The American writer Stephen Hunter was a journalist and film reviewer in Baltimore and Washington DC. His 1993 novel Point of Impact> introduced a character, Bob Lee Swagger a retired US Marine sniper at the center of many novels, the 2007 movie, and TV shows. Swagger was introduced as a veteran of military service in the American Vietnam War, in early middle age in the early 90s. Hunter advanced Bob's age in later novels, which made Bob a 74 year old grandparent by 2020. Bob has been wounded several times by gunshots and edged devices. Hunter embraces the tropes of military thriller fiction (and Westerrn) genre fiction that appeal to patriotic and conservative American readers who accept violence and proficiency in the use of firearms and other violence by American soldiers, law enforcement agents and virtuous vigilantes. In this outing, Swagger is interrogated by a congressional committee run by self-serving politician while a plot involving Russian mafia, Chechen gangsters and drug smuggling leads to a hostage taking in Boise, Idaho. Hunter continues to write novels that can by used as movie plots. ( )

Typically, I have given four-star ratings or higher to Stephen Hunter’s Bob Lee Swagger novels, but this book is an exception. The story switches back and forth among three uninteresting plot lines. Only on page 169 do two plot lines converge, and the story becomes interesting.

One thread consists of historical flashbacks to a distant relative of Swagger during the Revolutionary War. The intent is to show Swagger is descended from a long line of exceptionally skilled warriors. These rather dull breaks interrupt the forward movement of the plot and seem to function as padding for a thin story.

The second thread concerns the activities of a sociopathic U.S. Representative who convened a congressional committee to accuse Swagger of murder in killing a terrorist attempting to kill Swagger. With clear overtones to the shenanigans of the Republican party in the last decade, the story picks at an open wound. I prefer to escape the present political turmoil when engaged in pleasure reading.

The final thread focuses on a Chechan gang who hijacked a drug delivery of the Mexican Cartel and the man guarding the shipment. Subsequently, the Chechens are arrested, escape, and take the congressional representatives holding the hearing and Swagger captive.

The last two hundred pages are the exciting story I expect from a Swagger novel, although frequent flashbacks to the Revolutionary War hero interrupted the plot flow. I hated to turn the page and find another flashback. ( )

The Cringe is Back
Review of the Brilliance Audio audiobook edition (January 18, 2022) released simultaneously with the Atria/Emily Bestler hardcover (2022)

Looking back at my review of the previous novel in the series, Game of Snipers (Bob Lee Swagger #11) (2019), I see I noted that it "did not leaving you cringing due to the political references which have sometimes been a failing in Hunter's expanded Swagger & family series." Unfortunately, the cringe is back in Targeted (2022).

The events of Targeted follow directly on from Game of Snipers, when a Congressional Committee is now convened to investigate the use of excessive force in Swagger's battle of wits and final confrontation with the terrorist sniper of the earlier book. The leading members of the Committee are thinly-disguised parodies of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-California) and House Representative Adam Schiff (D-California) [Obviously, these real-life counterparts are guesswork on my part, but the increased international media presence of U.S. political figures in recent years has made those two the obvious sources, even in the eyes of this Canadian observer.]

The gibes are brutal and derisive, and include references to plastic surgery, hair pieces and alcoholism on the one hand and the bug-eyed features of the other. The mainstream media is the other prominent target to be mocked for their opportunism and gotcha / clickbait journalism tactics. These foes are all lined up against good old boy USMC-vet & all round hero Bob Lee in order to score points with their base of followers.

Bob Lee has his family and friends in support of course. Wife Julie, FBI Agent Nick Memphis & his lawyer wife Sally, and other family members make cameo appearances. I may have blinked and missed it, but daughter Nikki seemed to be missing, perhaps because she is a journalist and it didn't seem appropriate to bring her into the mix with the current dishonourable members of the press. Sally Memphis in fact becomes Bob Lee's lawyer for the hearings and masterminds various actions on the part of the veteran sniper, including placing him in a wheelchair for the public hearings. This is motivated by his recovering from his injuries in the last book, but not because he actually needs it to get around.

It all comes crashing down when a group of Chechen terrorist / criminals assault the hearing and take hostages, whereupon the master sniper is called on to save everyone, but armed only with a wheelchair (I'm not making this up!). There is the assistance of a presumed special forces operator who manages to insert himself into the proceedings, since Bob of course is 74 years old at this stage and not quite as nimble as previously. n.b. Swagger appears to be aging in the novels in parallel with author Stephen Hunter (March 25, 1946-).

The proceedings are further sabotaged by an interposed subplot tracing the fictional origins of the Swagger bloodline to real-life American Revolutionary War era loyalist, sharpshooter and gun-designer Patrick Ferguson (1744-1780). Every time the present day plot starts to get moving, we are jolted back to 1780 for a British-voiced reading of the archaic diaries and dispatches documenting Ferguson's adventures from that era.

It was all just too cringey for me. But Hunter can still write a good action scene and remains my favourite one-sentence movie reviewer of all time for the line:

"You don't really watch the film, you survive it." - Stephen Hunter reviewing Mel Gibson's "We Were Soldiers" (2002)

See photograph at https://i.ytimg.com/vi/HxfQIYQIIXs/maxresdefault.jpg
Photograph of actor Ryan Philippe as a younger version of Bob Lee Swagger in the TV series adaptation "Shooter" (2016-2018). Image sourced from YouTube ( )