If you seek, they will find…The travels of Marco Polo are known throughout the world. But what if his story isn’t complete? What if his greatest adventure has yet to be discovered? Guided by a journal believed to have been dictated by Polo himself, the Hunters set out in search of his final legacy: the mythical treasure gathered during Polo’s lifetime of exploration. But as every ancient clue brings them closer to the truth, each new step puts them in increasing danger…
This is the first novel I’ve read by Chris Kuzneski and it was pretty good fun. The action rattles along at a good pace and there are plenty of twists and turns. A quick Internet search reveals that there are a couple of books in The Hunters series already published. There appears to be a couple of references to these previous novels scattered throughout the narrative, but I never felt like I was missing out on anything massively relevant.
I have a tendency to devour thrillers pretty quickly. I find them easy reading and I love it when the action kicks off on page one and doesn’t quit until the book is done. The good news is that The Prisoner’s Gold does exactly that, the globetrotting action never really lets up. How best to describe it? The premise is pretty straightforward. The Hunters are a group of specialists put together to locate and retrieve treasures all over the world. The novel reads like a cross between a rock solid action movie and the Uncharted game franchise. The characters are fun (possibly a bit underdeveloped but I’m not really looking for that in this case anyway), the locations are all suitably exotic and there is enough going on that you can quite easily lose yourself in the non-stop rollercoaster of a plot.
In a nutshell, we’re talking chases, explosions, double dealing, backstabbing and more pithy one liners than you can shake a big pointy stick at. If you’ve enjoyed the likes of Scott Mariani, James Rollins or Matthew Reilly, then I would suggest you give this a try. This is exactly the sort of thing I like to read when I’m travelling. A good thriller should always promise a bit of escapism.
I enjoyed my first experience of Chris Kuzneski’s writing. I’m curious to see where the overarching plot is heading. There is a distinct suggestion that there is a much larger plot unfolding. I’ll be keep my eyes peeled for Kuzneski’s next Hunters book.
The Prisoner’s Gold is published by Headline and is available now.
No Comments