Caron Harrison's Hunting Season

“Hunting Season” is the fourth novel in Caron Harrison’s “Cider and Schnapps” series. Recently bereaved Karl Driesler is back home in Germany as he struggles to adapt to life without his wife. A new job in a British military hospital looks to provide the daily routine that Karl needs. The job is something of a challenge due to the incompetence of the previous incumbent, but Karl is greatly assisted by the more than able Silke. Karl also gets accommodation with the job, but he is not too far away from his German family. Ilse, Karl’s fiancée from the war, has also moved into the area, having found life in Uruguay unbearable, despite the fact that her husband is forced to live in exile there. It’s not a surprise to anyone that Ilse is back on the scene now that Karl is a widower, and this makes Karl’s English family anxious, as they’re sure that she is too self-centred to fully lick Karl’s war wounds. Karl finds himself in a quandary – he needs company, but is it too close to Katherine’s death to be embarking on a new relationship?

Of course, Karl can always call on his old friend, Robert, for help as he fights his demons, but can Robert be fully effective back in England? Sarah Carter, Katherine’s sister, can’t deny her attraction to Karl, and wants to be closer to him, but would such a move be wise? Audrey Kellet has also never forgotten her desire for Karl, but can he be truly intimate with the wife of the man who caused Katherine’s death? There are other considerations to heed – is Karl’s daughter-in-law renewing her Neo-Nazi friendships as she bids to cure her own loneliness? Is Karl’s old friend Ernst Winter under too much strain? Is Karl in danger of losing his English family? And just what is Silke’s secret? The year is 1969, and a sexual revolution is in full swing, so anything can happen.

I was originally dubious when I heard that Caron Harrison would write a fourth volume in the “Cider and Schnapps” series. The original volumes had been Katherine’s story just as much as Karl’s, and I had not welcomed the idea of Katherine’s absence from the resolution. It seemed that Caron Harrison had got to like the character of Karl too much, to the detriment of the rest of the cast. However, “Hunting Season” had me hook, line, and sinker from the very start. It helps that there are a great many familiar characters from the past, and that all of their stories are so involving. There is a suggestion that the novel may turn into a political thriller, like the middle books in the series. Yet, as in “Shades of Grey”, it is Romantic drama that is to the fore here, and I think that this is what Caron Harrison excels at. I have no hesitation in declaring that this is Caron Harrison’s best novel since “Shades of Grey”. There is a trend for publishers to take on excellent authors who have previously self-published, so I suggest that publishers snap up Caron Harrison fast before their competitors do.

Authortrek rating: 10/10

Kevin Patrick Mahoney

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Shades of Grey

Divided Loyalties

Eclipse of the Son