Pale Horse Coming
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4.5 • 248 Ratings
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
Pale Horse Coming, featuring Stephen Hunter’s beloved sniper heroes Earl and Bob Lee Swagger, the first Swagger thriller from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author.
The time is 1951. A smooth-talking Chicago lawyer comes to chat with Sam Vincent, the former prosecutor of Polk County, Arkansas, about a dangerous subject—a big prison for violent black convicts near Thebes, Mississippi, up the Yaxahatchee River from Pasagoula. Thebes seems to have dropped out of the Union—letters and phone calls go unanswered, and the lawyer has questions that need answers. Would Sam—an ex-lawman, a white man and a Southerner—agree to go up there and find out what he can?
The ex-prosecutor takes on the job, but first he goes to see his old friend Earl Swagger, and tells him that if he isn’t back in a week, Earl is to come looking for him. When Sam vanishes into the mists and swamps around Thebes, Mississippi, Earl packs his gun, explains to a distraught Junie that duty is duty and a promise is a promise, and sets off for Thebes, Mississippi to track his friend down.
Soon enough, Earl—who approaches Thebes and its sinister prison with the stealth of a good Marine on a recon mission—realizes that something very strange indeed is going on there, that the prison is more than just a place that chills the blood of even the most hardened convict, that in fact the whole town of Thebes is hiding a secret—and it’s a place where people disappear all too easily, particularly inquisitive strangers, for whom burial in the swamps follows torture.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Earl Swagger, the gritty WWII-vet hero of Hunter's bestselling thriller Hot Springs, is back in this virtually un-put-downable gothic chiller about unspeakable evil in the murky Mississippi bayous. In 1951, five years after the conclusion of Hot Springs, straight arrow ex county prosecutor Sam Vincent tells Earl his trusted friend and former investigator, now a sergeant in the Arkansas state police that he has been hired by a Chicago attorney to travel to Thebes, a mythic prison camp in the remote backwaters of Mississippi to verify the death of a black man who is the beneficiary of a will left by a one-time employer. When Earl hasn't heard from Sam by an agreed upon date, he goes looking for him and discovers that he is being held in the prison. Earl frees Sam, but is taken prisoner himself. Tortured by the prison hierarchy who fear he has been sent by a federal agency to expose their abominable secrets, Earl, aided by a trusty, escapes, vowing to return to destroy the camp and kill its evil warden and his henchmen. A staunch upholder of the law, self-righteous Sam refuses to participate in Earl's plan for retribution, but promises not to interfere. Assembling a strike force of seven of the country's most able gunmen, Earl sets out to wipe Thebes from the face of the earth. Meanwhile, probing the fate of a famous doctor who worked for the military researching biological warfare during WWII, Sam realizes Thebes may harbor an even darker secret after a bomb attempt on his life. Unforgettable characters in vivid settings more than offset the melodramatic, credibility-stretching scenarios of this hard-driving thriller. Once again, Hunter proves he is a master of cinematic prose.
Customer Reviews
Great Book!
Stephen Hunter has featured Earl Swagger, father of Bob Lee Swagger from the novel "Point of Impact" or the film "Shooter" starring Mark Wahlberg. The majority of the narrative unfolds at a correctional facility for violent African American inmates situated near Thebes, Mississippi, along the Yaxahatchee River, north of Pasagoula. When Sam Vincent, a close friend of Earl Swagger, is enlisted to gather intelligence from within the prison, he ultimately finds himself taken captive. Earl Swagger is subsequently brought in to execute his signature expertise. However, Earl's mission does not proceed without complications, and a quest for revenge and retribution eventually culminates as he assembles a team of skilled marksmen to aid him in dismantling the prison and eliminating its associates. This novel constitutes an engaging and entertaining read, and it is highly recommended.
Hunter is the best
No one weaves a heroic adventure better than Hunter. I hope he never stops wring. This one was excellent!
A good read
Detailed characters, a story well written.