Hunted

by John Holt

When big corporate coal strip-mining interests begin to take over a ranching town in southeastern Montana--wide-open coulee and bluff country--all hell breaks loose. It seems the land is fighting back: vast sage flats erupt in fire, massive storms blast down from all directions, rattlesnakes strike from out of nowhere, and an extinct buffalo wolf is heard howling in the night. One man tries to hold back the tide of disaster caused by corporate greed: Joe Graves, a rancher whose family has farmed this arid, harsh land for generations.
Graves knows the land better than anyone, hunting and fishing its broad acres all of his life. He considers the land an extension of himself. What he doesn't know is that his father sold the mineral rights to the ranch-and Graves is about to find out that Dark Star (the corporate coal giant) is coming to claim those rights along with his water. What Dark Star doesn't realize is that it will have more than just a mere man to fight--the very elements are set against them.
Steeped in atmosphere and electrically charged with emotion and suspense, this graphic, shocking novel firmly establishes John Holt's authority as a novelist, and reveals his own dark vision of what "civilization" is doing to the West.

188 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2003

About the author

Writer living in Livingston, Montana with my wife, photographer Ginny. Have 14 published books including Hunted: A Novel, Coyote Nowhere - In Search of America's Last Frontier, and Arctic Aurora - Canada's Yukon and Northwest Territories. AK Press will release my next book, Yellowstone Drift - Float the Past in Real Time in February 2009. This one is about canoeing the Yellowstone from below the northern boundary of Yellowstone Park to the river's confluence with the Missouri at Ft. Buford, North Dakota or about 525 miles. Have contributed stories to publications that include Men's Journal, Gray's Sporting Journal, Art of Angling Journal, The Denver Post, Briarpatch, E - The Environmental Magazine, California Literary Review, Outside, Counterpunch and Fly Rod & Reel. Camping, canoeing, upland bird hunting, cooking, reading, photography, fly fishing, hiking keep him occupied

Reviews

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Haunting and atmospheric; brings the West and the land to life. The plot, if it could be called such, is essentially that of man and the wilderness - the men who want to live with the wilderness and those would destroy it.

Loved the prose in this compelling read.

[Violet · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought it was a pretty good story but skipped a lot of nothing but description, until the last chapter. I did not care for the ending at all.

[Claudia Putnam]

Great evocation of landscape, clumsy dialogue--characters telling each other stuff both already knew as a means of conveying info to the reader. Soapboxy. I agreed w the preaching, but. I love wolves but the wolf thing was over the top. I kept reading despite all this because I wanted to find out how the coal company got its comeuppance. Overly dramatic. The worse thing is how quickly Joe gets to the point where his girlfriend's death is not consuming. A few weeks. Fucking men. Lost a star for that. Rating: 2 stars.