Rating: 
Summary: Another excellent book in the saga
Review: I had some difficulty at the beginning to place the story in time with the others Hunter book. Charles Swagger, Earl Swagger and Bobby Lee Swagger were dificult to understand at first. Also the book was difficult to close because the farther you get in the story, the more you need to know, the more you understand. Dirty White Boys and Time to Hunt are related in this book. Since I read all of Hunter book, I was trying to recall exactly what was written before. Now, I need to go back in my library, retrieve the other two book and read them again. The book is so good I will enjoy reading Dirty White Boy now with all the information from Hot Springs. And I'll just have to wait for Pale Horse Coming...
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic Read. A Better Noir than Ellroy's & Diehl's
Review: I have to say that Stephen Hunter is one of the greatest writers overlapping the late 20th & the earlier 21st centuries. Not even one book he wrote should bear less than 5 stars, especially this "Earl Swagger SAGA." Enjoyed all of them and lost lot of sleep, so satisfying and appreciated. Very grateful.
Rating: 
Summary: Earl Tracks Down Earl's Father
Review: There's not a lot of Bob the Nailer in this one, but I'm beginning to see his father (Earl, who is the main character) much more clearly and I may even learn to enjoy reading his adventures as much as I do those of Bob. Take yourself down to the seamy side of life.
VISIT Sunny, friendly Hot Springs, Arkansas; Vice capital of the 1930's South.
LEARN more about Earl S, and about his father who was a sheriff before him.
SEE the shootout in the bordello.
HEAR the ambush in the trainyard.
DISCOVER the shameful secret of the First Generation of the Swagger family Not a whole lot of sniper action in this one. But the book opens up with Earl Swagger (Bob Lee's daddy) receiving The Medal from the President, and all the while he has a pint of whiskey and a cocked 'n locked 1911 tucked under his tunic. Now, why would a war hero with a pretty new bride think he needs booze and guns on what should be the best day of his life? This is as seamy as "Dirty White Boys", but somehow it seems not so dirty; the bad guys are sinful, disgusting and deadly, but mostly they just don't seem quite as sick as Hunter's first excursion into the Life and Times of Earl Swagger. If you don't have this book, you need to get it. Read it quickly, 'cause you really want to have it as a companion for "Pale Horse Coming"...
Rating:
Summary: a great read
Review: Don't start it unless you have a day or two to finish it
Rating:
Summary: 40s Noir brilliantly done
Review: Too many people think of Hunter as simply the only novelist who happens to know the difference between the .30-06 and the .308. He does. So what? He also knows how to tell a complex story in a carefully evoked world, with biting dialogue, believable violence and stunning reversals. HOT SPRINGS is one of his best. Earl Swagger, a Marine hero from World War II, is exhausted by his return to a go-getting 40s America and can't forget the islands on which he fought and on which so many of his friends were killed. When an ambitious district attorney in Garland County, Ark., gives him a chance to ramrod a special raiding unit opposed to the gangsters who run Hot Springs, Arkansas's wide-open prototype of Las Vegas, it's the war that Earl must be looking for. But at the same time as Earl is leading his lawmen on their raids, and the stakes and bodycount arerising, a young officer is investigating Earl himself, and a whole biography emerges: we see a man naturally given to aggression who was formed by a violent upbringing at the hands of an abusive father. We see a man fighting to control his demons, his rages, his alcoholism, trying to do the right thing even as the political situation around him is shifting, and even as the gunfire grows even hotter. Earl may be Hunter's best creation: he's a hero who isn't a superman but a man of flaws, misjudgements, and self-doubts. He's the best thing a hero can be--human.
Rating: 
Summary: A disappointment
Review: I am a great fan of Mr. Hunter's newspaper writing for The Washington Post and The Baltimore Sun. So I was very disappointed to discover that HOT SPRINGS was such a shallow read. Were there great passages? Absolutely. Does he know guns? Sure. But for reviewers to say that he is carrying the banner for a writer like Dash Hammett is absurd. Hammett and others like him created pulp fiction. HOT SPRINGS merely moves through the territory of the pulp tradition, but brings nothing new or fresh to it. In fact, one gets the feeling that Mr. Hunter feels it is okay for him to leverage some of the pulp cliches simply because the novel is set in the 1940's, but all he succeeds in doing is recycling them and creating 500-plus pages of tired, predictable storytelling. The quick pace only masks the myriad of problems. My biggest gripe, however, is with the uninteresting characters, especially Earl Swagger. I was hooked by Earl's behavior in the first several chapters, and was anxious to see how this Audie Murphy-inspired character would develop. Instead, Mr. Hunter bailed out and portrayed him as a superman of ridiculous proportions, all the way down to his advocacy for civil rights. His drinking problem was a poorly developed throw-in to suggest fallibility, and was not at all believable. See James Lee Burke's Robichheaux novels for a better treatment of this character flaw within a crime format. Having said all of this, I will attempt to read more of Mr. Hunter's work, but I will stay far away from the comic book invinciblity of Mr. Swagger. It's just not very interesting for my tastes, even as entertainment.
Rating:
Summary: What can I say - repulsive
Review: I loathed this book from the first page and could not force myself to continue reading it (even from the guilt of having paid for it)! Hunter has written some other books that I have rated 4-5 but this one is so bad it made me wonder why he wrote it.
Rating:
Summary: First Hunter book for me, but it won't be the last
Review: Heard the taped version of HOT SPRINGS by Stephen
Hunter . . . story of an ex-Marine sergeant, Earl Swaggert, who is
hired to wage a war on corruption in Hot Springs, Arkansas, in
1946 . . . I was afraid that I might not like it because of both the
era and the locale, but was I wrong . . . very quick-moving . . . Hunter
really gives you a feel for what it was like living in the South during
that time . . . this is the first book I have read by the author, but it
probably won't be the last . . . after finishing HOT SPRINGS, I
learned that it is actually a prequel to other novels involving the
Swagert family . . . but that did not impact upon my enjoyment
in this one; i.e., I did not feel "lost" without having Hunter's latter
works . . . Jay O. Sanders, long one of my favorite character
actors, did a superb job of narration . . . he shifted effortelessly
between characters, but perhaps most amazing was the fact
that I did not even recognize Sanders' voice--a real tribute to him.
Rating:
Summary: Great action, great plotting, great character development.
Review: I think this is one of Hunter's best books. As always, the technical info about all aspects of gun fighting is very accurate without bogging the story down (as so often happens when a writer seems overly eager to display his knowledge of weaponry). The story, about a World War II hero hired to help clean up organized crime in Hot Springs, Arkansas, is totally gripping in it's recreation of time and place. For fans of Hunter's work, it is fascinating reading about Bob Lee Swagger's (the hero of many Hunter novels) father and learning his story. Overall, the author seems to strike a deeper tone emotionally in this work than any work previously. Also, the book is at times very dry and funny, particularly the scenes between Bugsy Segal and Virginia Hill, two actual characters of the time and place. Just a great read. This is one of those rare summer thrillers that touch the periphery of "literature". A wonderful book.
Rating:
Summary: Down Home Action
Review: Well now, we meet Bob Lee's Daddy Earl. What a Man! All any of us could ever hope to be. A medal of honor winner and tough as nails, that is much tougher than any Grumleys that he has to face. All kidding aside I love all of Hunters smiper series and this was as good or better than any of them. I will stand by for his new one that is coming out this month. Happy reading to all.
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