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.

Poor performance with this story

Would you try another book from Stephen Hunter and/or Buck Schirner?

I rated the overall down because of the reader. I had a very hard time keeping up with who and where he was. The story was way to long for my liking. Yes I would because I am a fan of Bob Swagger. Get help with an extra reader would help.

What did you like best about this story?

I liked the content of this story because I heard one from another person who told one just about the same. Only not to put it together as well as it was. Yep get me another but get help for Schirner when you jump around with so many others. (:

Would you be willing to try another one of Buck Schirner’s performances?

Of course, I liked his performance on all the others. I believe if another person would of done some of the reading when a person was telling his memories help differentiate the change on what they were telling.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

The story its self was great.

Any additional comments?

I made plenty.

Not a diehard conspiracy theorist, but!!!!!

I have always thought there was something more, and this angle is as plausible as any- LHO wasn't that skilled- story was well thought out, and performed. I enjoyed it.

Very satisfying alternative account!

Our country would have been well served if Stephen Hunter had been the chairman of the Warren Commission...

my review

enjoyed it, but not the narration, he doesn't seem to have the ability to differentiate voices, women sound like men an all men sound the same. That's the only drawback to the books narrated by this guy .😎♠️✨🙏🏿🤔

How did Julie Swagger become Jennifer?

This may be the best work in the series so far. But Mrs. Swaggerb was Julie (Donnie's widow) through all the previous installments. This demands explanation or apology. That is a terrible editorial lapse!

Stephen Hunter is By No Means Done!

WOW! I've read all of Stephen Hunter's Earl Swagger and Bob Lee Swagger novels, and I thought for awhile there that he was running out of realistic story lines. But with this latest - The Third Bullet - he has come back stronger than ever.

Some will say that this is an alternative history, but it is not that, because the story doesn't change any history at all, or try to modify the current or future events based on an alternate historical outcome. Without causing any spoilers, it provides some realistically plausible explanations to expand on an actual historical event, that are fictional but really makes you think that they might have really happened differently than what we previously understood, but with the same resultant outcome.

Bob Lee Swagger gets into his usual investigative bumblings that keep you in suspense and makes you wonder if he's going to get to the bottom of things and survive at the same time. I can't honestly say at this time that this is the best of Hunter's works, but only because it's been so long since I've read all of the earlier ones, as I read them as they first come out. Having just this hour finished it, I am left with the feeling, however, that it is the best!

I have a few authors whose books I purchase either in Audible or e-book format as soon as they are available, without even reading the first review. And Stephen Hunter is at the top of my list. And I'll say it again for this one. WOW!

Et Tu Hunter!

Well, I struggled through most of King's book on this topic (Kennedy assassination), then I saw Bob Lee was tackling it. I love the Bob Lee character and Hunter's writing in general. This one is just interminable, I have tried and tried to get through it, but jeez, I can't take any more LHO stuff. There may be something to the conspiracy stories, but to quote Hilary lately, "what difference does it make?" Bygones! I am a tad older than Bob Lee and retired military and that is what I enjoy hearing about, a little too much ballistic study here and focus on other than our hero. Maybe some time I will come back for part 3.

It's about 10 hours too long.

I am a Stephen Hunter fan, but this one really taxed my patience. Way too long and over worded.. But there is a good story in there if you can get pass over embelishment

Too long. So much minutiae.

I love this author's books but this one was just too much. Maybe it was because I had the audiobook but holy cow, it felt like a Russian novel. So many different characters and subplots, locations and theories. And the gun talk! Oy. Unending. Could not finish.

Big Fan of Hunter - But a Boring Book

What disappointed you about The Third Bullet?
Too much detail robbed this story of it's momentum. I often found my attention flagging.

Would you ever listen to anything by Stephen Hunter again?
Absolutely. Great writer. This book just didn't grab me like most of his other works.

Have you listened to any of Buck Schirner’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
No idea.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?
Boredom.