Rifle Season

Rifle Season is a dark, gritty, propulsive debut novel by Author Pat Kelly that introduces readers to Mason (aka Mace) Winters whose legendary reputation as an expert big game hunter and guide in Colorado was besmirched after a hunting accident saddles him with an involuntary manslaughter conviction. Now he spends his days in a drunken haze picking up trash in the same wilderness he once stalked as a guide for wealthy big game hunters.

Mason’s lucrative career and marriage are already on the rocks when two mysterious strangers hire him as a guide for a photo shoot of an elusive mountain lion. When they return to his home on opening day of rifle season requesting his services again, Mason ignores the warning bells sounding in his gut in favor of earning big bucks he desperately needs and repairing his damaged reputation. By the time he realizes they’re foreign operatives on a mission to assassinate a warlord that’s hunting trophy elk in the higher elevation with a friend of Mason’s, his fate is sealed. With a blizzard blowing in, Mason’s only choice is to play along and wait for a chance to overtake them. Rusty though they are, he’ll match his uncanny skills to theirs any day of the week, especially on this terrain. Afterall, these mountains are his stomping ground. One he knows like the back of his hand. With his and his wife’s life at stake, Mason needs to clear his head and call on his ingrained survival skills to become the deadly predator he once was. This is a winner take all game. He has one shot at saving lives. One shot at redemption. Failure is not an option.

When I heard Rifle Season being compared to C. J. Box’s Open Season, I knew I had to read it, and I’m happy to say it surpasses the hype. Kelly wastes no time transporting readers into the middle of a deadly game of cat and mouse beginning with the chilling prologue and ending with the final incredible shot. His descriptive narrative brings scenes to life as both breathtakingly beautiful and life threatening at the same time. An insane pace is propelled by a tone of malice and the fear of time running out. In-depth characterizations are spot on, relatable, and believable. Mason’s anguish and despair can be felt in the beginning as can his stone-cold determination and rage throughout. The author nails the essence of who he is and what he’ll do to save those he loves as he struggles to hold it together. The same holds true even for the villains in this story. They’re professionally written, despicable, and yet convincing. As the story unfolds, the stakes are raised with every shocking plot twist until the violence explodes on the page leaving readers to figure out if anyone survived.

Author Pat Kelly scrutinizes the age-old tradition of hunting and man’s moral rights as it pertains to the sport as well as his coexistence with nature in Rifle Season. Themes of revenge, forgiveness, redemption, and justice are evident throughout this well-written, masterful thriller. The author does an excellent job highlighting man’s conservancy of nature and wildlife in a chilling battle of the fittest. Rifle Season reads like it’s written by an expert, well-seasoned author with several titles under his/her belt making it hard to believe this is Kelly’s debut novel. I hope there will be many more books in the series. Nature and hunting advocates will devour this book as will fans of fast-paced, explosive, second-chance thrillers. Rifle Season will be one of my top five reads of the year.