Albert York

Albert B. York is not the kind of author who researched his way into a thriller. He lived it.

A retired emergency relief worker and technical writer, Albert volunteered for a real K9 search and rescue club in Chardon, Ohio, the exact town at the heart of his debut novel. As well as writing grants for the organization, he helped in training by laying trails and hiding in the woods from real tracking dogs. He watched cadaver dogs train firsthand. He built relationships with the handlers and the volunteers who make up the world Dannie Bauer inhabits. When an eighth-grade teacher once told him to take refuge in a foreign language, he could not have known that a high school teacher who saw something different in his writing would set him on a path that led here.

The Hunter is the result of all of it. A 411-page thriller built around a real bloodhound named Forrest and a heroine that readers are already calling one of the most compelling female protagonists in modern thrillers. Set in the dense woodlands and small towns of northeastern Ohio, it is a dark, female-led K9 crime thriller that draws on authentic detail, intimate regional knowledge, and a deep understanding of both the search and rescue world and the psychology of a predator.

York crafts thrillers driven by character, particularly women who are brilliant, relentless, and morally complex. His debut introduces Dannie Bauer, a young K9 handler whose instincts outpace the investigation around her and who refuses to stop until justice is served, whatever the cost.

Dannie's story is far from over. York is currently completing The Deputy, the next chapter in the Dannie Bauer series, coming July 2026. The third book in the series, The Analyst, will be available Fall 2026.