The Third Bullet, Stephen Hunter
The Third Bullet, Stephen Hunter
3 Rating(s)
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The Third Bullet

Author: Stephen Hunter

Narrator: Buck Schirner

Abridged: 9 hr 54 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/15/2013


Synopsis

It’s not even a clue. It’s 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 it’s 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 he’s 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 president’s 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, Swagger’s life is an insignificant expense — but to blunt the threat, he’ll first have to ambush the sniper.As each man hunts the other across today’s 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: it’s never too late for justice.

About Stephen Hunter

Stephen Hunter is the author of eighteen novels, including I, Sniper and Point of Impact. In 2003 he won the Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Criticism for his work at The Washington Post, where he retired as chief film critic. He has also published two collections of film criticism and a nonfiction work about the attempted assassination of Harry Truman, American Gunfight.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Brian on March 06, 2013

While I still think Hunter's first book, "Point of Impact," is one of the best "action-thriller" books and a must read for anyone interested in the genre, I was a bit disappointed in "The Third Bullet." I found the pacing, especially in the middle when Hunter changes point-of-view between characters......more

Goodreads review by Jonathan on January 26, 2013

The 50th Anniversary of President Kennedy’s assassination has brought out a number of fiction and nonfiction books about his murder. I’ve reviewed two: Steven King’s 11/22/63 and Bill O’Reilly’s Killing Lincoln (the latter being nonfiction). I rated both of them very highly. But Stephen Hunter’s The......more

Goodreads review by Bill on March 30, 2013

I have been a big fan of Hunter's for years and have enjoyed the Swagger books, (both father and son) but I have to say I was very disappointed by this book. Long, drawn out, and way too enamored with the details of ballistics, The Third Bullet was a slog. I kept going, waiting for something more un......more

Goodreads review by Paul on January 26, 2013

I generally enjoy Stephen Hunter's writing, and I think Bob Lee Swagger is one of the most entertaining, richest characters in current thriller fiction. The problem: there's too much Hunter and not enough Swagger in this book. Long stretches are dedicated to exposition by characters who are, essenti......more

Goodreads review by Jeff on April 01, 2024

In 2013, on the 50th anniversary of JFK's assassination, Bob Lee Swagger solves the mystery! Or, at least it was a good story with guns, gun fights, ballistics and secrets to be covered up.......more