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The Hunters by Chris Kuzneski
3.5★'s
THE TEAM:
Financed by a billionaire philanthropist, this elite team—a soldier, an historian, a computer whiz, a weapons expert, and a thief—is tasked with finding the world’s most legendary treasures.
THE MISSION:
Fearing a German victory in WWI, the Romanian government signed a deal with Russia to protect the country’s treasures. In 1916, two trains full of gold and the most precious possessions of the Romanian state—paintings, jewelry, and ancient artifacts—were sent to the underground vaults of the Kremlin. But in the turmoil of war, the Romanian treasure was scattered and lost.
THE PRIZE:
The collection is now valued at over $3.5 billion. Despite several attempts to find it, its location has remained a mystery…until now.
From The Book:
THE TEAM:
Financed by a billionaire philanthropist, this elite team—a soldier, an historian, a computer whiz, a weapons expert, and a thief—is tasked with finding the world’s most legendary treasures.
THE MISSION:
Fearing a German victory in WWI, the Romanian government signed a deal with Russia to protect the country’s treasures. In 1916, two trains full of gold and the most precious possessions of the Romanian state—paintings, jewelry, and ancient artifacts—were sent to the underground vaults of the Kremlin. But in the turmoil of war, the Romanian treasure was scattered and lost.
THE PRIZE:
The collection is now valued at over $3.5 billion. Despite several attempts to find it, its location has remained a mystery…until now.
My Thoughts:
In order for a the reader to have a visual in their minds of what is taking place on the page, the author needs to be able to provide enough dialog for this picture to form since there is no wide screen TV. This didn't happen in this book. Lots of action...almost too much if that is possible...but not enough interaction among the characters for the reader to get the "why" this was happening.
The "Team" was composed of a mix of personalities that had never worked together before. This is fine in the office but when you are planning to steal a treasure that more than one group of people are willing to kill you to keep....this is far from ideal. Of course these are strong minded stubborn types for the most part, with a computer nerd and a translator that the author was actually thinking we would buy that she learned to drive a train just from watching the old engineer...who was one of the best characters in the book by the way.
The book received the half-star because I read with a group where we took the book in sections and each person added there comments. Seeing the others perspective on the story let me see the story from a different angle. I really like this author and have read others of his books and enjoyed them immensely. I enjoyed this one more because of the group I read it with. Anyone who likes non-stop action thrillers combined with lots of history will love this book.
