(Found) Looking for the book I read maybe 20 years ago

[jtm]

This book was about an alien called the "Hunter" who was in the form of an amoeba (or something like that) who landed on earth to hunt down a renegade from his planet. I seem to remember that he landed on a beach or something and entered the body of a boy. He communicated by running text across the boy's eyeball. The boy agreed to help and when the boy made physical contact with other people the Hunter could enter the body of the other person to see if his quarry had entered that person. I can't remember much more.

I would appreciated it if anyone familiar with that book could let me know the title and author.

Thanks.

John

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

This sounds like Needle by Hal Clement. Detailed description here:

Needle (novel) - Wikipedia

The Hunter, an alien lifeform (when not inside another being, resembling a four-pound green jellyfish) with the ability to live in symbiosis with and within another creature, is in hot pursuit of another of his kind. Both crash their ships into Earth, in the Pacific Ocean, and both survive the crashes.
The Hunter makes its way to shore (its erstwhile host having been killed in the crash) and takes up residence in the nearest human being it can find (as it turns out, fifteen-year-old Robert Kinnaird) without letting the human being know.

 

[Matteo]

That's the one: AKA From Outer Space. There was a follow up novel "Through the Eye of a Needle.

 

[jtm]

Many thanks to you both.

John