The Third Bullet (Bob Lee Swagger Series)
*Starred Review* For nearly 50 years, the world has been obsessing over the assassination of JFK, from grassy knolls to magic bullets. Finally, though, there’s somebody on the case who likes to act more than talk: Bob Lee Swagger, former Vietnam sniper and the man you want on your side when it comes down to “straight killing time.” When the wife of a murdered thriller writer (with a bio very like Hunter’s own) asks Bob Lee to find her husband’s killer—and mentions that the writer was working on a book about the assassination (a book very like this one)—it’s no surprise that Swagger, who has no interest in who killed JFK, says no thanks. But then the widow tells him that an overcoat that her husband found in a building across the way from the Texas Book Depository had a peculiar stain on the back, as if a bicycle had run over it, and suddenly Bob Lee is very interested indeed. It takes nearly 500 pages before Hunter explains what it all means—with the narrative jumping between 1963 and the present—and while assassination fanatics will likely find all kinds of problems with the scenario he constructs (naturally, it hinges on ballistics, Bob Lee’s area of expertise), the rest of us will have no problem willingly suspending disbelief. Best of all, though, the novel isn’t just about what happened in Dallas 50 years ago; connected to the unraveling of the JFK story is a contemporary manhunt that takes Bob Lee first to Russia and then to the Connecticut countryside, where, finally, it’s straight killing time yet again. Who knows (or cares, really) if Hunter’s hypothesis is accurate, but, like Stephen King in 11/22/63 (2011), he has used the assassination to forge a terrific thriller.            HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Bob Lee Swagger wipes the floor with all the usual suspects connected to the death of JFK—now there’s a premise for the ages! Hunter does his subject proud, and the marketing campaign to support the launch will do the book just as proud. --Bill Ott--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.