Deb’s Dozen: The hunter becomes the hunted—the game is ultimately life or death

Hearing a loud explosion, Sheriff Tom tells his wife and son to stay put and heads to town to investigate. His discovery is deadly.

Four friends are dropped into the far north woods to set up camp. They hope the respite from their everyday lives will provide both healing and camaraderie. David, Terry, Phil, and Hutch each bear their own torments and burdens, but as life-long friends hope this trip will bring them closer again and ease the pain of their normal lives.

Early one morning, Hutch is up and out to track and kill an elk with bow and arrow. For him, the tracking and thrill of the hunt, the endless beauty of the environment, are as pleasurable as a successful hunt. He discovers a large, magnificent elk and begins the chase. Strategy and stealth are equally important. His chase is successful, and he notches the arrow to his bowstring, aims, and just at the moment of release … the elk disintegrates before his eyes, his arrow landing in a pile of rubble and elk debris. Stunned, Hutch looks around and sees a Hummer approach and disgorge a group of people. One spies the arrow, looks down the apparent flight path and sees Hutch—eye to eye. Hutch turns to flee—in that one instant the hunter is turned from the one hunting to the one being hunted.

So begins Deadfall, a dark and fascinating tale by Robert Liparulo. The ultimate matchup of good and evil, of strategy and strength versus desire and death. Of courage and conviction against a sense of privilege and power. Bob leads us on the chase by presenting first one side and then the other of what is a very deadly game. With excellent writing and a keen sense of suspense, Bob sets up a terror-filled saga that had me turning the pages despite myself. The fiction is dark and filled with action. For some, the story will be too dark, but for those who love twists and turns and suspense, this book fills the bill. I rate Deadfall: A John Hutchinson Novel five stars.

Bob Liparulo is a very giving guy—I say that because he recently served as faculty at the Writer to Writer Conference in Hershey, PA, and spent three hours letting authors ask him questions about writing and technique and how he got started and why he writes the types of books he does. Someone asked stating the books are dark and violent, so how could he call them Christian books? Bob answered simply, “I’m a Christian. I would never go against my Lord and Savior in anything I do. Therefore, my books are Christian books. Bob is a very prolific writer of magazine articles and books. He and his wife live in Colorado.