Product Description

"Time to Hunt" marks the return of one of Hunter's most popular characters, Bob Lee Swagger, also known as "Bob the Nailer", first introduced in "Point of Impact" and "Black Light". Now, just when he thinks the horror of the Vietnam War is behind him, Bob must face his deadliest foe from Vietnam. Only this time, it isn't just his own life at risk, but also the lives of his wife and daughter. With his trademark timing, and prose that cuts to the bone, Hunter delivers another dead-on thriller.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27945 in Books
• Published on: 1999-04-13
• Released on: 1999-04-13
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 608 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780440226451
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Amazon.com Review
After a literally explosive opening where sniper fire cuts through the chest of an unnamed victim (Swagger?), readers of Time to Hunt are plunged into the final years of the Vietnam War and the struggles of Marine Donny Fenn. Stationed in Washington, D.C., after recovering from a nearly mortal wound, Fenn is asked to spy on Marines who may have ties to the peace movement. What Donny quickly learns, however, is that his Navy superiors are more interested in framing somebody than they are in finding the truth. In this first section, readers waiting to discover the outcome of the assassination and glimpse Bob "The Nailer" Swagger will instead be swept away by Hunter's vivid painting of the divided loyalties and torn identities that plagued soldiers and citizens in the early 1970s.

But all of this action is only a prelude to Donny's subsequent relationship with Swagger in Vietnam. Hunter fleshes out the mythology that he began to create in Point of Impact as readers watch Swagger add to his famed body count and confront his nemesis, Solaratov. Hunter moves deftly from the mind of Solaratov to Donny and back to Swagger, and in each character finds the core of the Vietnam experience--fear, coldness, sadness, horror, elation.

The last two sections cut to contemporary events and find Swagger married to Donny's former love, Julie. Slowly, the events of the first half of the book begin to merge with Swagger's present history and stories that readers will recognize from Hunter's earlier novels. Swagger uncovers a deep connection between the Vietnam demonstrations of the 1970s, the predatory work of the CIA, and the killer who is after him and his family now. Nothing is as it first seems, and readers of Point of Impact and Black Light will have to revise all their expectations. --Patrick O'Kelley

From Library Journal
When a sniper shoots a man in the mountains of Idaho and wounds the woman who is with him, it is not an isolated incident but the deliberate culmination of events that began during the Vietnam War. Bob Lee Swagger, who was a Marine sniper in Vietnam known as "Bob for the Nailer" for his lethal shooting, at first believes that he was the gunman's intended target. The wounded woman is his wife and the widow of his wartime comrade, Donny Fenn. Donny had been killed by a Russian sniper assigned the task of neutralizing Bob, or so Bob had always believed. But now it seems possible that Donny might have been the main target all those years ago and that it is Donny's widow that the sniper has come to kill, not Bob. Both a gripping war novel and a complex thriller coiled around the convoluted intrigues of the supposedly concluded Cold War, this is page-turning entertainment that will delight action adventure readers.?Charles Michaud, Turner Free Lib., Randolph, MA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From The Washington Post
Time to Hunt is edge-of-the-seat reading, but it is a step above Point of Impact and Black Light, his previous "Bob the Nailer" efforts. It is a well-plotted thriller, infused with enough lyrical prose and insightful musings about the human condition to make it worth the time of even less adventure-prone readers.

Customer Reviews

Time to read!
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.

Very Fun Read
An engaging yarn- you will burn through this one in no time at all.

One negative, Hunter's use of family (and women in general) is fine for what it is- a motivating factor for Swagger's actions- but the character development and dialogue of those who are not "military" or even, dare I say it, not "male" are tough to swallow at times- as is Swagger's interaction with them.

Take it for what it is, an engaging story about one kick-ass dude on a wild ride and leave the lovey dovey alone.

Hunter could make the telephone book interesting
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!