Black light

by Stephen Hunter

Paper Book, 1996

Status

Available

Call number

Fic

Publication

New York : Island Books/Dell Pub., 1997, c1996.

Description

Fiction. Literature. Suspense. Thriller. HTML:Only one thing stands between a son and his father's killer: forty years of lies. . . On a remote Arizona ranch, a man who has known loss, fear, and war weeps for the first time since he was a child.  His tears are for the father taken from him four decades before in a deadly shoot-out.  And his grief will lead him back to the place where he was born, where his father died, and where a brutal conspiracy is about to explode. For Bob Lee Swagger, the world changed on that hot day in Blue Eye, Arkansas, when two local boys rode armed and wild in a '55 Fairlane convertible. Swagger's father, Earl, a state trooper, was investigating the brutal murder of a young woman that day.  By midnight Earl Swagger lay dead in a deserted cornfield. Now Bob Lee wants answers.  He wants to know the truth behind the shoot -out that took his father's life, a mystery buried in forty years of lies.  Because for Bob Lee Swagger, the killing didn't end that day in Blue Eye, Arkansas. The killing had just begun . . . Weaving together characters from his national bestsellers Point of Impact and Dirty White Boys, Stephen Hunter's gripping thriller builds to an exhilarating climax�??and an explosion of gunfire that blasts open the secrets of two generations. Praise for Black Light  �??Put on your seat belt�??Black Light is a wild ride you won't forget.�?��??The Chicago Tribune �??Nobody writes action better than Stephen Hunter and Black Light is one of his best. . . [The] action scenes play like a movie, the plot is intriguing and the writing is top-notch.�?��??Phillip Margolin �??Only a handful of writers today can match Hunter for imagination and the ability to make a reader's adrenaline rush.�?��??New York Daily News �??Filled with detail, clever plotting, suspense, and a hunt to the death that leaves the reader dry-mouthed with tension. Hunter knows his guns, and he writes about them with a precision that holds the attention of even a fervent anti-gun supporter.�?��??The Orlando Sentinel �??One of the most skilled hands in the thriller business. The plot is fast-paced, well-constructed and builds to a pulse-pounding night ambush. . . . It should seal his reputation as an author who not only can write bestselling thrillers, but write them exceedingl… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member Neilsantos
This wasn't very good. I just don't think Hunter has what I'm looking for, and this is the last one of his I'll read.. Some of it is his characters, the hero is a total bubba and the sidekick is a totally helpless easterner. The only person I liked was the crimelord who was a good redneck. But it's
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also his plots, I realize these are fiction, fluff and such but the conspiracies are just a little too thin for me to give credit too. Same for Master Sniper, the plot just left me thinking, "What?"
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LibraryThing member crazybatcow
If the "nested" story of Bob Lee in the first 1/3 of the book was any slower I'd be able to nap between scenes. The only reason he's even in this book is so it can be part of a series, but it has nothing to do with him - it's his Daddy's story.

Well, that's not quite true I suppose, there is some
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story around Bob, but there's just not enough going on to make it interesting enough to read. And the stereotype characterizations are not very interesting. I don't even care enough about anything/anyone in the story for it to matter who gets killed. When you're cheering for the drug-dealing abusive bad-guy because at least he's "doing something" in the story, it's time to stop reading the series I guess.
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LibraryThing member Gatorhater
The night belongs to the shooter who can see through it, Bob Lee Swagger a USA Marine sniper in Vietnam and twenty years later he was forced to kill again. Forty years earlier, Swagger's father"Earl" a dedicated state trooper was gunned down by two robbers in a shoot-out just outside of Blue Eye,
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Arkansas. Faced with Russell Pewtie, Jr's desire to write a book about their dad's, went on too discover what really happened in that long-ago Arkansas night, between the murder of that colored girl Shirelle Parker and the shoot-out with Jimmy & Bub Pye against Trooper Swagger.
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LibraryThing member wareagle78
Okay, sniper and military, more of a guy's book to me.
LibraryThing member martinhughharvey
Read and loved "Point of Impact" so looked forward to another Bob Lee swagger book. At first I felt disappointed - the hokeyness and tone set me to wondering was this going to morph into a Grisham-like novel. But no fear there's only one Bob Lee and the story developed and was most readable and
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enjoyable. Not as good as PoI but well worth reading.
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LibraryThing member chicjohn
A real good read
LibraryThing member Skybalon
The book is surprisingly a deeper look at the relationships between fathers and sons than one might expect from a Stephen Hunter novel. It still is at its core an action/thriller but the other stuff is well handled and adds welcome depth to the genre.

The actual plot is pretty good but is maybe a
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little too convoluted to really work, but is plenty good enough to be worth reading.
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LibraryThing member susandennis
And this one is the best Stephen Hunter yet. This guy can flat tell a story. Some of the plot is not even interesting (I'm just not fascinated by the intricacies of various guns) but even so, his stories are just so compelling.
LibraryThing member lewilliams
I would have given this book 5 stars for its plot, and action but there was way to much detail given to various fir arms and ammunation. The story keeps the suspense ratcheted up. Over all, Black Light is a good thriller.
LibraryThing member Verge0007

I became a fan of author Stephen Hunter upon reading The 47th Samurai. Since then, I’ve yet to come across an author who can describe a violent scene the way he does, or dispel so much knowledge when it comes to guns and ammo.

According to the acknowledgments page, the book Black Light is the
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third novel of a Bob Lee Swagger trilogy which include the books; Point Of Impact (Which I’ve yet to read, because I saw the movie ‘Shooter’ which is based on the book, hey don’t judge—I got to get my money’s worth when it comes to Netflix you know) the other book is Dirty White Boys.

First a word of Warning: If you are offended by the N word stay away. That word is very popular in this novel…. you good to go? Let’s move on then.

The story takes place roughly five years after the events in Point Of Impact; Bob Lee is now the father of a four year old name Nikki product of his marriage to Julie Fenn (widow of the now dead sniper spotter Donnie Fenn) Two interconnected plots weave along this novel. One takes place in the present and the other in the 1950’s and it involves the investigation of a gruesome crime which saw the death of a young black girl and Bob Lee’s own father; State Trooper Earl Swagger, in the fictitious town of Blue Eye Arkansas. There is a good surprise for Bob Lee I did not see coming, involving a new family member, to say more will ruin things for those among you who’ve yet to read Black Light (which I believe refers to a type of sniper rifle scope technology?) I wasn’t too crazy about how the case gets resolved involving the rich dude at the shooting range near the end, that plot device came across as a bit of a cop-out, I was like wtf? Despite of this I still give it a five star rating, because at the heart of this tale, and amid the flying bullets, viscera, explosions and gunpowder lays a story about fathers and sons. About family, and the ties that bind us through time. Also, the book has one of the best satisfying endings (I mean the very end) I’ve come across in a Stephen Hunter novel.
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Language

Original publication date

1996-06-03

Physical description

538 p.; 18 inches

ISBN

044022313X / 9780440223139
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