Dead Zero - (Bob Lee Swagger Novels) by Stephen Hunter (Paperback)

About the Book

From a "New York Times"-bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize winner comes a thriller that plunges deep into the world of high-tech national security, the hearts and minds of those who kill for duty, and the latest mission for veteran sniper Bob Lee Swagger. Available in a tall Premium Edition.

Book Synopsis

New York Times bestselling author Stephen Hunter was "back at the top of his game" (Publishers Weekly) with I, Sniper. And in Dead Zero Hunter kicks it up another notch, as Bob Lee Swagger must track down an AWOL Marine sniper hell-bent on completing his last mission.

Who was Staff Sergeant Ray Cruz?

To the grunts of 3-1-3, at war in the remote mountains of northern Afghanistan, he was a hero, a marine's marine, a sniper's sniper, with three tours in one war and three in another. He was the man they called when a patrol was pinned down, or to cover an IED casualty evac or to shadow SEALs on a snatch-and-grab op.

To his superiors, he was a tragedy, another brave man KIA in the scrub hills of a godforsaken land: on a long-range top secret mission into hostile territory, he and his spotter disappeared just as they were closing in on the quarry, an Afghan warlord Sediq Chikari, with ties to both Taliban and al Qaeda. At battalion headquarters, the brass watched helplessly as Cruz's GPS transmitter signal disappeared on an image relayed from a high-altitude satellite. It was swallowed in a white smear, signifying detonation. Then...nothing. They were dead.

But that was last year. This year the question is: Who IS Staff Sergeant Ray Cruz?

Because somehow, he is back.

Now, to the CIA Cruz is a loose end and he has sent an ominous message to Marine HQ.

CRUZ INBOUND TO COMPLETE OPERATION; PUT THE BEER ON ICE, BOYS! WE ARE LOCKED AND LOADED!

To the FBI, tasked with security, Cruz is a target.

And to Bob Lee Swagger, he's an enigma.

Ray Cruz--called the Cruise Missile by the grunts because he never missed a shot--is still hunting Sediq Chikari, the warlord who has since become America's proudest ally in the Afghan war and may be the political savior all have been waiting for.

Is Ray alive? Did Ray survive? Has Ray gone rogue, or insane, or has he turned? Or is someone imitating Ray while playing a deeper game with a more terrifying objective.

Swagger, advising Assistant FBI Director Nick Memphis on the task force meant to catch Ray Cruz before he takes out his pray, has to find out, even if in some deep place, his heart is with the sniper.

Review Quotes

"Stephen Hunter's brilliantly realized action tale Dead Zero sets a sniper to catch a sniper. And it should come as no surprise that the sniper doing the catching is none other than Hunter's seminal series hero Bob Lee Swagger. . . . Once again Swagger hits the bull's-eye and so does Hunter. Master of the modern gunfighter tale, he isn't just the best action writer of this generation, but the best of any."-The Providence Journal

About the Author

Stephen Hunter is creator of the Bob Lee Swagger novels as well as many others. 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.