The reader of this novel, like the protagonist of the title, needs infinite patience to reach the end of this fairly lengthy tale. Bobby Lee Swagger was one of the top two or three snipers during the Vietnam War, retiring as a USMC gunnery sergeant. He’s drawn in to what seems to be a cut-and-dried case when four well-known protesters, including a Jane Fonda look-alike, are shot at long range apparently by another Marine sniper named Carl Hitchcock who is later found, a suicide, in a motel room. All clues point to him as the shooter and the FBI is moving forward to close the case.
Swagger, who is in the tradition of larger-than-life heroes like Jack Reacher and others of that ilk, shows his ability to think clearly (as well as shoot straight) when he upsets the applecart by showing that it wasn’t Hitchcock’s rifle that fired the shots, upsetting the FBI’s already-made decision as well as the Ted Turner-like ex-husband of the slain movie actress who keeps pressure on all levels to conclude the investigation.
So we follow the trials and tribulations of Bobby Lee as he acts the rogue, following his nose, while his FBI buddy is hung out to dry when he drags his feet delaying the closing of the case. Despite its length, the novel moves swiftly, except for all kinds of minutiae on the life of a sniper, guns, sights, ammunition and, of course, shooting, to a totally unanticipated denouement.
Recommended.
