The Third Bullet
by Stephen Hunter
Simon & Schuster, 2013, hc
ISBN: 978-1-4516-4020-5
485pp, map on endpapers
A Review by Gene Stewart
This is a Bob Lee Swagger novel. That’s the lead character. He smacks of Mary Sue, along the lines of Tom Clancy’s notorious Jack Ryan, for example, but trades competence and knowledge for hubris and unfulfilled ambitions.
Ex-Marine Swagger is pulled into investigating the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, of all things. It’s not something he wants to do. It’s nothing that much interests him and he can’t stand all the conspiracy theories and elaborate curlicue plots and counterplots cited in all those lucrative, breathless books and documentaries.
It’s a cottage industry he’d gladly torch, but a promise is a promise, and the lead, slender as it is, entices. Can such a sliver of potential evidence lead to cracking the case wide open?
Swagger sticks with what Hunter knows, which is guns. Ballistics. Bullets. Why did the third bullet explode? Shouldn’t have. Was that a hint? How could that have been arranged? Any evidence for it?
Going to Dallas, Swagger looks over the killing ground and does analysis from a ballistics view. He walks routes and paces out distances and figures trajectories. He’s also put into contact with an expert in JFK assassination theory, so he can cross-check things.
This book is detailed and precise. It reads as much like a documentary as a novel dares, spelling out research done, facts discovered, and conclusions reached always reluctantly. Swagger’s search leads him to many places, including Russia. There are ambushes, daring moves, narrow escapes, and plenty of action for several movies. All of this is written vividly and concisely.
Intelligent prose is Hunter’s hallmark. He’s a savvy guy with interesting thoughts. Swagger, his heroic alter ego, can handle the action. As the book progresses an old, retired CIA agent from the JFK days shows his hand, and complexities resolve into a simple fact: Someone is trying to kill Swagger before he can get to the heart of the matter. This means they’d better look out.
Central to this novel is a solution to the problem of the third bullet. Everyone focuses on the so-called Magic Bullet but it’s the third one, the one that exploded, that should be our focus, says Swagger. He shows us why in a fascinating ballistics learning curve. We come away from this novel educated on guns.
You don’t have to be a gunman to enjoy the book, though. Intrigue, espionage, danger, and intense action punctuate the book like the rattle of machine gun bullets. Hunter packs enough action, information, and suspense into The Third Bullet for any three novels, any five movies. It’s a gift to smart readers, entertaining and genuinely intriguing when it addresses the MacGuffin mystery.
As Swagger says, what’s really interesting isn’t so much who shot JFK, as how it was done.
Learn what convinced him in this excellent thriller.
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