Ep. 124 - PAT KELLY, Discussing His Debut Thriller Novel, RIFLE SEASON

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Pat Kelly’s incredible debut thriller novel, Rifle Season, is rooted in Colorado’s Western Slope, where elk rifle season draws strangers with rifles and mixed motives. Kelly explains how the book springs from decades of living among hunters, absorbing the rhythms of weather, pressure, and terrain. The inciting spark is painfully human: a careful and well-respected guide, Mason “Mace” Winters, breaks the cardinal rule—knowing what is downrange of the target—for one second, and his life splinters after he tells his client to “send it”. That breach becomes the engine of character, community pressure, and a devastating downward spiral. Mace leaves guiding behind for a year, until his friend and fellow guide, Will Stoddard, offers him up a chance to take a couple up the mountain to try to get a photo of a mountain lion. If anyone can get them in range in one day, it’s Mace. But he can’t seem to get out of his own way, fueled by his deep addictions to alcohol and sativa. Even in his constant hazy state, the couple see Mace’s skills will be useful to them. Soon we find out the truth…they are not just shooting pictures of wildlife – they are trained assassins on a deadly revenge mission, and his guiding prowess is in high demand!

Their top end gear and gadgetry, along with their confidence, meets a wild Colorado plateau where local knowledge becomes the decisive edge. He frames this clash as old ways vs new tools, not as nostalgia but as skill hierarchies built across lifetimes. The guide Mace reads wind, light, and animal intelligence, an “old soul” attuned to lithic artifacts and the land. Meanwhile, the assassins are formidable but out of their element. Kelly leans into a rule of survival fiction: the most dangerous weapon is fluency in place, and arrogance is a wound that bleeds late.

The novel hums with interiority that screenplays rarely allow. Kelly points out that a novel’s gift is knowing what characters think, so he threads premonitions, visions, and guilt across Mace, Will Stoddard, and the fleeing warlord David Petrovic (aka Dragan Kordic, aka Monster). These are not ghosts but mental echoes, the kind of persistent images that haunt decision-making under stress. Will stands as the rational counterweight, a perfectionist who senses a hunt gone wrong before it begins. The theme tightens: intuition matters, but so does respect. Animals notice a door hinge whisper; elk shift when a rock rolls. Kelly’s maxim—nature bats last—cements the book’s turning point when a historic blizzard crashes the hunt, forcing every character, tool, and plan to contend with a greater order.

Community and loyalty anchor the narrative. Kelly explores belonging and the cost of reputation: lose trust, lose work, lose your place. Mace’s fall from grace is financial, legal, and social, and the story tests who stands by him when his competence is in doubt. The assassins keep him upright for their ends, but underestimate what a resurrected hunter can do. Kelly’s insight here is pragmatic: people are easier to hunt because they ignore rules animals never break. The plateau becomes both courtroom and battlefield, where the weather, the herd, and the drainage itself pass judgment.

Kelly’s path from screenwriting to novels shapes his craft choices. He had industry allies who told him the hard truths and editors who saw a series in his premise. Yet he guarded the heart of the book: a place-informed thriller that respects readers who crave authenticity. The reason Rifle Season resonates is simple: it asks whether one mistake defines you, and whether skill, humility, and the land itself can give you one last shot to set things right.

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Publication day: 1/27/2026