Rating: 
Summary: It doesn't get any better than this.
Review: Stephen Hunter is simply a spectacular story teller. This is the latest in the Swagger saga and could be considered the prequel. "Hot Springs" presents the back story of Earl Swagger (Bob Lee a.k.a. "Bob the Nailer's" father.)Earl returns from the Pacific campaign a Medal of Honor winner...a true hero. He is tapped to ramrod a strike force whose agenda is to put an end to the illicit activities so pervasive in Hot Springs, mostly controlled by Owney Maddox. The head of the strike force has grand polical ambitions, so Earl's enemies and allies both work against him. Mr. Hunter brings the likes of Harry Truman, Bugsy Siegel, Virginia Hill, Mickey Rooney and Alan Ladd in for cameo appearances and sets the 1946 scene to perfection in many subtle ways. The book moves at warp speed. You are compelled to turn pages in an attempt to keep up with the action.The story is presented from the minds of four or five main characters in alternating chapters so when you want to learn the outcome of one situation you must enjoy three or four more chapters to get that particular resolution. Like eating peanuts, you cannot read just one chapter. Mr. Hunter delivers a nonstop action read laced with taut suspense and peopled with rich, well defined characters. No one (heroes especially) is perfect and this novel is hard boiled noir at its very best.
Rating: 
Summary: Hunter Scores Again (But Not As Highly As His Past 4 Books)!
Review: Hot Springs is another in the line of fast-paced, highly entertaining, action-packed books from Stephen Hunter. This one has Bob Lee Swagger's father, Earl, as the main character. As you will see if you are a fan of Hunter's books, several of the characters appearing in Hot Springs were also in Dirty White Boys (whose setting is several years later). In the absolute, Hot Springs is a book I enjoyed a lot and I think you will, too. Comparatively, however, it does not quite measure up to Hunter's more recent books (i.e. Point Of Impact, Dirty White Boys, Black Light and Time To Hunt)in terms of suspense and credibility. But don't let this deter you from reading Hot Springs. As I said, it is a very enjoyable book.
Rating:
Summary: It doesn't get any better than this.
Review: Stephen Hunter is simply a spectacular story teller. This is the latest in the Swagger saga and could be considered the prequel. "Hot Springs" presents the back story of Earl Swagger (Bob Lee a.k.a. "Bob the Nailer's" father.) Earl returns from the Pacific campaign a Medal of Honor winner...a true hero. He is tapped to ramrod a strike force whose agenda is to put an end to the illicit activities so pervasive in Hot Springs, mostly controlled by Owney Maddox. The head of the strike force has grand polical ambitions, so Earl's enemies and allies both work against him. Mr. Hunter brings the likes of Harry Truman, Bugsy Siegel, Virginia Hill, Mickey Rooney and Alan Ladd in for cameo appearances and sets the 1946 scene to perfection in many subtle ways. The book moves at warp speed. You are compelled to turn pages in an attempt to keep up with the action.The story is presented from the minds of four or five main characters in alternating chapters so when you want to learn the outcome of one situation you must enjoy three or four more chapters to get that particular resolution. Like eating peanuts, you cannot read just one chapter. Mr. Hunter delivers a nonstop action read laced with taut suspense and peopled with rich, well defined characters. No one (heroes especially) is perfect and this novel is hard boiled noir at its very best.
Rating:
Summary: More of the same
Review: I almost wish "Hot Springs" was my first Stephen Hunter novel. On its own, it's a solid, hard-boiled tale. It's also a prequel to almost all of his other novels, giving Hunter the perfect opportunity to show off his skill at foreshadowing and drawing connections between apparently unrelated stories, which is considerable. "Hot Springs" would make a great introduction to Hunter's work. Unfortunately, as the latest installment, it's somewhat lacking. While it does have plenty of new revelations and background information for those readers already familiar with Stephen Hunter's characters, it doesn't have much else, and what's there feels a bit recycled. The plot is fairly straight-forward, lacking the dramatic cross-cutting of "Time to Hunt" and "Black Light", the twistedness of "Point of Impact", or the sheer intensity of "Dirty White Boys". Anyone who's read Hunter before knows exactly how it will end, and may even recognize the setting of the inevitable final showdown. Still, it's good to see old friends like Earl Swagger and Sam Vincent again, as well as real-life historical characters like Bugs Siegel, Virginia Hill, and colorful FBI agent and trick shooter D.A. "Jelly" Bryce. (In a major role and only thinly disguised under the name "Parker".)There are also tantalizing hints that we may soon hear much more of Frenchy Short, whose character promises to be quite a departure for Hunter.
Rating:
Summary: Hot Springing Around
Review: Hot Springs
This is a very good book by a talented author. Much of it is pure page-turner, and plotholes are kept to a minimum. Rare!!
However, like so many novels now, "Hot Springs" could have benefited greatly from some editorial assistance in tightening the narrative. Why do authors think that writing well is the only requirement? In this book we get well-written side-trips that take forever to advance some aspect of the plot that could have been handled in a flashback, or some other way.
As a matter of fact, the ENTIRE subject of Earl's father and brother is unnecessary to the main story, but is dragged through it like a ball and chain.
Overall, I'm very glad I found it and will look for more Hunter. I only wish he would stick more to the action that he's so good at, and indulge much less in psychological journeys, character-building etc. etc.
Rating:
Summary: The Veterans' Revolt of 1946, in Hot Springs, Ark.
Review:
Loosely based on an actual historical event, when returning World War II vets decided to clean up the corrupt cesspool that was Hot Springs, Arkansas, Stephen Hunter freely admits that he has taken great liberties with history. But when there is a conflict between a cool plot twist and history, as Hunter declares, the former will always win. He is a storyteller first, last, and always.
Hunter is a good storyteller partly because he spends considerable time researching his details in order to get things right, and make his stories plausible. Good fiction must be plausible. In this effort he has done his usual fine job, using books and experts to make certain that his details fall together on such things as the firearms he introduces (the Thompson submachine gun, for example, as well as combat enhanced .45 model 1911A1 Colt government model, and other weapons). He names some of his resources in the Acknowledgement chaper of the book.
One place where he apparently lacked adequate research though, was in describing a sailboat, where, no doubt he thought he could "wing it" with what knowledge he thought he had. Such tiny details trip up many an author who tries to spin a yarn about something he has no knowledge of, making a fine writer and careful researcher like Hunter stand out from the rest. And, he certainly does.
The detail? A "sheet" is not a sail. It is a rope. Some insist on calling it a "line." Its purpose is to control a sail.
Hunter uses the word to indicate the number of sails the boat will spread. He might better have indicated them by name, for presumably the boat was speading its jib, main, and mizzen, assuming that it was a ketch or yawl (not clarified). And, Stephen, there is no "twenty-two bells." On a 24 hour clock, 2200 is ten PM. There are only eight bells, which are sounded, incrementally, a half-hour apart, and then at the sounding of eight bells, it begins again with one bell.
Hunter apparently, judging from the speeches he puts in his protagonists mouth, doesn't like swabbies, and this is swabby language. But, remember this, The Marine Corps is part of the Navy, and any boot Marine should know the significance of the bell system of watch-keeping.
But, like Ruash Limbaugh would say, "Just kidding! Just Kidding!"
Stephen Hunter writes a helluva book, even if, as I suspect, he is really a bleeding heart liberal Democrat. He's currently my favorite fiction writer.
Joseph (Joe) Pierre, USN (Ret)
author of Handguns and Freedom...their care and maintenance
and other books
Rating:
Summary: More of that great Swagger action!
Review: This book is a prequel to the novel �Point of Impact� which centered around Bobby Lee Swagger. �Hot Springs� instead focuses on Earl Swagger, Bobby Lee�s father. Earl Swagger has just returned from WWII where his valor in combat earned him the Medal of Honor. He returns to Arkansas where he grew up and tries to settle down with his young, beautiful and now pregnant wife and live a normal life. But the Swagger blood doesn�t appear to be able to thrive unless it is in peril and before long, Swagger is working for an Arkansas D.A. to build a fighting unit to wipe out crime in the gangster controlled gambling town of Hot Springs. Like all of the Swagger novels, this book is filled with great combat scenes and tactics as well as extensive details on firearms. Set in 1946, the novel also paints a very vivid portrait of vice and the power of gangsters to control a city or even a state. If you enjoyed the other Swagger (Bobby Lee) novels, this newest turn will not disappoint you. If you have never read a Stephen Hunter novel, welcome and get ready for a good old fashion good guys with guns versus bad guys with guns book you will enjoy.
Rating: 
Summary: A bit disappointing...
Review: I'm a big Stephen Hunter fan and have enjoyed most of his previous books. It was a disappointment, therefore, to find that this novel was not up to the standard of his usual works. The outstanding flaw with this story is its one dimensional villains, a bunch of mobsters who are straight out of some cheesy Mafia movie. The most interesting thing about lead criminal Owney Maddox is that he occasionally affects an English accent. Add to the cliched mobsters some cliched hillbilly muscle and the story has some real problems. Earl Swagger is an interesting enough character, although in certain ways a little too perfect. Yes, he can be a drunk and a bad husband, but in a fight, he is so utterly superior that it reduces some of the suspense. Hunter is a great writer (usually) and he can even make this weaker effort exciting at times. The second half of this book in particular has some good moments. Nonetheless, this book would not be a good introduction to Hunter's works, and I cannot recommend it to anyone other than his usual fans.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining Read
Review: I feel a little out of my depth in reviewing this book. I have no experience with guns, gunfights, or gangsters, but I do know an entertaining read when I come across one and this was great entertainment. Earl Swagger, just home from fighting in WWII, heads up a team of men reminiscent of the "Untouchables" to clean up the town of Hot Springs, Arkansas which is rife with gangsters, gambling and prostitution. Earl is a somewhat dark character except when he is doing his job...training his team of law enforcers and taking out bad guys. When he is in his element, he is downright jovial. Earl's wife, June, is less well developed and the author made some errors in writing about her pregnancy and delivery (A face down presentation is normal. A face up presentation would be a problem. And, as any woman who has given birth could tell you, ten centimeters is the magic number for cervical dilation, not twelve to fifteen.). But since this is, in large part, a "guy book", these errors do not distract from the major story line. There is plenty of exciting action to keep the reader interested. I have been a fan of Stephen Hunter's since "Black Light" and I enjoy his writing style very much. This is a very good addition to the Swagger saga.
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