Time to Hunt (Bob Lee Swagger)

I'm from Arkansas. I have visited and lived near most of the Arkansas locations Hunter describes in the Swagger novels (Blue Eye is actually Mena, Arkansas, in the Western part of the State). I deal with native Arkansans on a daily basis. He has us cold. He describes the hardscrabble life so many of my fellow Arkansans have lived, and he hits the nail on the head (so to speak) in his description of Bob Lee Swagger, a killer and war hero on an almost super hero level, a product of the Western part of the state, nestled in the Ouachita Mountains. Folks, Arkansans LIKE guns. There is a gun mentality here, a gun culture, that is hard to describe, but there it is. Hunter has THAT cold as well. Stephen Hunter is a Pulitzer Prize winner, and can turn a phrase as well as anybody. He's talking about my home, and about guns and people I identify with. What's not to like? This novel is the third in a series of novels about Bob Lee Swagger, from Blue Eye, Arkansas, war hero and sniper extraordinare. It is full of details about firearms, battle scenes, interactions among soldiers, and the motivation driving quiet, deadly types. It is the best action-adventure book I've ever read, and I've read hundreds and hundreds in my lifetime. This one is the best. The book is in two parts. The present, where Bob Lee's family is threatened by a spectre from his past, and a flashback portion. The flashback deals with Bob Lee and his spotter in Viet-Nam, and includes the best battle scenes I've ever read. Their desperate battle with a NVA battalion, trying to slow down their advance towards an outnumbered fire base, is the stuff of legend. The ending of the book includes an epic confrontation between two of the world's greatest snipers, a one-on-one duel that will have you on the edge of your seat. If you like action adventure, get this book. You will love it.

In TIME TO HUNT, Stephen Hunter further embellishes the legend of master sniper Bob Lee Swagger. Known as "Bob the Nailer" in professional circles, Swagger is cunning, resourceful, and a remarkable marksman, skills he developed in his youth and honed during several memorable tours of duty in Vietnam. Because of these talents, Swagger is often drawn into scenarios that erupt into nightmarish violence, as depicted in POINT OF IMPACT and BLACK LIGHT, the first two books to feature this character. Although the prologue and final third of the novel occur today, the backbone of the book is set in Washington, DC and Vietnam circa 1970. The story focuses on a marine named Donny Fenn, serving in Washington after completing a tour of duty in Vietnam. Fenn, forced to spy on a fellow marine with ties to the peace movement, fails to carry out the wishes of his superiors and is summarily cycled back to the 'Nam. There, he links up with Swagger, the deadliest sniper in the Corps. Their subsequent heroics (set forth in violent detail by Hunter in some of his most gripping writing to date), add to the myth surrounding Swagger. Bona fide heroes, they are days away from returning home when they are attacked by their nemesis, the Russian sniper Soloratov. Swagger is wounded, and Fenn is killed. Although Swagger has no way of knowing it at that time, this attack holds the key to the mystery of why Soloratov has returned to threaten Swagger's wife and daughter three decades later. Hunter, like Swagger, is in a league by himself -- compulsively readable, he plunges readers into a world where conspiracies are the norm and sudden death is commonplace. From its explosive prologue to its gripping finale, TIME TO HUNT is certain to be one of the best pure suspense novels you'll ever have the pleasure of reading.

Steven Hunter has hit one out of the park on Time To Hunt. He's incorporated numerous characters in interwoven stories yet has managed to keep it very clear where each is going. Bob Lee Swagger, although older now and not as spry, is on top of his game. His character is so real, that you swear you know him, or someone very similar in appearance.This book literally kept me turning pages till way past my bedtime. I was afraid if I put it down, something would happen and I'd miss it. In the movies, they call a story like this an "On the edge of your seat" kind of thing. I don't know what they refer to it as in book form, but it's the equivalent!Highly recommend it for anyone who likes great action and a hell of a story!

I've never been a big fan of prologues, in fact, I'm the one one person in America who hasn't seen the new Star Wars. Typically, prologues only fill in wholes in the original story. Not here. "Time to Hunt" answers questions, of course, but it actually makes me want to re-read the entire series of books. We always knew that Bob Lee was a BMF (see Pulp Fiction, wink), but we never really knew how Bad he was. We never really given an explanation for the awkwardness he feels in the 'world' or the awkwardness of his relationship with Julie Fenn. For those reasons, and many more, this book works with me. I whole-heartedly recommend the Swagger series to any and all (but frankly, start at the beginning, not here)Now this brings us to the next problem, will there be a fifth in the series? The rousing adventures of Nikki Swagger? (Nah!) A meeting between Swagger and Pewtie (from DWB)? (That'd work). Any way Hunter does it...I'll be there!