Rating: 
Summary: "If yer half the man yer daddy wuz...."
Review: Stephen Hunter made it big with his novels about Bob Lee Swagger ("Bob the Nailer"), the best shooter ever (POINT OF IMPACT, DIRTY WHITE BOYS, TIME TO HUNT). Now he gives us a prequel -- the story of Bob's daddy, Earl Swagger, the Medal of Honor winner home after World War II.Earl is recruited to lead a group of lawmen to clean-up notorious Hot Spring, Arkansas. This he does, in the finest action-adventure style, with a plot that makes sense. There are twists, turns, and surprises, but Hunter always plays fair with the clues. The background is authentic and well-researched, and the gunfights, as always, are the best in modern fiction.
Rating: 
Summary: Great book
Review: I enjoyed this book as much as Dirty White Boys, Point of Impact and Black Light. I found it to be a fast read and well worth the price. I have only one exception in Mr. Hunter's storytelling; in 20 years as a nurse, I have never had an OB patient dilate to a "15". A "10" is just about as far as she goes!
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Summary: Non-Stop Action Fom Sart To Finish!!!
Review: Bob the Nailer is a famous and incredible character. He displays no fear and always has a way out of any situation. This book gives the reader a chance to discover Bob's family background. Earl doesn't disappoint, he displays all the grit and toughness that he instilled in his son. Earl backs down from no man, I especially liked when he knocked Bugsy Siegal off his feet. He displays amazing courage under fire, just like Bob the Nailer. I would recommend this book for any Stephen Hunter fan, or any person who enjoys a great suspense novel. I read this book in 2 days because it was imposssible to put down. Every chapter left the reader with a small portion of information that I just had to read on to find out what is going to happen next. This is typical Stephen Hunter fashion and this is one the many reasons he has become my favorite author. READ THIS BOOK, WON'T REGRET IT.
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Summary: Gripping action, Hunter scores again.
Review: The first thing that came into my mind when reading the first chapter of Hot Springs was the "Ballad of Ira Hayes", a Johnny Cash classic based on a true story. In the song an American Pima Indian named Ira goes to war as a marine and becomes a hero. Ira was one of the famous men pictured on many statues raising the American flag on Iwo Jima hill in Japan. On his return Ira was constantly honoured and dined. Ira ended up dying drunk in a ditch, his alcoholism catching up to him. Hot Springs found another marine though fictional, from the southern states like Ira. His name, Earl Swaggar, from the poor county of Polk Arkansas, son of a respected lawman who beat him mercilessly and drove a brother to suicide. Basically Earl returns from Iwo Jima, and is given the Medal of Honour for his services, because of this he is scouted by a couple of men who would like Earl to run a law enforcement team in Hot Springs. A town full of mobster corruption, gambling, sex, and violence. I think that perhaps the part in the first half of the book that affected me the most is just after Earl was given the medal. Already too drunk, he stumbles into a fancy Washington washroom and takes a long sip of bourbon, then pulls a gun out of his suit and tries to commit suicide. One of the best weapon-handlers in America stopped only by his own intoxication, unable to find the trigger on a familiar gun. Upon reading this I felt shame for Earl, a man who found the will and way to score over 300 enemy kills and stay alive. It was then I understood how grown men like he and Ira could be twisted by the horror of war and seeing too many friends go down. I think the author made this section more outstanding because of how he built up the situation. He tries, and succeeds to contrast the events. Here was a hero, dressed in fine clothes and accompanied by fine people receiving the highest medal possible from the president himself. And then, with diminutive warning he tries to distance himself with it all and die on the floor of a washroom. I had many favourite parts in this book, particularly ones of action, which the author describes beautifully. In one such fight the raiding team is to take a brothel by storm, shutting it down for good. Sergeant Earl Swaggar stands alone outside for backup when he spots suspicious movement in the back of a vehicle. He fires on it, sending it skyward in a ball of orange flame. It turns out there were three gun toting Grumley's in it, who planned to ambush the raid team. I should tell you these Grumley's are bad characters. Hillbilly types who like to kill and serve under the big shot gangster in Hot Springs, Owney Maddox. Earl now knows that there is an ambush underway, and joins the raiders in the brothel. He tells them to back up and cover for him because there are more Grumley's upstairs, and they've got a huge chain gun that could split down through the floor, which it does. The next two paragraphs is Earl running upstairs and shooting down the men at the big gun as well as the other bad guys holding guns to the prostitute's heads. The last man to fall was a young Grumley threatening Earl and the prostitute he held before him. Swaggar shot him in the eye and rescued the girl. In the end 11 Grumley's fell victim to the sharp-shooting Swaggar.
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Summary: EARL SWAGGER CLEANS UP HOT SPRINGS
Review: In my opinion the Swagger novels are the best that Mr. Hunter has to offer. This prequel involves Earl as he has just returned stateside from WWII. He joins a newly elected D.A. who has visions of higher office and believes that cleansing Hot Springs of mob activity is the way to the promised land. Earl trains a handful of young men into a highly specialized unit to take on the criminal element in the city. The action scenes are awesome and Mr. Hunter describes Hot Springs perfectly. I have been to the city several times and I could picture in my mind exactly where everything took place. This is a wonderful novel involving the very charismatic Earl Swagger. Try it out.
Rating:
Summary: Damn good but a let down from other Hunter books
Review: Before I start in on what bothered me about the book I have to say that I did enjoy it very much. But overall, it seemed like Hunter came up with an awesome outline, and then rushed through the actual writing. The "mystery" (who killed Earl's father), though intelligent, could have been made a little more unpredictable and been developed more for added suspense. The whole supposed father/son relationship between Earl and the older policeman should have either been made more believable or left out. Hunter didn't need to keep hitting us over the head with evidence that Earl is not a racist. Obviously , with a story set in that place and time Hunter has to do this, but he didn't need to do such a ham-handed job of it. Finally, the ending, where Jimmy and Bub appear for no reason was unnecessary, and for anyone who hasn't read Black Light, must have seemed bizarre ("who are these characters? why are they being introduced to us?") Anyway, none of this is enough to keep me from liking this book. The characters were all great. The plot is tight and well paced. The action is as brilliantly written as any of Hunter's books. His style is a pleasure to read. And I love how he writes all of his books in the same universe, as if creating new characters and settings would be inefficient (we are re-introduced to Frenchy, C.D., Bob Lee and several others, and the Hard Bargain Valley enjoys yet another blood bath). Overall this book was thoroughly enjoyable (especially if you don't think about it as much as I have). Anyone who hasn't read other books in the Swagger series, I would recommend reading this book first, and then the others in sequence.
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Summary: This is a damn good book!!
Review: This is the best book I have read in a long time. Buy it, you won't be dissapointed......
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty OK
Review: This was my first Hunter, after reading the review. It's a pretty good yarn, pretty well written, pretty well paced and well, overall, a little labored, but I read it quickly and pretty well enjoyed it. I'm also pretty well fed up with lousy editing that can't catch one or two glaring discrepancies in time (for example, on one page, a watch reads 6 p.m. On the next, it's 5 p.m.), the usual handful of jarring typos, and a gap or two in the action (how is it that Earl shows up for the final shoot-'em-up dressed out in Tommy gun and magazines when all that armament was taken away from him and he was spanked home hard by Hot Springs finest? Who was his supplier? We don't know). C'mon, boys and girls, pretty-up your publications before asking good money for them.
Rating:
Summary: Made me tired
Review: I read this after enjoying "Point of Impact", which not only presented a fascinating portrait of the sniper mentality personified by Bob Lee Swagger, but also entertained with some fairly unpredictable plot twists. However, "Hot Springs" just didn't make it for me. Too many times did I have to read about how certain characters had the "best trigger control of any man on earth", or how "if you didn't kill Earl, there's no doubt, he's gonna make you pay", because he was the bravest, most capable man on earth, with "the fastest hands on earth", as someone or too many somebodies said by the end of the book. There may be characters that Stephen Hunter writes about that actually meet up with the hype he provides, like Bob Lee - but, by the middle of "Hot Springs", I was tired of listening to the hype - afterall, if you believe it, you know what's going to happen. Not much surprise left there at the end at all.
Rating:
Summary: Well constructed action filled story
Review: A Stephen Hunter just gets better and better. If you have never read anything by him this is the novel you should start with. He describes a world (the one in which Bill Clinton was raised) which reminds you that crime, gambling, and entertainment have a long intertwined history in America. He captures the post-World War II environment and introduces you to Earl Swagger, young Marine who returns home to do a new kind of duty. In earlier works Hunter described Swagger's son as a Vietnam Marine who was a master sniper and his adventures both in uniform and out. He has also written a series of individual novels that stand on their own without the Swagger family. If you like action, technical knowledge and a consistently tight story you will enjoy Stephen Hunter's works. I am already looking forward to whatever he writes next.
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