Haven't looked through the whole File. But I looked for this book for a while and tried the anym's bs file too.



Bob Lee Swagger is back in a thriller fifty years in the making . . .

ItΓÇÖs not even a clue. ItΓÇÖs a whisper, a trace, a ghost echo, drifting down through the decades via chance connections so fragile that they would disintegrate in the puff of a breath. But itΓÇÖs enough to get legendary former Marine sniper Bob Lee Swagger interested in the events of November 22, 1963, and the third bullet that so decisively ended the life of John F. Kennedy and set the stage for one of the most enduring controversies of our time.

Swagger begins his slow night stalk through a much-traveled landscape. But heΓÇÖs asking questions that few have asked before: Why did the third bullet explode? Why did Lee Harvey Oswald, about to become the most hunted man on earth, risk it all by returning to his rooming house to secure a pistol he easily could have brought with him? How could a conspiracy that went unpenetrated for fifty years have been thrown together in the two and a half days between the announcement of the presidentΓÇÖs route and the assassination itself?

As Bob investigates, another voice enters the narrative: knowing, ironic, almost familiar, that of a gifted, Yale-educated veteran of the CIA Plans Division. Hugh Meachum has secrets and the means and the will to keep them buried. When weighed against his own legacy, SwaggerΓÇÖs life is an insignificant expenseΓÇöbut to blunt the threat, heΓÇÖll first have to ambush the sniper.

As each man hunts the other across todayΓÇÖs globe and through the thickets of history, The Third Bullet builds to an explosive climax that will finally prove what Bob Lee Swagger has always known: itΓÇÖs never too late for justice.

From Booklist

Starred Review For nearly 50 years, the world has been obsessing over the assassination of JFK, from grassy knolls to magic bullets. Finally, though, thereΓÇÖs 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 ΓÇ£straight killing time.ΓÇ¥ When the wife of a murdered thriller writer (with a bio very like HunterΓÇÖs own) asks Bob Lee to find her husbandΓÇÖs killerΓÇöand mentions that the writer was working on a book about the assassination (a book very like this one)ΓÇöitΓÇÖs 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 meansΓÇöwith the narrative jumping between 1963 and the presentΓÇöand while assassination fanatics will likely find all kinds of problems with the scenario he constructs (naturally, it hinges on ballistics, Bob LeeΓÇÖs area of expertise), the rest of us will have no problem willingly suspending disbelief. Best of all, though, the novel isnΓÇÖt 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, itΓÇÖs straight killing time yet again. Who knows (or cares, really) if HunterΓÇÖs 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 JFKΓÇönow thereΓÇÖs 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

Review

ΓÇ£The Swagger novel we've all been waiting for, and the Swagger novel Stephen Hunter was born to write . . . a magnificent thrillerΓÇöand it might even be true.ΓÇ¥ (Lee Child #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Wanted Man and *The Affair* )

ΓÇ£Like an elite sniper, Stephen Hunter zeroes in on one of the most infamous shots ever fired and delivers a mind-bending thriller that answers the question ΓÇÿWhat if?ΓÇÖ in astonishingly plausible detail. The Third Bullet is his best Bob Lee Swagger thriller yet.ΓÇ¥ (Vince Flynn #1 New York Times bestselling author of *Kill Shot* )

ΓÇ£Former Marine sniper Bob Lee Swagger tackles the granddaddy of all conspiracy theoriesΓÇöthe 1963 Kennedy assassinationΓÇöin his latest adventure. . . . The authorΓÇÖs obsessive attention to the events of Nov. 22 yields a stunningly plausible theory that will have readers holding the book in one hand and Googling satellite photos of Dealey Plaza and the Texas School Book Depository with the other.ΓÇ¥ (*Entertainment Weekly* )

ΓÇ£HunterΓÇÖs action-packed new thriller, The Third Bullet . . . introduces a shockingly plausible alternative to the Lee Harvey Oswald-ΓÇÿlone gunmanΓÇÖ explanation.ΓÇ¥ (*Fort Worth Star-Telegram* )

ΓÇ£For nearly 50 years, the world has been obsessing over the assassination of JFK, from grassy knolls to magic bullets. Finally, though, thereΓÇÖs somebody on the case who likes to act more than talk: Bob Lee Swagger. . . . like Stephen King in 11/22/63, Hunter has used the assassination to forge a terrific thriller.ΓÇ¥ (Booklist (starred review) )

ΓÇ£Bestseller HunterΓÇÖs solid eighth thriller featuring master sniper Bob Lee Swagger . . . plunges into the byzantine world of conspiracy theory. Hunter develops some new angles on the JFK assassination.ΓÇ¥ (*Publishers Weekly* )

ΓÇ£The Third Bullet is as riveting as it is ambitious. It's Stephen Hunter's best so far.ΓÇ¥ (Michael Connelly #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Drop and *The Black Box* )

ΓÇ£Stephen Hunter is the bullseye ace of the modern thriller, a cerebral mix of mystery, blood, brutality, treachery and suspense. The Third Bullet is Hunter at the absolute apex of his art. Come onΓÇöit's time to hunt!ΓÇ¥ (Stephen Coonts New York Times bestselling author of *The Disciple* )

ΓÇ£One of the hardest things for a writer to do is establish an identity, but there is no mistaking Stephen HunterΓÇÖs thrillers. They have a unique insight into what it takes to be a hero, combined with an unequaled lyrical, even poetic approach to the ballistics, tactics, and firearms of a gunfight. HunterΓÇÖs novels (what a great last name, given his themes) combine authenticity with fascinating, compelling, real-feeling characters, and in The Third Bullet, he even adds a further dimension, experimenting with structure while embedding literary quotations. To me, he's a model of what a thriller author can be.ΓÇ¥ (David Morrell New York Times bestselling author of *First Blood* )

ΓÇ£Only Stephen Hunter, with his brilliant knowledge of firearms, could have produced The Third Bullet and offered up a plausible explanation for one of our nationΓÇÖs greatest mysteries. Despite the explosive subject matter, there is a jauntiness approaching pure joy in both the reading and the storytelling. This book will be huge.ΓÇ¥ (C.J. Box New York Times bestselling author of *Force of Nature* )