Series: Mace Winters #1
Publisher: Atria
Release Date: Jan. 27, 2026
Special thanks to Atria Books for a complimentary arc of this title for review. Opinions expressed in this review are my own.
A game hunter is in a race against time to save his family from the most dangerous predator on earth—other people—in this high-stakes thriller in the vein of Jack Carr and Peter Heller.
Review:
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.
Synopsis:
Mason “Mace” Winters, with his acclaimed reputation as one of the best big game hunters in Colorado, lives for the thrill of the hunt. His lucrative career guiding the wealthy on intense hunts through the Colorado mountains is suddenly brought to a stop when an accident hangs an involuntary manslaughter conviction around his neck. Now he’s relegated to a life of trash pickup in the very wilderness where his prowess as a tracker and killer was the stuff of legends.
At rock bottom, Mace descends into a haze of Tito’s and sativa when two strangers seek him out. They wave enough cash under his nose to convince him to help them up into the mountains he knows so well on the opening day of Colorado’s rifle season. An innocent enough request, and the perfect cover for the trip’s true to assassinate an infamous warlord. All at once, Mace goes from unwitting to unwilling accomplice and it will take all his now dusty skills to outfox his patrons in their deadly game.
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