Into the Fire

Call Me Hunter by Jim Shockey is the first novel by this renowned expert on all things hunting related. With that in mind, you might think this story is about hunting for sport/survival/in general. It is not. 

Nyala is a true journalist. Young and research-bound, she verifies everything before writing about it. Her most unlikely best friend "Lupa" is a scattered girly-girl who cares more about pretty things than working at the place where Nyala works. 

When we meet Hunter, he's very young, and his parents know he's "different" but figuring out just how different remains a mystery until his mother Rose insists that he goes to see a psychiatrist because she's been told by his teacher that he can't read. When the young boy is submitted to a quantity of testing procedures, his doctor is shocked at what he learns about the boy. When what he can learn about the boy exceeds all levels of the testing, he contacts places and people who understand these higher-level of intelligence children. Rose hires a tutor and watches her son begin to flourish. 

When a long manuscript appears in Nyala's mailbox which hasn't been mailed to her but placed inside the box, she realizes the individual who wrote it had to know who she is and where she lives. 

From the moment Nyala begins to read the pages which begin with a confession of murder, her mind jets to anger, shock, amazement, and the need to verify. She calls a co-worker who is a wizard about digging deep for information in ways Nyala lacks. He agrees to help her with some reservations but what he discovers unlocks the potential validity of the manuscript. However, who the author of this manuscript is and why he's chosen to reveal all of these things to her remains a mystery. 

The story fluctuates between the raising of Hunter, the revelation of a bizarre and contorted tale which, in the limited research Nyala has learned from her co-worker, proves to be true. At each strange admission, there is historical evidence of people and places that, in fact, have lived and/or died while doing certain things at certain events and places. And still Nyala has no idea why she is the one selected to receive this extraordinary manuscript. 

When Nyala, abandoned as an infant at a police station with virtually no personal knowledge of her history, insists that she and Lupa take off to fully verify the information in the manuscript and find the person who refers to himself as The Hunter, the two young women pack up and take off in Lupa's Mercedes.

I'm being somewhat vague in the information because to reveal more is to ruin the story. If after my conclusion you decide to read Call Me Hunter, DO NOT read the book flaps or the blurb about the story because it will definitely ruin the journey for you. I really think too much is revealed in the description of the story on Amazon and on the novel itself because it slants how you will approach the guts of this book, giving you a conclusion before you should have one. 

Now. This is the most unusual, the most unique novel I've ever read and that's saying something. I've read hundreds of novels of many genres but primarily thrillers, mysteries, suspense, some speculative, and romance. This novel has no real category. In places it will bring to mind the operation of the cabal, those few unknown humans who operate the world infiltrating all necessary professions to demand what and when they want something, it will be provided. Demonstrating a possible means of selecting those individuals they can train, manipulate, and organize to do their dirty work for monetary needs, it presents an organization with its hands in every area of governments and other places worldwide to acquire exactly those things they desire. Some of the characters are perverse psychopaths with strange but deadly abilities and gifts used by the worst of humanity. Others are exceedingly gifted "victims" who are taught to perform services without questioning why. 

The connection with the obscure character(s) in the story to Nayala leaves the manuscript as the background for when she has all the proof she needs to learn what she's never known. 

I felt the ending was a bit abrupt, but finding a suitable ending for a story as unusual as this one might not be entirely possible. I will recommend this book to those who are interested in a truly different novel for their reading experience. Is it really a novel? Is it acquired from personal experience? You decide. 

Father, only you know hearts and minds. And only you provided the Way, the Truth, and the Life in Jesus for us to make peace with you. Please continue to bless Jim's writing life in ways he's not expected. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.