The Third Bullet

Bob Lee Swagger, Book 8

By: Stephen Hunter

Narrated by: Buck Schirner

Length: 19 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

It’s not even a clue. It’s a whisper, a trace, a ghost echo, drifting down through the decades via chance connections so fragile that they would disintegrate in the puff of a breath. But it’s enough to get legendary former Marine sniper Bob Lee Swagger interested in the events of November 22, 1963, and the third bullet that so decisively ended the life of John F. Kennedy and set the stage for one of the most enduring controversies of our time.

Swagger begins his slow night stalk through a much-traveled landscape. But he’s asking questions that few have asked before: Why did the third bullet explode? Why did Lee Harvey Oswald, about to become the most hunted man on Earth, risk it all by returning to his rooming house to secure a pistol he easily could have brought with him? How could a conspiracy that went unpenetrated for 50 years have been thrown together in the two and a half days between the announcement of the president’s route and the assassination itself?

As Bob investigates, another voice enters the narrative: knowing, ironic, almost familiar, that of a gifted, Yale-educated veteran of the CIA Plans Division. Hugh Meachum has secrets and the means and the will to keep them buried. When weighed against his own legacy, Swagger’s life is an insignificant expense - but to blunt the threat, he’ll first have to ambush the sniper.

As each man hunts the other across today’s globe and through the thickets of history, The Third Bullet builds to an explosive climax that will finally prove what Bob Lee Swagger has always known: It’s never too late for justice.

©2013 Stephen Hunter (P)2013 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

another good Bob Lee adventure

book starts out good as all the Bob Lee books do but gets very slow in the middle found it hard to stay engaged for a few chapters but came back at the end

a snipers tale

Bob Lee rides again a little older and a little wiser...
another good read always a pleasure

Best one in the series

Great storyline. Several creative twists.

I recommend to anyone who is into a historical fiction with creative and plausible answer to more than one shooter on November 22, 1963.

I gave this rating as I believe it to be the best in an awesome series!

Spellbinding story in every detail!

exceptional storytelling. great author. not another dumb conspiracy; this is very believable! very happy with the quality of the recording and the story.

Great Read

The narrator did a great job covering all the different voices of the characters in this book that are from all different parts of the world. A must-read for those interested in the JFK assassination and conspiracy. Story kept my interest nicely from start to finish.

Tremendous story—hard to stop listening

Another fantastic Hunter story. Moves quickly and a great twist on the Kennedy assassination. Again right wins over evil as a good man is willing to do hard things to protect those who can’t protect themselves.

A Good read

This was a really good read.
The voice over actor was fantastic and will look for him again.

I had high hopes ...

... that Hunter might shed some fictional light on the events in Dealey Plaza, much the way James Ellroy did in "American Tabloid." Unfortunately, Hunter admits in the afterword that his research was limited to the Warren Commission Report, "Case Closed" by Gerald Posner, and "Reclaiming History" by Vincent Bugliosi. These are the worst sources imaginable if one is looking for the truth. I wish Hunter had done a little more research and stumbled across a book by Craig Roberts titled "Kill Zone: A Sniper Looks at Dealey Plaza." Now THAT would have given him some ideas to work with. The ballistics analysis of the shot from the grassy knoll is flawed, the portrayal of Oswald is way off the mark, and Hugh Meachum (particularly as voiced by Buck Shirner) is obnoxious. "Bob the Nailer" as gumshoe detective is a terrible waste of a good character. The side-trip to modern-day Moscow and the Lubyanka archives was a stretch. I consider this a reasonably entertaining book consisting of a police procedural with a couple of gunfights thrown in, and an unsatisfying resolution of the assassination conspiracy. Not Hunter's best work. He has recently shown himself still a capable of writing a good action thriller, however. See "Soft Target" if you are looking for something on par with "Point of Impact."

This is great fun! All explained at last!

If you could sum up The Third Bullet in three words, what would they be?

I was in Dallas on that fateful day, and, like many, have been searching for something that could explain this terrible tragedy. This great work of fiction does the best job yet. Although the author takes permitted license, it is a great read.

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

Absolutely. The author tantalizes you with clues and hits you with plot twists that amount to a really good story.

Which scene was your favorite?

Finding the overcoat.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

After 50 years the truth is revealed!

I've Read them all, could have skipped this one!

This was my least favorite of the series. It was dragged out. 3/4 of the book was told from a characters journal point of view.