Gabriel Hunt is a modern-day pulp adventurer. With the backing of the Hunt Foundation run by his brother, Michael, he travels the world in his activities. This can include looking for the “fountain of youth” in Guatemala, stopping a warlord from being resurrected in China, confronting a mystery in the Antarctic, or other adventuring talking him to Egypt, Sri Lanka, and more.
The series of books (sadly only six) was created by Charles Ardai in 2009. Each one is written by a different author working from a “bible” on the series, in a “share cropping” scheme. There is also some interesting backstory for the characters that is never resolved.
The books were first published in 2009-10 through Leisure Book in mass-market paperbacks with very nice cover art (each one depicting a scene from the book). The authors of each book were obscured (tho easy to find in the book), going with the conceit that all were written by Gabriel Hunt himself (they even ran his name on the covers). But before the last book came out, Leisure decided to get out of the mass market paperback field, and so its publication was delayed for a year and came out in trade paperback from another publisher. Same design as the others, but not the same size.
More recently in 2014, Titan Book has reprinted the whole series in a new, uniform edition now clearly crediting the authors. But the covers are more abstract and less pulpish than the originals. Win some, lose some.
The series is:
- Hunt at the Well of Eternity
- Hunt Through the Cradle of Fear
- Hunt At World’s End
- Hunt Beyond the Frozen Fire
- Hunt Among the Killer’s of Men
- Hunt Through Napoleon’s Web
The main characters are Gabriel and Michael Hunt. They are sons of a rich couple of adventurers who mysteriously disappeared from a cruise ship a decade prior. I recall hints of possible UFO or Bermuda Triangle-type stuff.
Gabriel and Michael are opposites in many ways. Gabriel is the strong, adventurous type. He wears working clothes and lives at the Explorer Club. Your stereotypical slightly larger-than-life (pulp) adventurer.
Michael is the quite, studious, bookish type, more at home with high society events of the Foundation. He lives in the brownstone that houses the Hunt Foundation, established after their parents disappeared using their $100 million fortune. It’s the foundation that provides the financial backing for Gabriel’s adventures.
During the series we learn they have a younger sister who has disappeared, Lucy. But actually, Gabriel has been in contact with her, and she is a source of cyber intelligence for him. She finally shows up in the sixth adventure (when she is kidnapped by the bad guys and used as bait) and gets re-united with Michael. But we never get a resolution on the parents.
The fourth adventure has Hunt assembling a team of allies to help him. I understand that this group was actually include in the series “bible,” but this was the only work that used them. Too bad, as they are an interesting group. We have Rue, a master driver/mechanic, and former girlfriend of Hunt along with Maximillian Ventrose Jr., or Millie, who is six-foot-plus and 300 pounds.
It’s a great series and I don’t know why further works weren’t done. Would think it was successful enough to have them. You can get more info on the series website.
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