Pale Horse Coming

I have to say that this book was a stunner for me. Full of violence and
delicious retribution, tightly written and peopled with characters that come
to life before your eyes. This would make a hell of a movie, and I couldn't
help but cast it in my head as I went along. This isn't the sort
of book I ordinarily pick up to read, but I'm very glad I did, and I'm going
to be looking for some more books by Mr. Hunter, including one called "Hot
Springs," in which he introduces the amazing character of Earl Swagger.

First, a bit of background about this series of novels. Stephen Hunter has two main characters: Earl Swagger, a veteran of WWII, a state trooper, tough, quiet, capable, tormented. Earl has a son, Bob Lee, who follows in his father's footsteps in most things. In Vietnam, Bob Lee (trained as a sniper) is known as Bob the Nailer. The first novel in the Bob Lee series starts twenty years later, when he is reluctantly drawn out of retirement.

Here's the challenge: Hunter jumps around in time, and back and forth between related storylines. My strong advice is to read the novels in the order you see here, although it will seem at first that Dirty White Boys doesn't belong where I've put it. It does. You won't see why until Black Light, and you show more won't appreciate Black Light unless you read Dirty White Boys first. Unfortunately there's almost no indication of this when you pick up on the books in a bookstore, and you might somehow miss what can only be called a near-classical tragedy if certain things don't happen in order. So I'm telling you. My suggestion would also be to read the Earl Swagger books before the Bob Lee books. But that's not strictly necessary.

Bob Lee Swagger
1. Point of Impact (1993)
2. Dirty White Boys (1994)
3. Black Light (1996)
4. Time to Hunt (1998)

Earl Swagger
1. Hot Springs (2000)
2. Pale Horse Coming (2001)
3. Havana (2003)

So you've got two interrelated series of books about a father and a son, jumping around in time. Why bother? Because when Hunter is on top of his game, these are fantastic stories. Bob Lee and Earl are both fascinating, frustrating, engaging, over the top and believable at the same time. Earl's difficult boyhood (which makes for some of the best reading in the series) shores up what might otherwise feel like Hunter's fraught characterization.

However. The novels are not all equal (and how could they be?) Pale Horse Coming is probably my favorite, and I like it for the same reasons I like Lee Child's Die Trying -- the story of one strong man going up against a cabal of bad guys. A weakness of mine, I admit. show less

It's 1951, and the last place a man wishes to visit is Thebes State Penal Farm (colored) in Mississippi. Up a dark river, surrounded by swamps and impenetrable piney woods, it's the Old South at its most brutal. but in that year, two men will come to Thebes, first is Sam Vincent, the former prosecuting attorney of Polk County, Arkansas. Second is earl Swagger, a Marine hero on Iwo Jima and now a sergeant of the Arkansas State Police.

Stephen Hunter's "Pale Horse Coming" starts out with a bang, and the author builds suspense as Earl Swagger saves his buddy but endures torture like no man should. But the end of the book is strangely anti-climatic, lacking suspense. Swagger gains his revenge too easily.

I love Hunter's books, especially "Point of Impact." But this one petered out at the end.

Great story with Earl Swagger going against all odds for survival. Once it gets rolling, you won't want to put it down.

I liked it. The setup wasn't really credible at all, but the story drew me in anyway, entertaining throughout.

Fast paced action.

Not always believable but, entertaining. Kind of like an old cop or western shoot em up. A fast summer read.