Dangerous Territory

Lindsay Schopfer
Completed 12/16/2025, Reviewed 12/16/2025
4 stars

Another winner in the Keltin Moore Adventures series.  While not as perfect as Into the North, it still holds up the series’ expectations.  The prose is flawless.  I loved the simple act of sitting down and reading it.  The buildup is slow and steady, with lots of character and plot development.  Schopfer carefully creates the physical and emotional environments to give us the motivations and challenges for Keltin’s task, to extricate the family of the girl he loves from inside the closed borders of a fascist regime.  Though this book was written six years ago, it felt very relevant to today.  My only problem with the book was that the ending felt very cinematic, that it would be more successful being depicted on film than described in the book.  Nonetheless, it is still a great reading experience and made me want to jump right into the fourth book.

With his earnings from successfully completing his bounty in the last book, Keltin opens his beast hunting business, aptly named “The Beast Hunter,” with his companions Jaylocke and Bor’ve’tai.  A request comes in for beast removal, and he sends Jaylocke and Bor’ve’tai while he stays to staff the office.  Shortly after, he is approached by the father of the woman he loves.  He asks Keltin to rescue her, his wife, and his two young boys who remained in the country that is now ruled by a Supreme Minister who has closed the borders.  He agrees to go despite his companions still being out on their assignment.  He reluctantly agrees to take on a journalist who wants to nab a firsthand account of beast hunting.  Having been a war correspondent during that country’s earlier war, he doesn’t have much fear of the journey.  Along the way, they meet a man and woman with a beast trained to kill other beasts.  So the four of them and the pet monster attempt to sneak across the border to smuggle out the family.

The coolest thing about the lead up to the action is everything that happens before Keltin’s leaving.  He visits with his sister at the estate where she is the governess.  The family treats her very well and extends that same warmth to Keltin.  Despite his introverted nature, he tries hard to return their hospitality.  He also meets Isaac, the young man with whom his sister has fallen in love.  Now he is faced with the dilemma of taking his deceased father’s role of giving permission to Issac to marry Mary.  This is a huge step for Keltin, and it takes him some time to reconcile the cognitive dissonance he faces.  While this is going on, he struggles with his own feelings toward Elaine, who is trapped in the country with closed borders.  He obviously has loved her since he saved her and her family in the first book, but Keltin is simply not good with feelings.  

As usual, Schopfer does a great job with the new characters that cross paths with Keltin.  From good guys like Ross and Wendi and their pet monster Kull, to the leaders of the secret brotherhood that tries to save the ostracized Loopi and their culture, the characters are multi-dimensional, each with their own distinct voice.  There was only one part where I got a little confused by all the characters at play in the chapter.  But as my regular readers know, this is not uncommon for me when a lot of characters are interacting at once.  

My only criticism was the climax.  As I mentioned above, reading it was not as riveting as the climax of the last book.  I stayed up until 1:30 a.m. last night to finish it but wasn’t as wound up as I was when Keltin and crew were fighting the Ghost of Lost Trap.  Yes, there are lots of monsters chasing Keltin’s charges, but I didn’t feel immersed in the tension and fear.  However, I think it would make for an exciting climax of the film version.  That is the only reason I took off a star, giving this book four stars out of five.  But make no mistake, this is a terrific book in a terrific series.  And yes, I already started the fourth book, at 1:30 a.m. last night!