Hunting Sunset
A gripping postwar crime thriller in which loyalty is exploited, secrets are deadly, and nothing is as it seems.
It’s 1950, and combat veteran Val McCrary is onto the next enemy. Having stretched his service overseas, Val is back stateside and eager to prove himself useful. Unassuming on the surface yet always handy in a bind, Val follows his boyhood pal into San Diego’s sunny corner of west-coast organized crime.
As time ticks away and suspicions mount, he must navigate a world where the line between ally and enemy is never as straightforward as is claimed—and where confronting the truth may be Val’s most dangerous mission yet.
Enter a World Where Every Move Matters
A City of Secrets and a Postwar America on Edge
Step into 1950s San Diego, a military boomtown of sunlit shores, bustling waterfronts, grand hotels—and frontline fears with the Cold War heating up. Amid the bright beaches and fleet-moored bays, there also lurks a web of criminal enterprise—stretching from LA's front-page mob wars to the cutting edge of aerospace design.
A Complex and Unforgettable Hero
Val McCrary is a veteran shaped by years of service across two branches and two theaters of war. Back home after his overstay overseas, Val's sharp eye, distinct mind, and itch to fight leave him uniquely suited—and dangerously vulnerable—to the dicey world in which he enters. While his singular focus and uncompromising ways render him ready-made for any showdown, he's never been one to question any orders.
A Story of Allegiance and Betrayal, Mettle and Manipulation
From San Diego's underworld rackets to the highest priorities of national security, Val finds himself caught between powerful forces, each with its own agenda. Hunting Sunset is part Cold-War thriller, part crime noir, part self-discovery for a young man who is many things—above all, different, at a time when that proved a liability, and loyal, at a time when that outweighed justice.
Historical Suspense Amid Overlapping Eras
With its richly detailed mid-century setting, colorful characters, and colliding forces, Hunting Sunset delivers a cinematic journey into a pivotal moment in American history. The atomic era of the Cold War--with its rampant red and lavender scares--meets the west-coast mafia during the Battle of the Sunset Strip, all playing out under the watchful eye of Hoover's voracious FBI and told through the lens of a searching WW-II veteran.
Praise for Hunting Sunset
A Story of Suspense, Secrets, and Survival
Hunting Sunset is a gripping journey into the shadows of postwar America, where organized crime, federal investigations, and Cold War tensions collide.
Nathan Thompson creates a vivid world populated by memorable characters and places Val McCrary at the center of a dangerous web of competing loyalties. As the stakes rise, Val must piece together the truth before the forces closing in around him leave no way out.
“The past is never as far behind as you think—and the truth can be more dangerous than the lie.”
Get Your Copy of Hunting Sunset
Enter the high-stakes world of Val McCrary
From the hidden corners of an organized-crime empire to the relentless Red hunting of Hoover’s almighty FBI, Hunting Sunset is a compelling historical thriller filled with intrigue and subversion, as a veteran finding his footing faces a test of loyalty, identity, and survival.
About Nathan Thompson
Nathan Thompson is the author of Hunting Sunset – a historical crime thriller set against the complex and highly charged landscape of postwar America.
With a uniquely engaging tale, he pulls readers into a confluence of eras shaped by the aftermath of war, the rise of new global tensions, the emergent influence of organized crime, and the personal struggles of those trying to find their place in a rapidly changing world.
Thompson has a career in grant writing, documentary research, and story development for film and public television. A problematic daydreamer, history enthusiast, and character fanatic, he sustains himself by writing and consuming fiction. He lives just outside of Washington, D.C., with his amazing wife and two wonderful children.
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