Black Light

By: Stephen Hunter

Narrated by: Beau Bridges

Length: 5 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

Only one thing stands between a son and his father's killer: 40 years of lies....

On a remote Arizona ranch, a man who has known loss, fear, and war weeps for the first time since he was a child. His tears are for the father taken from him four decades before in a deadly shoot-out. And his grief will lead him back to the place where he was born, where his father died, and where a brutal conspiracy is about to explode.

For Bob Lee Swagger, the world changed on that hot day in Blue Eye, Arkansas, when two local boys rode armed and wild in a '55 Fairlane convertible. Swagger's father, Earl, a state trooper, was investigating the brutal murder of a young woman that day. By midnight Earl Swagger lay dead in a deserted cornfield.

Now Bob Lee wants answers. He wants to know the truth behind the shoot-out that took his father's life, a mystery buried in 40 years of lies. Because for Bob Lee Swagger, the killing didn't end that day in Blue Eye, Arkansas. The killing had just begun....

Weaving together characters from his national best sellers Point of Impact and Dirty White Boys, Stephen Hunter's gripping thriller builds to an exhilarating climax - and an explosion of gunfire that blasts open the secrets of two generations.

Praise for Black Light

“Put on your seat belt - Black Light is a wild ride you won't forget.” (The Chicago Tribune)

“Nobody writes action better than Stephen Hunter and Black Light is one of his best... [The] action scenes play like a movie, the plot is intriguing and the writing is top-notch.” (Phillip Margolin)

“Only a handful of writers today can match Hunter for imagination and the ability to make a reader's adrenaline rush.” (New York Daily News)

“Filled with detail, clever plotting, suspense, and a hunt to the death that leaves the reader dry-mouthed with tension. Hunter knows his guns, and he writes about them with a precision that holds the attention of even a fervent anti-gun supporter.” (The Orlando Sentinel)

“One of the most skilled hands in the thriller business. The plot is fast-paced, well-constructed and builds to a pulse-pounding night ambush.... It should seal his reputation as an author who not only can write bestselling thrillers, but write them exceedingly well.” (Publishers Weekly)

©1996 Stephen Hunter (P)1996 Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing, Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing, A Division of Random House, Inc.

another great tale

again Mr Hunter lays out a great story and keeps me in the story and wanting more

Surprised

Good story but kind of anticlimactic ending. Not sure how I feel about it. Expected something different.

Another great Stephen Hunter offiering

You got to love what Stephen Hunter does with plot twists. This one has the listener/reader going until the end. Bob "The Nailer" is back and there is no end to the excitement. A very good listen that will keep you hanging.

A classic

Stephen Hunter got too political in his later books but this is a pure, ritechous case of an American hero using brain and brawn to defeat a bad guy. Tremendous character development (for an action novel), a good twist, a satisfying conclusion and the perfect southern narrator combine to make this a 5 star novel.

another great.

loved the story. No Bridges does a great job narrating, but I like the one from the third bullet better. overall another masterpiece by Mr. Hunter.

Read On My Friend (MF)

Enjoyed the book. Hope the next one is ss good as r
The Shooter. Ready for the next one.

Black Light

How did the narrator detract from the book?

I'm from the South. I also lived in the North. I hear the differences in the accents. Being from the South, you grow up around Blacks and your ear gets tuned in to the "Southern Black" accent. I'm sorry to say that Beau Bridges' Southern accent sounds more Southern Black than Southern White, and his Southern Black is even worse. If he can't do any better than he did, he should just stick to a straight Beau Bridges' voice. For me, it took away from the book.I knew Earl was Bob Lee's father. The first time Beau Bridges did an Earl voice, I had to back up the CD to put in context who's voice it was suppose to be. Sounded to me just like a Southern Black person speaking. Actually it cracked me up at the time. I find it humorous listening to people not from the South trying to imitate a Southern accent.

Shyamalan twist

Good book. A little windy, twisty. Beau does a good job narrating. I enjoy hunters work immensely

A case for unabridged audio

This is a fantastic novel, but not in an abridged version. I've read this book twice and looked long and hard for an unabridged version. Having no luck I decided to download this abridgment from Audible. Way too much back story was skipped. The reader barely gets to know the characters. Sam Vincent is presented as a drooling idiot and Bob Lee comes off as a cold killer with no emotion, almost a hitman. And what about that deputy, Peck? Sheesh, there's hardly any mention of him in the action scene in the woods, which is one of the most memorable parts of the novel. The abridgment nailed Peck as the slimeball he is but didn't give near enough story on him. He is, after all, the character you love to hate.

The narration isn't very good either. Bridges tries too hard with the whole "bravado" sound, resulting in volume ups and downs that keeps the listener constantly attatched to the radio controls.

This is a waste of an audible book credit in my opinion. Get the paperback version of this one. It is an excellent novel.