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Pale Horse Coming
Pale Horse Coming
Pale Horse Coming
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Pale Horse Coming

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Pale Horse Coming, featuring Stephen Hunter’s beloved sniper heroes Earl and Bob Lee Swagger, the first Swagger thriller from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author.

The time is 1951. A smooth-talking Chicago lawyer comes to chat with Sam Vincent, the former prosecutor of Polk County, Arkansas, about a dangerous subject—a big prison for violent black convicts near Thebes, Mississippi, up the Yaxahatchee River from Pasagoula. Thebes seems to have dropped out of the Union—letters and phone calls go unanswered, and the lawyer has questions that need answers. Would Sam—an ex-lawman, a white man and a Southerner—agree to go up there and find out what he can?

The ex-prosecutor takes on the job, but first he goes to see his old friend Earl Swagger, and tells him that if he isn’t back in a week, Earl is to come looking for him. When Sam vanishes into the mists and swamps around Thebes, Mississippi, Earl packs his gun, explains to a distraught Junie that duty is duty and a promise is a promise, and sets off for Thebes, Mississippi to track his friend down.

Soon enough, Earl—who approaches Thebes and its sinister prison with the stealth of a good Marine on a recon mission—realizes that something very strange indeed is going on there, that the prison is more than just a place that chills the blood of even the most hardened convict, that in fact the whole town of Thebes is hiding a secret—and it’s a place where people disappear all too easily, particularly inquisitive strangers, for whom burial in the swamps follows torture.
LanguageEnglish
PublisherPocket Books
Release dateAug 26, 2008
ISBN9781439127810
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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Rating: 3.9726026027397263 out of 5 stars
4/5

146 ratings8 reviews

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I have to say that this book was a stunner for me. Full of violence anddelicious retribution, tightly written and peopled with characters that cometo life before your eyes. This would make a hell of a movie, and I couldn'thelp but cast it in my head as I went along. This isn't the sortof book I ordinarily pick up to read, but I'm very glad I did, and I'm goingto be looking for some more books by Mr. Hunter, including one called "HotSprings," in which he introduces the amazing character of Earl Swagger.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    It's 1951, and the last place a man wishes to visit is Thebes State Penal Farm (colored) in Mississippi. Up a dark river, surrounded by swamps and impenetrable piney woods, it's the Old South at its most brutal. but in that year, two men will come to Thebes, first is Sam Vincent, the former prosecuting attorney of Polk County, Arkansas. Second is earl Swagger, a Marine hero on Iwo Jima and now a sergeant of the Arkansas State Police.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Stephen Hunter's "Pale Horse Coming" starts out with a bang, and the author builds suspense as Earl Swagger saves his buddy but endures torture like no man should. But the end of the book is strangely anti-climatic, lacking suspense. Swagger gains his revenge too easily.I love Hunter's books, especially "Point of Impact." But this one petered out at the end.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Great story with Earl Swagger going against all odds for survival. Once it gets rolling, you won't want to put it down.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    So many threads-surreal and historical at the same time. The traditional battle of good and evil... With good being subjective.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Of all his books, this one speaks to me the most. AND Ihad no problem decoding the names.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A wonderful read and even more important story morals and the real evil that exists in the world
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    How about what I DON"T like ? The end-of -the -book dropdown announcement keeps you from reading the last page !

Book preview

Pale Horse Coming - Stephen Hunter

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