There are few writers more respected for their attention to detail and powerful writing style than Stephen Hunter. There are even fewer characters more iconic in the military thriller genre than Bob Lee Swagger. In Targeted, both author and character are at their best.
After successfully taking down of a dangerous terrorist that left him severely injured, a recovering Bob Lee Swagger learns that no good deed goes unpunished. Summoned to a hearing by the United States Congress on a trumped up reckless endangerment charge, Swagger is aware that he’s being set up as a political scapegoat. Running the committee is a hardnosed anti-gun congresswoman known to tear through anything and anyone in her path. What starts off as a political event tailor made for the news cameras soon turns deadly when the auditorium where the committee is being held is attacked by a group of Chechen separatists.
Targeted is a no holds barred, old school style of thriller, complete with easy to understand villains, compromised political figures, and the only man you want on your side when someone needs to be put in the ground. Despite Swagger being ‘well aged’ at this point in the series, he is as tough and gritty as he was at twenty. Only now, he’s also a bit wiser.
From a sheer writing standpoint, I’m hard pressed to find a more entertaining style of prose than Hunter’s. Descriptions are imbibed with poetic flamboyance, but somehow also detailed and specific. His explanations of weaponry are, and always have been, second to none. You don’t have to be a gun nut to be able to easily picture the tools of the trade being utilized on the page.
The only personal tidbit I’ll add in here was that I was initially confused by and a bit skeptical of the detour into the late 1700s. I should have trusted in Hunter more. As that particular subplot unfolded I found myself eagerly seeking to understand what had happened and its impact on the present.
Fans of the series will welcome this latest addition. To those readers who are just now familiarizing themselves with the Swagger series… Targeted is going to make you go back and start from the beginning.
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Purchase Targeted
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Barrington Books
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Once Upon A Crime
The Book Dragon
The Poisoned Pen
