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    The Third Bullet
    The Third Bullet
    The Third Bullet
    Audiobook (abridged)9 hours

    The Third Bullet

    Written by Stephen Hunter

    Narrated by Buck Schirner

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    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 fifty 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.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateJan 15, 2013
    ISBN9781469205885
    The Third Bullet
    Author

    Stephen Hunter

    Stephen Hunter has written over twenty novels. The retired chief film critic for The Washington Post, where he won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Criticism, he has also published two collections of film criticism and a nonfiction work, American Gunfight. He lives in Baltimore, Maryland.

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    Reviews for The Third Bullet

    4/5

    101 ratings8 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Another very good read. Really enjoying the series. A bit of history makes it more realistic
    • 5/5
      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.
    • 3/5
      Intricate plot that starts out paced strong and interesting. As the story progresses, it gets more and more unbelievable.
    • 3/5
      Well-written and thought-provoking. Not my normal cup of tea, but Hunter is an interesting writer who backs his story up with a believable interpretation of the known facts.
    • 2/5
      It is not often I simply give up on a book - this was one of the rare occurrences. The lead character - Bob Lee Swagger - did absolutely nothing for me. I understand he is a recurring primary character in many of the author's novels. Compared to many of the recurring "thriller" characters (Reacher, Pendergast, etc.) he is a pale comparison. The plot centers of Swagger trying to solve the mystery of Kennedy's assassination. This is a tired and worn out issue. I have never bought in to conspiracy theories, so...Steven King's approach to the Kennedy assasination in 11/22/63 was much more novel and unique - of course it was written by Steven King !
    • 5/5
      I really enjoyed this novel since I'm a avid J.F.K. assassination conspiracy enthusiast, the author gives his theory of what might have happened that dreadful day in Nov. 1963. Most of the things he talks about I've already read in other books about this assassination, but some of the subject matters that he talks about were new too me, getting me too more research too see if these matters had any validity to them. Hopefully some day these questions will be answered, since most that were there that day are passed away.
    • 4/5
      Clever plot. My only complaint was the on and on detailed technical stats on weapons and ammunition - but then I'm not a gun person and it probably is fascinating to someone with knowledge.
    • 5/5
      Insightful theory about the JFK assassination provides the plot for an excellent entry in the already very good Bob Lee Swagger thriller series. Lots of "gun stuff" for the NRA crowd with deft explanations, even a drawing, for those who are not aficionados. Bob, the 65 year old super sniper, continues to cut down potential assassins from Moscow to rural Connecticut. Hunter delves into the arcane world of Galton, Nabokov and Jorge Luis Borges and couples it with the New Criticism as an analytical tool to produce a puzzle for Bob to solve. With dogged perseverance, innate, untrained but excellent analytical skills seasoned by dogged rural orneriness; he does locate the rogue CIA officer who masterminded the "grassy knoll" murder scenario that set up Lee Harvey Oswald as a very willing dupe.