off to jail after he was convicted of a crime he did not do, but on the way there, he is kidnapped and taken underground in Manhattan to be hunted in the tunnels. His intrepid girlfriend and father set out to find him among the homeless living underground. I knew what was going to happen almost from the start, so no real surprises here. Decent pacing albeit flat characters.

[MJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3*

Falsely accused of assault and attempted murder, Jeff Converse is sentenced to prison for 7 months. Upon "transfer" to prison, he finds himself a pawn in a game where convicts are hunted in the tunnels of New York City.

I found the setting unique and entirely different from the usual mystery/thrillers I have read previously. However, it didn't really grip me from the get go. It took awhile to get my interest going. The first part of the book just dragged on and on and I was slightly confused as to where the story was heading. But the second half held my attention and I couldn't put it down.

Overall, I found Saul's writing a bit annoying because of the pacing. One can easily quit reading it should they find it tiresome with the dry narrative in the beginning. I prefer thrillers to be fast paced and exhilarating from the first page. Anyways, I kept reading and about 10 chapters in, my thoughts changed because the story turned into a gruesome chase filled with plot twists worthy of a good crime novel.

[Joel Purvis · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars. Had a strong start enjoyed the set up to this story. The middle lags, the sections of the main characters wandering around the subway tunnels were quickly tedious and repetitive. However, I was impressed with how multiple story lines came together in a fun and thrilling ending that shifts focus from survival to revenge. The reveal of who is behind the Manhattan Hunt Club is well done and impactful. A fun read but the weak middle section prevents me from rating this higher.

[RM(Alwaysdaddygirl) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars:

-I read this before I join Goodreads. It was good! As the title goes, not one for those always play by the rules. Not being rude, I think the horror part was how likely this could be done and not be noticed. Homeless are people too. I do like the ending. Some might think some parts are violent. A fan of horror would probably not.

🇺🇸🐼💀🦋

[Liana Ashley · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

[Mallory Lozoya · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Summer · Rating 4 out of 5]

The plot borders on absurdity but if you don't think about that too much, it is a fun mystery-esque horror with some entertaining two-faced characters.

[Chase · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.99999!

[Richard K. Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review coming soon!

[Rissy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary: Jeff COnverse is a college student. He lives in a small Manhattan apartment. He is engaged to a pretty young girl, Heather, Jeff has his whole future a head of him until he tries to stop a mugger one night on the subway.

The next thing Jeff knows is that he's accused of attempted theft, attempted rape and attempted murder. The woman he has tried to help thought he had been the one that violated her and she had said so in the Hospital and later in the courtroom.

Even though Heather and his Father had been absolutely sure it wasn't true, just a horrible mistake, Jeff had been convicted of the crime and sentenced to a year in prison.

However, before he gets to serve his year in prison fora crime he didn't commit, he is transferred and the van he is being transported in suddenly is hit and blows up. But before the vehicle catches fire he is pulled out and led down deep into the underground passages into the subway and sewer system.

Very quickly, Jeff discovers that his apparent rescue was nothing more than a kidnapping. Once he's presumed dead the craziness truly begins.

Five men. Men that were highly respected and admired as much as they were feared, liked to play a game. They had even made a club. The One Hundred. And in the club they called "The Manhattan Hunt Club".

Lead by a woman who's job was to speak for the homeless of the city. A woman who was fueled by pain and anger by the loss of her daughter.

And now Jeff Converse would become their next prey. He had been taken deeper and deeper still, into the maze of the sewer underneath New York City. He had been told the rules: You make it out and you live. You don't, and you die.

But this new victim that the M.H.C. Has chosen is much smarter than anyone of them had expected. Smart enough to kill the hunters that stalk him and make the woman that had started it all, the real victim. He escapes, barely, with his life and is reunited with his fiance. They have a son and Jeff decides to take him to the apartment where he and Heather had lived so many years ago.

He meets Jiny there. A friend he had made in his most desperate time, five years ago. She had been the one that had seen what happened that night on the subway. She had not realized who he was until she met him again later.

She had told him that she knew the person that had mugged the woman and knew Jeff was indeed innocent.

She had searched for him in the tunnels of the sewers and had helped him escape. After the ordeal that occurred under the subway they had remained friend sna he had given her his old apartment and encouraged her to get back in school.

Now, five years later, with his son Randy he had come to see her one last time, before she headed off to college.

They chatted a bit and then him and his son headed back to the subway and towards the rout that would take them home.

But, while entering the terminal to the train that they wanted to board Jeffery Converse had spotted a familiar face. A face of a woman, though badly scarred now, that had turned her back o him when he had needed help most.

Miss Eve Harris. The woman who had started the M.H.C. and who had chosen him for their deadly game of cat and mouse.

And as their eyes met and he noticed the rags she wore, it was him who turned his back on her.

The thought had remained in his mind if the club was still in action, but maybe seeing her dressed as a bum. A homeless person. Like the one's she had made to rally against him and the other hunted people down in the sewer, just for a little cash. Maybe he supposed now that the game had finally ended. Or maybe, they had just found a new leader and more members.

Thoughts: I really enjoyed this book. Very high pace suspense. From the very first page you had to be hooked. Though different than his older style of writing that I enjoyed very much, this one surprised me and I would surely recommend it.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was initially going to be a 4 ⭐ for me as I was reading. Then I got to the final quarter or so of it and it took some turns I was REALLY not expecting that amped it up for me. Not to mention a particularly satisfying and terrifying end to one of the baddies or was it.....???

[Eve Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little bit predictable towards the end once you get the hang of Saul's style. The idea is unique and quite intriguing, the story itself was not at all what I thought it would be. It was way more sentimental with every single family member instinctively and just by their nature being on top of things and knowing where to go and what to do. It moves so fast it loses it's connection with reality. But it was kind of thrilling and exciting at times so it was a solid three.