480 pages

5 stars

WWII rages. Marine Gunnery Sergeant Earl Swagger is recovering from a wound received during his island hopping journey through the Pacific Islands. He is a sniper par excellence.

He is recruited through the auspices of none other than General Eisenhower to solve a little problem they are having in France. German snipers. They are killing officers and NCO’s by the dozens demoralizing the troops.

Earl receives a special commission in the Army as a major. He does his homework. Along with Leets, who is another unsung hero, they procure maps, intelligence and lists of causes of deaths. They talk to people. They keep their mission a closely guarded secret.

While there is much discussion and dialogue, there is also action and tension.

The story is interspersed with vignettes of one of the snipers, the best perhaps, whose ethnicity comes as a surprise. This is only one of the many surprises this book holds.

Mr. Hunter portrays Earl as a true American hero. The reader gets a real feel of Earl: level-headed, no bs, take him or leave him, but respectful. I like Earl very much. This book is very well written and plotted. It reads quickly, pulling the reader into the story effortlessly. I’ve read many of this author’s books, and this novel is one of my favorites. More Earl please, Mr. Hunter.

I want to thank NetGalley and Atria/Emily Bestler Books for forwarding to me a copy of this great book for me to read, enjoy and review. The opinions expressed here are solely my own.

In “Bullet Garden” Stephan Hunter goes back in time to when Sergeant Earl Lee Swagger USMC almost completely recovered from wounds suffered at Tarawa , finds himself on. B-17 to England. On orders from on high, he finds that he is go on a sniper hunt in Normandy. The Army has become bogged down in the hedgerows that line the roads, the so-called Bullet Gardens. The claustrophobically dense foliage is bad enough for the GIs, but German snipers have been picking off officers and senior NCOs with deadly accuracy. Swagger’s job , as a master sniper himself, is to hunt them down.
From the opening paragraph to the last, Mr. Hunter crafted a tense, dramatic novel that is part mystery novel and part thriller. His character Sgt. Swagger is what the author termed a “ God of War”: professional , focused and intent on the job at hand. Swagger’s investigation begins in a knowledge of the weapons and science of shooting ( something the author knows much of) and is fascinating . That is not all- there is a sub plot involving suspicion of a spy at the highest levels of London headquarters.
The author paints a good picture of a bleak, war-weary England with bad food, warm beer, falling buzz bombs , a headquarter’s bureaucracy overloaded with grifters too far from the frontline soldiers frozen in fear at sudden death in the hedgerow. But there are touches of GI humor, and bit of romantic love ( not Swagger) . All part of the tale woven by the author.
But mostly there is the sort of tension developed by a master storyteller in full control of his craft. Actually the action was so tense that with only a few pages to go to the end, I was tempted to check the ending, but I didn’t commit that sins of all sins for a reader. Good thing because it was a slam bang finish.
Summing: Another super novel from Stephan Hunter that earns and gets five stars.

I have enjoyed many of the Bobby Lee Swagger books previously and really had high hopes for this book. The story itself was good but there was something that didn't resonate with me. Maybe the language used as it was a historical fiction and there seemed to be a lot of dialogue where I was expecting a bit more action. It was still a good story but not my favorite. Others who like historical fiction will likely have a different experience.