Bret Lott is a great writer, very lyrical and fluid. It's a joy to read his writing -- to an extent. What brings this book down is the muddled plot and the way that the second half doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Reading Huger's thoughts and feelings is fascinating, and Lott's descriptions of the South are wonderful -- being a transplanted Southerner myself, reading this book only makes me long more severely for my home state. But I was really disappointed by the way that it seems he felt he had to give the plot a lot of twists and complications. The pleasure I got from reading this book stemmed from his artful use of characters and how everything affected them, not the flimsy murder-suspense plot. I was glued to it at the beginning, but as I approached the end, my interest began to wane.

I've read all of Bret Lott's books and it's always fun to see somebody stretch their wings. This is, to my knowledge, Lott's first whodunit and I was on the edge of my proverbial seat.

Now, I'll admit I don't read a lot of mysteries. But Lott's interesting speech pattern for the book's hero, Huger Dillard, was so unique, it was like you were reading the transcript of a tape recording and when I did have to put the book down I felt like I was being cheated. There's a movie here, you can just feel it.

Unlike some of the people who have reviewed this book on this website, I didn't see the end coming for a minute. But then again, maybe that's because I don't read mysteries much.

This book just proves what I've known for a while now--Bret Lott is a hell of a good writer and I would say that even if I hadn't known the guy since high school.

Like so many other mystery books, The Hunt Club begins with a murder. However Bret Lott quickly distinguishes the story from the average murder mystery with his direct writing style, original and interesting characters, and complex plot. In the beginning the murder appears to be the work of a disgruntle wife. However, story changes from a simple murder to a confused mystery when the protagonist, Huger Dillard is visited by victim's wife. The plot grow more confused as Huger and his Uncle Leland, who owns the hunt club, receive threats and discover a conspiracy by the members of the club and the police to try and steal their land. However the real architect behind the scheme is the very last person anyone would suspect.
The constant twist and surprised in this book were defiantly the most enjoyable part for me. I also thought that the vivid and well developed setting was a contributing factor to why I liked this book so much. Most of Bret Lott's characters I thought were well developed and believable wit the exception of the deputy Thigpen. I thought his character was a hindrance in the end of the book, with his sudden personality shift. In fact the entire ending of the book was, in my opinion, its greatest weakness. The strength and tension that was build up in the beginning of the book seemed to fade during the end and finally died by the end of the chase through the woods. The final showdown with the unmasked villain was not climatic at all and ended abruptly. Despite this I would recommend this book if only for the great mystery in the first part.