Literature Review: Pale Horse Coming

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bogie

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Hey, it's by Stephen Hunter. That means you should go out and buy the darn (can I say that?) thing already, okay? I was stretched out in Bogie's Bunker until about 3:00 ayem last night reading the darn thing...

This is another in the Swagger family saga (Point of Impact, Time to Hunt, Dirty White Boys, etc...). Story's about Earl Swagger (Bob's daddy) circa 1950ish, and a situation in a Mississippi prison farm that requires him to enlist the help of a group of famous, and very thinly disguised (at least for us gun nuts), shooters... Such as Elmer "Kaye," Jack "O'Brien," Ed "McGiffern," Bill "Jennings," etc... First half is hugely suspenseful, then it just becomes a flat-out fun read for the 2nd half.
 
Just read it last week. Pretty good. As always, Hunter overdoes it in a few places, but he does know something about guns and their use. Also, the idea of using lightly disguised famous shooters in the big battle scene is great and well done.

Dave-Bob sez check it out.
 
I read it about a month ago. You're right it was a hoot. I've read all of Hunter's books. Though some are better than others, he can't write them fast enough for me!!!
 
Well for us Pale Horse Coming impaired, you gotta list the names we’re supposed to identify. However, based on what you already posted I’d guess this:

Elmer Kaye would be Elmer Keith
Jack O'Brien would be Jack O’Conner (if its a rifle dude) or Jeff Cooper (if its a pistol dude)
Ed McGiffern would be Ed McGivern
and
Bill Jennings would be Bill Jordan
 
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All his novels been great. I like his blend of reality to fiction, I hope theres more of the Swagger sagas:)
 
Let's not forget Audie Murphy made his appearance as well.
 
Looks like Stephen Hunter's next book will be out in the fall of "03". This is what he wrote back to a fan on the unofficial Stephen Hunter web site at www.stephenhunter.net

March 20, 2002: Here's some news from Stephen Hunter. I wrote Mr. Hunter to tell him he had over 2,000 website visitors during January and February, and that March was on target to hit 3,000. I wanted to know if he had ever noticed a correlation between interest in his novels and the winter/spring season, and he responded:

Bob,

No, the explanation is clear. I've been making FEWER appearances. Obviously, my annoying personality drives people away in droves. My best move: no more book tours. Also, it looks like the next book will take Earl to Havana in 1953, where mobsters will by joined by secret policemen, commies and movie stars in trying to eliminate him. I think they'll fail.

Best and thanks, Steve
 
Beg pardon, but the gentleman above surely meant to say, "Ed McGivern." Ed McGovern? Must be thinking of a deceased Demo politician named George McGovern...

Lone Star
 
Doh! You are correct sir. My deepest apologies to the memory of a fine man with my unintentional besmirching of his name by the associate of it with a politician.

:eek: :eek: :eek:


I edited the post to the correct name...
 
I don't really think it was John D. "Jeff" Cooper but it was Jack O'Connor.

Get the latest issue of AMERICAN HANDGUNNER, there is an interview with Mr. Hunter in it. He said, IIRC, PALE HORSE COMING was his "revolver" book.
 
Wait a minute....

Are you saying that book has characters based on Elmer Keith and Jack O'Connor on the SAME SIDE in a gunfight?:)
 
I'm about three-quarters of the way through "Point of Impact." Ehh. Pretty blunt, sometimes trite writing style. Not as good as I hoped or expected going by the Amazon responses and even the jacket blurbs. Read Robert Crais's "The Monkey's Raincoat" just before this. That guy can rip a yarn.
 
Glockten, the book does indeed have the Keith and O'Connor characters on the same side in a gunfight, but neither of them is happy about it. I thought their rivalry was pretty convincingly portrayed.

If, as Hunter says, the next book takes Earl to Havana, then he is clearly breaking a promise that he made in "Pale Horse," when he promised his wife he would never leave home again for any reason.

I for one would like another Bob Lee Swagger book.
 
ed dixon, one of the things which has made "Point of Impact" an interesting book--to me--is Swaggert's attitude. Somehow, I just relate to it...:)

I knew all through the book that there was some sort of "hook" that Swaggert knew all about but nobody else could figure. I was sorta mumbling and racking my brain about it. I even vaguely thought of some variant of the firing-pin bit! So, when the trial brought about that grand denouemont, I just broke up. "Country boy outwits city slicker!" sort of reaction.

I gotta admit that with novels I deliberately suspend belief and dive into the novel's world. I don't read novels with an analytical eye. If I did, I'd stay mad at the waste of my time or money. For instance, Martin Cruz Smith's "Gorky Park" was hailed as a Wondrous Thing of a book by the reviewers. Yet, in the grand finale, the hero is shooting an "inherently inaccurate" snubby .38. He's unfamiliar with handguns, but some how manages to center-punch the Evil Villain five times. He does this while scrambling around after having had the Evil Villain use a "hunting rifle" to shoot him in the thigh. I've not read anything else by MCS.

Art
 
O.K., Please pardon my ignorance.

I just finished this book. I enjoyed it immensely. But I have one question-who is (or was) Jack O'Connor?
 
If you love Hunter, (and I do), if you enjoyed Unintended Consequences, (and I did), if you are sick of thriller writers who put thumb safeties on Glocks and generally don't know calibers from cucumbers, I humbly suggest that you take a look at the website for my soon to be printed novel <a HREF="http://matthewbracken.web.aplus.net/"> Enemies Foreign And Domestic.</a>
 
I read the book last year. Great read!

Originally posted by bogie:
Oh yeah...

Who can correctly identify all the shooters?
Click to expand...

Piece of cake!

Jack O'Conner
Elmer Keith
Ed McGivern
Audie Murphy
Charlie Askins
Bill Jordan
 
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