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.

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It’s been a long road, but all good things have to come to an end. So we are treated to the adventures of Duane Moore, as his life is nearing its end. And what a bizarre time it is in Thalia, Texas. A billionairess decides to import the vanishing black rhino from Africa on a spread near the town, in an effort to save the species and perhaps establish a tourist attraction.

Of course, the insular people of Thalia look askance at outsiders, and Duane’s friendliness with the sponsor of Rhino Ranch does not serve him very well in the closing days of his life. The novel, full of pathos and nostalgia, as Duane looks over his past days, contemplates the changes in Duane’s little world, as well as the broader world as well. It’s full of wit and philosophizing, and whimsically reflects upon the humor and romantic relationships inherent in the series.

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An enigmatic new protagonist is introduced in this novel of nearly epic proportions. Sheriff Hackberry Holland, cousin of Billy Bob Holland, featured in many of the author’s previous novels, confronts his past and present evils in his small Texas border town, accompanied by his deputy, Pam Tibbs, who provides backup. To start with, the brutal murder of nine Thai women obsesses Hackberry until a final confrontation with psychopaths, hired killers and assorted lowlifes.

Holland is a tragic character, haunted by the death of a wife with whom he was very much in love, as well as his time as a POW in a North Korean-Red Chinese prison camp during the Korean “Police Action.” His methods are somewhat unconventional, as are his thought processes.

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Simon & Schuster
June, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-4165-4999-4
Hardcover, 397 pp., $26.95

Logic and Intuition, one or the other, is how Kathryn Dance solves the crimes she investigates. The California Bureau of Investigation Special Agent, in the third in the series featuring the body-language expert, faces a murder mystery involving the cyberworld of games and blogs. And her skill in going from A to B to X is largely clouded by a shrewd killer and the complete lack of credible clues.

A young teenager becomes the target of countless postings on a blog criticizing him for driving a car that crashed, killing two young girls. As the attacks mount, he disappears and various persons who posted comments on the web are attacked or murdered after crosses are planted on the previous day on the sides of roads.

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