Best Selling Books by Stephen Hunter

“A harsh, visceral, novel of conspiracy and betrayal . . . a distrubing mix that plays on our sense of history while at the same time it appeals to our darkest fantasies of rough justice.”—Chicago Tribune The inspiration for the USA Network series Shooter He was one the best Marine snipers in Vietnam. Today, twenty years later, disgruntled hero of an unheroic war, all Bob Lee Swagger wants to be left alone and to leave the killing behind. But with consummate psychological skill, a shadowy military organization seduces Bob into leaving his beloved Arkansas hills for one last mission for his country, unaware until too late that the game is rigged. The assassination plot is executed to perfection—until Bob Lee Swagger, alleged lone gunman, comes out of the operation alive, the target of a nationwide manhunt, his only allies a woman he just met and a discredited FBI agent. Now Bob Lee Swagger is on the run, using his lethal skills once more—but this time to track down the men who set him up and to break a dark conspiracy aimed at the very heart of America.

New York Times bestselling author Stephen Hunter takes beloved hero, Earl Swagger, into the lush world of 1950''s Cuba to fight the American mobsters who control the Havana casinos. Cuba 1953: The island is on fire. The Mafia-run casinos are rolling, and it''s just a 30-minute flight from Miami to a world of vice, gambling, sex, and drugs. The money is there for anyone who knows how to get it, including the Cuban government and the police, who want to keep their ally Uncle Sam happy. There''s only one threat to this corrupt utopia: a silver-tongued, daring young revolutionary named Fidel Castro. With the Cold War underway, the Soviet Union has sent a sophisticated veteran agent to find and support the young upstart. To counter, the CIA has summoned Medal of Honor-winning ex-marine Sergeant Earl Swagger, whose heroic exploits have earned him the reputation of a man who doesn''t know how to lose. But he''s not just going to find Castro... He''s going to kill him.

“Stephen Hunter is in a class by himself. Time to Hunt is as vivid and haunting as a moving target in the crosshairs of a sniper scope.”—Nelson Demille, author of Mayday He is the most dangerous man alive. He only wants to live in peace with his family, and forget the war that nearly killed him. . . . It''s not going to happen. Stephen Hunter''s epic national bestsellers, Point of Impact and Black Light, introduced millions of readers to Bob Lee Swagger, called “Bob the Nailer,” a heroic but flawed Vietnam War veteran forced twice to use his skills as a master sniper to defend his life and his honor. Now, in his grandest, most intensely thrilling adventure yet, Bob the Nailer must face his deadliest foe from Vietnam—and his own demons—to save his wife and daughter. During the latter days of the Vietnam War, deep in-country, a young idealistic Marine named Donny Fenn was cut down by a sniper''s bullet as he set out on patrol with Swagger, who himself received a grievous wound. Years later Swagger married Donny''s widow, Julie, and together they raise their daughter, Nikki, on a ranch in the isolated Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho. Although he struggles with the painful legacy of Vietnam, Swagger''s greatest wish—to leave his violent past behind and live quietly with his family—seems to have come true. Then one idyllic day, a man, a woman, and a girl set out from the ranch on horseback. High on a ridge above a mountain pass, a thousand yards distant, a calm, cold-eyed shooter, one of the world''s greatest marksmen, peers through a telescopic sight at the three approaching figures. Out of his tortured past, a mortal enemy has once again found Bob the Nailer. Time to Hunt proves anew why so many consider Stephen Hunter to be our best living thriller writer. With a plot that sweeps from the killing fields of Vietnam to the corridors of power in Washington to the shadowy plots of the new world order, Hunter delivers all the complex, stay-up-all-night action his fans demand in a masterful tale of family heartbreak and international intrigue—and shows why, for Bob Lee Swagger, it''s once again time to hunt. Praise for Time to Hunt “Stephen Hunter is simply the best writer of action fiction in the world and Time to Hunt proves it.”—Phillip Margolin, author of The Burning Man “The best straight-up thriller writer at work today.”—Rocky Mountain News

Only one thing stands between a son and his father''s killer: forty years of lies. . . On a remote Arizona ranch, a man who has known loss, fear, and war weeps for the first time since he was a child. His tears are for the father taken from him four decades before in a deadly shoot-out. And his grief will lead him back to the place where he was born, where his father died, and where a brutal conspiracy is about to explode. For Bob Lee Swagger, the world changed on that hot day in Blue Eye, Arkansas, when two local boys rode armed and wild in a ''55 Fairlane convertible. Swagger''s father, Earl, a state trooper, was investigating the brutal murder of a young woman that day. By midnight Earl Swagger lay dead in a deserted cornfield. Now Bob Lee wants answers. He wants to know the truth behind the shoot -out that took his father''s life, a mystery buried in forty years of lies. Because for Bob Lee Swagger, the killing didn''t end that day in Blue Eye, Arkansas. The killing had just begun . . . Weaving together characters from his national bestsellers Point of Impact and Dirty White Boys, Stephen Hunter''s gripping thriller builds to an exhilarating climax—and an explosion of gunfire that blasts open the secrets of two generations. Praise for Black Light “Put on your seat belt—Black Light is a wild ride you won''t forget.”—The Chicago Tribune “Nobody writes action better than Stephen Hunter and Black Light is one of his best. . . [The] action scenes play like a movie, the plot is intriguing and the writing is top-notch.”—Phillip Margolin “Only a handful of writers today can match Hunter for imagination and the ability to make a reader''s adrenaline rush.”—New York Daily News “Filled with detail, clever plotting, suspense, and a hunt to the death that leaves the reader dry-mouthed with tension. Hunter knows his guns, and he writes about them with a precision that holds the attention of even a fervent anti-gun supporter.”—The Orlando Sentinel “One of the most skilled hands in the thriller business. The plot is fast-paced, well-constructed and builds to a pulse-pounding night ambush. . . . It should seal his reputation as an author who not only can write bestselling thrillers, but write them exceedingly well.”—Publishers Weekly

Includes an excerpt from The third note.

“A breathtaking, fascinating look at what could happen—given the possibility of an atomic ‘given.’ A wrap-up you''ll never forget.”—Robert Ludlum The countdown begins when welder Jack Hummel is abducted from his suburban Maryland home ans whisked to the South Mountain MX missile site—a top-secret nuclear complex now taken over by paramilitary terrorists. All that stands between the Uzi-armed commandos and the launch button is a half-ton titanium block. They want Jack Hummel to cut through it—so they can unleash a devastatingly brilliant plot that threatens global disaster. Now a Delta Force veteran and a think-tank defense wizard must get inside South Mountain—by defeating their own super-security systems and a darkly ingenious enemy leader . . . . . . while Jack Hummel''s torch burns closer and closer to the launch key . . . while the clock ticks closer to midnight—and Armageddon. Praise for The Day Before Midnight “Rockets toward a shattering climax like an incoming missile.”—Stephen Coonts, author of Flight of the Intruder and Final Flight “Nonstop action and mounting tension.”—The New York Times Book Review “Slam-bang action and relentless suspense.”—The Washington Post “The novel crackles and jolts.”—Chicago Tribune “The one to beat this year in the nail-biter class . . . an edge-of-the-seat doomsday countdown thriller.”—Daily News, New York

Thriller.

In the death throes of World War II, one man is still at war, and he’s got got the world’s deadliest weapon in his hands . . . With a sniper’s rifle he has calmly executed hundreds of enemy soldiers in a single battle, and gunned down thousands of innocent civilians in a single day, waiting patiently for the barrel of his gun to cool before resuming his craft . . . It is the spring of 1945. And Repp, the master sniper, is about to carry out his final mission—even as Germay’s enemies overrun it, even while a tired, disorganized team of American and British agents tries everything in its power to stop him. Because for Repp, this is the one job at which he cannot fail. For this time, he possesses the ultimate killing tool. And with it, he will commit the ultimate crime. . . . Praise for The Master Sniper “Mesmerizing suspense.”—Kirkus Reviews “Hunter is a deft craftsman with a sure sense of pace and scene. He also knows about irony and sprinkles just a bit over every corpse.”—The Washington Post “Stephen Hunter is the best writer of straight-out thrillers working today.”—Rocky Mountain News

They busted out of McAlester State Penitentiary--three escaped convicts going to ground in a world unprepared for anything like them.... Lamar Pye is prince of the Dirty White Boys. With a lion in his soul, he roars--for he is the meanest, deadliest animal on the loose.... Odell is Lamar''s cousin, a hulking manchild with unfeeling eyes. He lives for daddy Lamar. Surely he will die for him.... Richard''s survival hangs on a sketch: a crude drawing of a lion and a half-naked woman. For this Lamar has let Richard live... Armed to the teeth, Lamar and his boys have cut a path of terror across the Southwest, and pushed one good cop into a crisis of honor and conscience. Trooper Bud Pewtie should have died once at Lamar''s hands. Now they''re about to meet again. And this time, only one of them will walk away....

"After being accused of reckless endangerment and forced to answer to the U.S. Congress, master sniper Bob Lee Swagger must protect political hostages in a once-in-a-lifetime standoff"--

The explosive New York Times bestseller by Stephen Hunter that sends ex-Marine sniper Bob Lee Swagger into the thick of an FBI investigation and features some of the greatest gunfights ever to grace the page. It takes a seasoned killer… Four famed ‘60s radicals are gunned down at long range by a sniper. All the evidence—timeline, ballistics, forensics, motive, means, and opportunity—points to Marine war hero Carl Hitchcock. Even his suicide. The case is almost too perfect. …to hunt one. Recruited by the FBI to examine the data, retired Marine sharpshooter Bob Lee Swagger penetrates the new technology of the secretive sniper world to unravel a sophisticated conspiracy run by his most ruthless adversary yet—a marksman whose keen intellect and pinpoint accuracy rival his own. But when the enemy and his deadly henchmen mistake Bob for the hunted, it’s clear that some situations call for a good man with a gun…and the guts to use it.

During the D-Day invasion, sniper Earl Swagger embarks on a secret and dangerous mission to find the spy who is tipping off the Germans about American positions.

In 1951, after Sam Vincent disappears while investigating a prison for violent African American convicts in Thebes, Mississippi, Earl Swagger finds himself confronting a town guarded by a private army of brutal, racist White thugs.

The undisputed master of the tough thriller, New York Times bestselling author Stephen Hunter delivers an “exciting and intelligent” (The Wall Street Journal) masterpiece set in 1940s Arkansas, where law and corruption ricochet like slugs from a .45 automatic. Earl Swagger is tough as hell. But even tough guys have their secrets. Plagued by the memory of his abusive father, apprehensive about his own impending parenthood, Earl is a decorated ex-Marine of absolute integrity—and overwhelming melancholy. Now he’s about to face his biggest, bloodiest challenge yet. It is the summer of 1946, organized crime’s garish golden age, when American justice seems to have gone to seed for good. Nowhere is this truer than in Hot Springs, Arkansas, the reigning capital of corruption. When the district attorney vows to bring down the mob, Earl is recruited to run the show. As casino raids erupt into nerve-shattering combat amid screaming prostitutes and fleeing johns, the body count mounts—along with the suspense in this “riveting” (Los Angeles Times), “richly told tale” (The San Francisco Examiner).

Gun buff, movie critic and bestselling author of Dirty White Boys, Stephen Hunter takes aim at 13 years of violence on the big screen, hitting the highlights and the lowlifes, the thrills, the chills, and the kills, with deadly precision, explosive prose and devastating good humor.

From New York Times bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize winner Stephen Hunter comes a thriller that pits former Marine sniper Bob Lee Swagger against the only man who might be able to outshoot him. A marine sniper team on a mission in tribal territories on the Afghan-Pakistan border, Whiskey 2-2 is ambushed by professionals using the latest high-tech shooting gear. Badly wounded, the team’s sole survivor, Gunnery Sergeant Ray Cruz, aka “the Cruise Missile,” is determined to finish his job. He almost succeeds when a mystery blast terminates his enterprise, leaving a thirty-foot crater where a building used to be—and where Sergeant Cruz was meant to be hiding. Months pass. Ray’s target, an Afghan warlord named Ibrahim Zarzi, sometimes called “The Beheader,” becomes an American asset in the region and beyond, beloved by State, the Administration, and the Agency. He arrives in Washington for consecration as Our Man in Kabul. And that brings Ray Cruz out of hiding. Swagger, the legendary hero of seven of Hunter’s novels from Point of Impact to last year’s bestselling I, Sniper, is recruited by the FBI to stop the Cruise Missile from reaching his target. The problem is that the more Swagger learns about what happened in Zabol, the more he questions the US government’s support of Zarzi and the more he identifies with Cruz as hunter instead of prey.

Stephen Longacre, good for nothing playboy, is given an ultimatum by his wealthy father. Unless he rises to a certain challenge, his father will disconnect him from his world, and that includes paying for his lavish lifestyle. Longacre finally takes his life seriously as he finds his voice in a turbulent time, filled with hatred and violence.

In this tour de force—part historical thriller, part modern adventure—from the New York Times bestselling author of I, Sniper, Bob Lee Swagger uncovers why World War II’s greatest sniper was erased from history…and why her disappearance still matters today. Ludmilla “Mili” Petrova was once the most hunted woman on earth, having raised the fury of two of the most powerful leaders on either side of World War II: Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler. But Kathy Reilly of The Washington Post doesn’t know any of that when she encounters a brief mention of Mili in an old Russian propaganda magazine, and becomes interested in the story of a legendary, beautiful female sniper who seems to have vanished from history. Reilly enlists former marine sniper Bob Lee Swagger to parse out the scarce details of Mili’s military service. The more Swagger learns about Mili’s last mission, the more he’s convinced her disappearance was no accident—but why would the Russian government go to such lengths to erase the existence of one of their own decorated soldiers? And why, when Swagger joins Kathy Reilly on a research trip, is someone trying to kill them before they can find out? As Bob Lee Swagger, “one of the finest series characters ever to grace the thriller genre, now and forever” (Providence Journal-Bulletin), races to put the pieces together, Sniper’s Honor takes readers across oceans and time in an action-packed, compulsive read.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER "Bob Lee Swagger is a true American literary icon."--Mark Greaney, New York Times Bestselling Author of Mission Critical In this blazing new thriller from Pulitzer Prize winner Stephen Hunter, master sniper Bob Lee Swagger takes on his biggest job to date...and confronts an assassin with skills that match his own. When Bob Lee Swagger is approached by a woman who lost a son to war and has spent the years since risking all that she has to find the sniper who pulled the trigger, he knows right away he''ll do everything in his power to help her. But what begins as a favor becomes an obsession, and soon Swagger is back in the action, teaming up with the Mossad, the FBI, and local American law enforcement as he tracks a sniper who is his own equal...and attempts to decipher that assassin''s ultimate target before it''s too late. With all-too-real threats and a twisty, masterful storytelling, Game of Snipers is another gripping addition to a bestselling Bob Lee Swagger series.

November 1, 1950 -- an unseasonably hot afternoon in sleepy Washington, D.C. At 2:00 P.M. at his temporary residence in Blair House, President Harry Truman takes a nap. At 2:20 P.M., two Puerto Rican natives approach from different directions. Oscar Collazo, a respected metal polisher and family man, and Griselio Torresola, an unemployed salesman, don''t look dangerous, not in their new suits and hats, not in their calm, purposeful demeanor, not in their slow, unexcited approach. What the three White House policemen and one Secret Service agent guarding the president cannot guess is that under each man''s coat is a 9mm German automatic pistol and in each head, a dream of assassin''s glory.

A second chance... In the windswept sands of the Middle East, Paul Chardy fought side by side with Ulu Beg: one, a charismatic, high-strung CIA covert warrior, the other a ferocious freedom fighter. Then Chardy fell into the hands of the enemy, and Beg was betrayed. Now the two men are about to meet again. A second gun... Beg has come over the Mexican border under a hail of bullets--determined to assassinate a leading American political figure and avenge his people''s betrayal. The CIA wants Chardy to stop the hit. Chardy wants to save Beg''s life. Between the two men is a tragic past, a failed mission, and a woman who knew them in war--and who knows their secrets now. Around both men is a conspiracy of lies and violence that reaches back to the Cold War. But as Beg moves in for his kill and as Chardy breaks loose from his handlers, a terrible truth begins to emerge: somewhere, someone wants both men to die.

“A roaring good read.”—FORBES.com Master sniper Bob Lee Swagger returns in this riveting novel by bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize winner Stephen Hunter. The Great Depression was marked by an epidemic of bank robberies and Tommy-gun-toting outlaws who became household names. Hunting them down was the new U.S. Division of Investigation--soon to become the FBI--which was determined to nab the most dangerous gangster this country has ever produced: Baby Face Nelson. To stop him, the Bureau recruited talented gunman Charles Swagger, World War I hero and sheriff of Polk County, Arkansas. Eighty years later, Charles''s grandson Bob Lee Swagger uncovers a strongbox containing an array of memorabilia dating back to 1934--a federal lawman''s badge, a .45 automatic preserved in cosmoline, a mysterious gun part, and a cryptic diagram--all belonging to Charles Swagger. Bob becomes determined to find out what happened to his grandfather-- and why his own father never spoke of Charles. But as he investigates, Bob learns that someone is following him--and shares his obsession. Told in alternating timeframes, G-Man is a thrilling addition to Stephen Hunter''s bestselling Bob Lee Swagger series.

Deep in the heart of Dixie for a weeklong NASCAR event, Bob Lee Swagger, protagonist of "Point of Impact," returns in this explosively gritty thrill ride as he metes justice out to those who targeted his reporter-daughter.

Includes an excerpt from Third bullet, by Stephen Hunter.

From Pulitzer Prize-Winning Movie Critic Stephen Hunter Comes A Brilliant, Freewheeling, And Witty Look At The Movies. Evanston, Illinois, was an idyllic 1950s paradise with stately homes, a beautiful lake, a world-class university, two premier movie houses, and one very seedy movie theater -- the Valencia. This was the site of Washington Post film critic Stephen Hunter''s misspent youth. Instead of going to school, picking up girls, or tossing a football, Hunter could be found sitting in the fifteenth row, right-hand aisle seat of the Valencia, sating himself on one B-list movie after another. The Valencia had a sticky floor, smelly bathrooms, ancient popcorn, and a screen set in a hideously tacky papier-mache castle wall. It was also the only place in town to see westerns, sci-fi pictures, cops ''n'' robbers flicks, slapstick comedy, and Godzilla. In Now Playing at the Valencia, the author of such bestselling novels as Havana and Pale Horse Coming has compiled his favorite movie reviews written between 1997 and 2003, bringing to the discussion the passionate feelings for cinema he discovered in the ''50s, a time when genres were forming, mesmerizing stars played unforgettable characters, and enduring classics were made. While filmmaking has changed tremendously since Hunter first frequented the Valencia, the view from the fifteenth row, and the thrill of down and dirty entertainment, has remained the same.

Stephen Hunter has chosen the backdrop of the chaotic and cruel Spanish Civil War to weave a classic tale of espionage and counterespionage. Julian Raines was one of the first Englishmen to volunteer for the international brigade in Spain. The British Secret Service suspect that the flamboyant Raines was recruited for the KGB by the Bolsheviks during his student days at Oxford and send Robert Florry, a struggling young writer to Spain after Raines with orders to eliminate him. Florry was an old school chum to Raines and had every reason to hate him. The British are not alone on Raines'' trail. The ruthless Communist leader in Barcelona believes that the identity of the double agent conceals a powerful and profitable secret. It is a novel that constantly surprises.

Swagger becomes interested in exploring JFK''s assassination, asking questions few have asked before.

Robert Florry is blackmailed by British intelligence into hunting down an old friend of his, a former soldier in the Spanish Civil War and an alleged Soviet agent.

A collection of three interconnected novellas that follow each generation of the iconic Swagger family—grandfather Charles, father Earl, and fan favorite hero Bob Lee—from New York Times bestselling author, Pulitzer Prize winner, and “true master at the pinnacle of his craft” (Jack Carr, #1 New York Times bestselling author) Stephen Hunter. In City of Meat, Charles Swagger is on the hunt for notorious bank robber Baby Face Nelson when he traces a tip to the Chicago stock yards. While there, he’s brutally assaulted by a madman involved in a nearby narcotics ring. The ring plans to spread its new drug to the residents of the disenfranchised 7th District of Chicago and to make matters worse, this is no ordinary drug—it makes some users happy, drives others insane, and kills many of the rest. Will Charles be able to stop the ring before it’s too late? Or is he in over his head among the dark streets of Chicago? Earl Swagger investigates a violent bank robbery that left two dead and a fortune missing in small-town Maryland in Johnny Tuesday. At every turn, however, he’s met with silence and hostility from the townsfolk, which makes sense when he uncovers municipal corruption, gang politics, jaded aristocrats, scheming gamblers, a hitman, a femme fatale, and a whole bunch of men with guns. Luckily, Earl has brought his own guns in this unputdownable noir mystery. Finally, in Five Dolls for the Gut Hook, a thirty-two-year-old Bob Lee Swagger is back from Vietnam nearly broken over good men lost for nothing. He’s turned down that whiskey road to hell. But one afternoon he’s awakened from his nightmares by two men with a problem. As nearby Hot Springs tries to retool its image from gambling paradise to family resort, a butcher has begun to prey on the city’s young women, a figure straight out of a horror movie. Hot Springs Homicide is baffled and recruit Bob’s help. “I’m a sniper,” says Bob, “not a detective.” “But,” comes the reply, “you are the son and grandson of two of the greatest detectives this state has ever produced.” On that premise alone, Bob takes up the hunt for a killer who not only kills but desecrates. At the same time, we understand that Bob Lee Swagger is also hunting for his own salvation.

The Pulitzer Prize–winning, New York Times–bestselling author describes how he created his popular veteran sniper. Retired Marine Gunnery Sgt. Bob Lee Swagger debuted in Stephen Hunter’s military action thriller Point of Impact in 1993. The book was the first of many adventures for the fictional sniper and inspired a hit-movie, as well as a television series. But what led to the invention of such a character? In this quick read, Hunter shares how “the Nailer” came to his kitchen table and subsequently sprang to life. Hunter discusses the real-life hero who served as his inspiration for Swagger, the development of his first villains, and the influence the television show Dragnet had on his writing. He also details how research helped shaped Swagger’s world, and explains what keeps him writing adventure after adventure. Praise for the Bob Lee Swagger Novels “Nobody writes action better than Stephen Hunter and Black Light is one of his best. . . . [The] action scenes play like a movie, the plot is intriguing and the writing is top-notch.” —Phillip Margolin, author of The Burning Man “Stephen Hunter is in a class by himself. Time to Hunt is as vivid and haunting as a moving target in the crosshairs of a sniper scope.” —Nelson Demille, author of Mayday “The best straight-up thriller writer at work today.” —Rocky Mountain News “Thrilling in the manner of ancient storytellers, with battles fierce enough for a war and characters crazy enough to fight them to the death.” —New York Times Book Review “A thinking man’s Rambo.” —Publishers Weekly

I, Sniper Recruited by the FBI to examine the data, retired Marine sharpshooter Bob Lee Swagger penetrates the new technology of the secretive sniper world to unravel a sophisticated conspiracy run by his most ruthless adversary yet—a marksman whose keen intellect and pinpoint accuracy rival his own. But when the enemy and his deadly henchmen mistake Bob for the hunted, it’s clear that some situations call for a good man with a gun . . . and the guts to use it. Night of Thunder Woe unto he who crosses Bob Lee Swagger, especially when his daughter''s life is at stake. Forced off the road and into a crash that leaves her in a coma, clinging to life, reporter Nikki Swagger had begun to peel back the onion of a Southernfried conspiracy bubbling with all the angst, resentment, and dysfunction that Dixie gangsters can muster. An ancient, violent crime clan, a possibly corrupt law enforcement structure, gunmen of all stripes and shapes, and deranged evangelicals rear their ugly heads and will live to rue the day they targeted the wrong man''s daughter. It''s what you call your big-time bad career move. All of it is set against the backdrop of excitement and insanity that only a weeklong NASCAR event can bring to the backwoods of a town as seemingly sleepy as Bristol, Tennessee. 47th Samurai Bob Lee Swagger and Philip Yano are bound together by a single moment at Iwo Jima, 1945, when their fathers, two brave fighters on opposite sides, met in the bloody and chaotic battle for the island. Only Earl Swagger survived. More than sixty years later, Yano comes to America to honor the legacy of his heroic father by recovering the sword he used in the battle. Bob Lee finds the sword and delivers it to Yano in Tokyo. On inspection, they discover that it is not a standard WWII blade, but a legendary shin-shinto katana, an artifact of the nation. It is priceless but worth killing for. Suddenly Bob is at the center of a series of terrible crimes he barely understands but vows to avenge…