Hunting Season is a crime novel by navy captain PT Deutermann. An ex-FBI agent reports that his college age daughter has gone missing. However, instead of being sympathetic to the plight of one of their own, senior FBI leadership around the Richmond Field Office are freaking out. Turns out this ex-agent Edwin Kreise was no ordinary agent - he was on an exchange program with the CIA, where he was trained to be a Sweeper - an operative sent to capture or kill spies and other operatives who know too much but have gone rogue. Worse yet, Kriese stumbled onto some very sensitive information regarding senior government officials involved with Chinese intelligence, so he was offered a deal. Retire to the back country and stay off the grid, or we will send a Sweeper after you. However, when his daughter is taken, Kriese believes the agency violated its end of the deal first - and prepares to "go hunting". However, the Agency sends a sweeper more terrifying and dangerous than Kriese after him - the Eastern European woman who trained him to become a Sweeper.
In the meantime, Kriese' daughter has stumbled onto a right wing nut's plot to blow up another federal agency building, whic is why she got kidnapped in the first place. And while everyone is focusing on containing Kriese, they are ignoring this threat.
Tropes featured in Hunting Season include:
- The Dreaded: Kriese. And later on, Misty.
- Bring My Brown Pants: A former lab tech turned field agent pees herself after falling into a sinkhole of sorts during a wet and cold night.
- Didn't Think This Through: The militiamen thought they could flood ATF HQ with a highly flammable gas, with no one being the wiser. They didn't count on the fact that ATF is often the prime target of militias, and had therefore prepared themselves for the possibility of all kinds of attacks- including chemical attacks. So, when their chemical agent detectors caught a whiff of a gas' ppm count suddenly spiking, they evacuated the entire building quickly, then locked down their HVAC system to prevent any more of the gas from flowing in. Needless to say, the militia's plan failed big.
- Exact Words: The militia threaten to use a "hydrogen bomb" on ATF HQ. Turns out it wasn't a thermonuclear device, it was instead an improvised explosive device, which flooded the building with hydrogen gas, then ignited the whole area in a massive conflagration.
- More Deadly Than the Male: Kriese is a dangerous guy, but he prefers to intimidate rather than kill. Misty however, is more lethal and more eager to kill.
- Mountain Man: A cabal of Appalachian hillbillies come to Kriese’ aid. His daughter doesn’t think much of them though.
- Right-Wing Militia Fanatic: The guy who kidnaps Kriese' daughter is the head of one.
- Took a Level in Badass: Janet the lab tech who peed herself when she fell into a sinkhole is finally the one to put down Misty and save Kriese’ Life
