Hunted by Abir Mukherjee

If you are after a thriller to read, the award winning Hunted (British Book Award for Crime and Thriller (2025), Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2025) will take your breath away.

A missing daughter. Suspected of plotting a terror attack in the US.
A father arrested. Police storm Heathrow Airport to bring him in for questioning about his daughter.
A terrifying connection. In Florida, a mother discovers a link between her son and the missing girl, fearing they have been radicalised.
Hunted. On the run from the authorities, the two parents are thrown together to find their children before the FBI does and more lives are lost. Amazon

This is Mukherjee’s first stand-alone novel, after the Wyndham and Banerjee series and it is a tense thriller that is difficult to put down. It is told through the eyes of Sajid, the father of Aliyah, the girl who has been seen with the young woman accused of bombing LA shopping mall, Greg, a young ex-solider who has been radicalised and whose mother Carrie is desperate to find him, and  FBI Special Agent Shreya Mistry whose expertise is shunned by her boss. The reader follows Sajid and Carrie from London to Canada, across the border into the US and then on a hair-raising chase across the country to save their children before the FBI finds them. As the investigation unfolds, the reader is taken into a world of terrorism, political manipulation, racism, lies and brainwashing; a scenario that feels very credible, and the imminent presidential election makes the suspense even more unbearable. There are some unexpected twists in the story and the desperation of the parents is heart-rending.

Hunted is highly recommended, well deserving of the accolades that it has been given.

Themes: Thriller, Terrorism, Parental love, Racism.

Pat Pledger