Hunger Hill
TL;DR: An enjoyable crime thriller with a great cast of characters. Familiar with Portland, Maine’s Munjoy Hill? You’ll probably enjoy Hunger Hill more.
Russian mobsters. A hitwoman. The local cops. A strong-willed and capable teenager. An antagonistic newspaper reporter. If this cast of characters doesn’t grab your interest, Hunger Hill might not be for you.
In Philip Baker’s crime thriller, all of these characters - and more - come together against the setting of a fictionalized Munjoy Hill. Hunger Hill as portrayed in the book is more of a Munjoy Hill of decades past, which, if you grew up or spent time in Portland before the last 10 years, you’ll recognize and enjoy.
The action in the book starts early with the killing of a local butcher and doesn’t let up as the book’s characters are dragged into the middle of the investigation, whether as witnesses, victims, or perpetrators. The police follow several investigative threads throughout, keeping the reader guessing until an action-packed conclusion.
Baker does a good job bringing all the pieces together, though there is one aspect of the conclusion that made me wince a bit. When it happened, I recognized the build-up to it from throughout the book, but it still seemed out of place with the rest of the story and tone. I won’t spoil it for you, here, but it will jump out at you if you feel the way I do about it.
One of the strongest points of the book was how all the characters are linked, but it’s not forced. Instead, it’s familiar to anyone who has spent time in the city as to how Portlanders are intertwined, especially the families that have been around for generations.
While the book’s plot is constantly moving forward, the characters are what cemented this book as a worthy read. The reader learns plenty about the backstories and relationships of several characters, bringing them to life within the city setting and the story being told. Detective Keene, for instance, is dealing with a very public professional misstep. Though the incident happened outside the timeline of Hunger Hill, it plays a role in that it partly shapes who he is during the events of Hunger Hill, as well as how he interacts with the primary reporter character.
In an interview with The Windham Eagle, Baker notes that Hunger Hill is just the first in a planned series. Each of the characters introduced in Hunger Hill has a potential bright future in the fictional world of crime thrillers. I look forward to reading these forthcoming books!