Customer Reviews

Hot Springs: A Novel

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(41)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Having read and thoroughly enjoyed the three "Bob the Nailer" offerings from Hunter, I looked forward to this novel whose central character is Earl Swagger -- WWII veteran, medal of honor winner, tortured soul, and father to Bob the Nailer. Although not as good as Point of Impact (which was an impressive page turner), Hot Springs did not disappoint. Early morning workouts on the stepper or exercise bike were not seen as drudgery but rather as an opportunity to pound out more pages of Hot Springs. Throughout the book, one comes to know and further appreciate the intricacies, both positive and negative, of being a Swagger. Action sequences and character development are interwoven and provide a complementary blend throughout the book. This novel is able to stand on its own as an action/thriller, but for those who have already completed the "Bob the Nailer" books, it also offers a good early glimpse at characters from previous novels and ties together events that are littered throughout those efforts. Certainly, this will not be the last novel from Hunter based on the Swagger clan.

Stephen Hunter has hit another homer with HOT SPRINGS, a novel that is a variation on a theme given to his previous readers in POINT OF IMPACT, TIME TO HUNT and DIRTY WHITE BOYS. Instead of another outing with "Bob The Nailer" the master sniper readers have read about in previous novels, we get a rich text that tells the story of his father, Earl Swagger. Throughout this book, fans of Hunter's previous tales will find the origins of the myth that surrounds Bob Lee Swagger.

Earl Swagger is a WW II vet whose heroism and battlefield prowess earned him a Medal of Honor at Iwo Jima. As this book opens, he is receiving that medal from President Harry S Truman. However, the former Marine 1st Sgt has already been medically retired and is having difficulty readjusting to civilian life and a peacetime America. He also has a pregnant wife and is wondering what to do when he is given the opportunity to become part of something big. He is hired by an ambitious Arkansas prosecutor who wants to rid the town of Hot Springs of all its corrupting influences and the criminals who make their livings preying on the vices and weaknesses of others.

Earl and the famous FBI agent, D.A. Parker are hired to form a special team, a strike force to break up the gangster stranglehold on the town. Earl, who has had no sense of purpose since the end of the war initially becomes the drill instructor for the ad hoc team of 12 police officers from all over the country. While part of the plan is to rid Hot Springs of vice, the other part is to train these 12 policemen in modern methodologies so that they can go home and spread the experience around among their fellow officers back home. Hunter does a fine job describing each of the personalities of the lawmen and also introduces historical figures such as Bugsy Siegel, Virginia Hill, Mickey Rooney and a assorted mix of backwoods moonshiners, bushwackers and inbred rednecks.

Earl and D.A. Parker teach the young lawmen all the tricks of the trade in order to make them more effective and keep them alive. His Marine Corps tactical expertise comes into play during every operation the group undertakes. Along with his urban combat worries, Earl is forced to deal with the legacy of his father, a former Polk County Sheriff who was gunned down while Earl was off fighting WW II. A WW I hero himself, he was brutal to his two sons. As a result, Earl ran away from home to join the Marines and his younger brother hanged himself in 1942. When Earl comes home from the war, an out-of-work hero, he has no family left but his young and pregnant wife.

Hunter captures all of the flavor of 1946 Arkansas. One can see, feel and live the time, before air conditioning existed, when segregation was still the law of the land and the races did not mix in rural southern America. The author also paces this story at a moderate pace. He keeps the reader wanting more, without rushing his story or the characters and it follows a logical flow that adds to the enjoyment.

As readers familiar with Hunter's Bob Lee Swagger books will realize as they read, Earl is a principled AND heroic figure. He is the type of man who met every challenge placed before him without complaint or hesitation. He is what we don't find too much of in America anymore. He is a proud man, a heroic figure who will not be put upon, maligned or otherwise mistreated. It is obvious after reading this book, that Bobby Lee Swagger is his father's son.

It is not necessary to have read Hunter's earliest works to appreciate HOT SPRINGS. However, if you have, you will appreciate this book all the more because you will be able to make the inevitable comparisons between father and son. If you haven't read the others first, that's okay, too. Once you have read HOT SPRINGS, you'll want to read about Bob the Nailer, if for no other reason than to see what kind of man Earl Swagger raised.

I recommend this book to Stephen Hunter's existing fans and to those who haven't discovered him. Once you read HOT SPRINGS, you'll want to read the rest of the Swagger Saga.

Paul Connors

I almost wish "Hot Springs" was my first Stephen Hunter novel. On its own, it's a solid, hard-boiled tale. It's also a prequel to almost all of his other novels, giving Hunter the perfect opportunity to show off his skill at foreshadowing and drawing connections between apparently unrelated stories, which is considerable. "Hot Springs" would make a great introduction to Hunter's work.

Unfortunately, as the latest installment, it's somewhat lacking. While it does have plenty of new revelations and background information for those readers already familiar with Stephen Hunter's characters, it doesn't have much else, and what's there feels a bit recycled. The plot is fairly straight-forward, lacking the dramatic cross-cutting of "Time to Hunt" and "Black Light", the twistedness of "Point of Impact", or the sheer intensity of "Dirty White Boys". Anyone who's read Hunter before knows exactly how it will end, and may even recognize the setting of the inevitable final showdown.

Still, it's good to see old friends like Earl Swagger and Sam Vincent again, as well as real-life historical characters like Bugs Siegel, Virginia Hill, and colorful FBI agent and trick shooter D.A. "Jelly" Bryce. (In a major role and only thinly disguised under the name "Parker".)There are also tantalizing hints that we may soon hear much more of Frenchy Short, whose character promises to be quite a departure for Hunter.

Ok, I admit initially I was disappointed that this was not a Bob Lee Swagger book. But this is probably better than most of the Bob "the Nailer" books, with the possible exception of Point of Impact. I am not easily impressed, but this book blew me away.

At times, this book has a little bit different feel about it than some of his other books, definitely very gritty... very Phillip Marlowe. Hunter obviously did a lot of research to get the setting to feel just right.

As always, Mr. Hunter manages to throw in plenty of curves and unexpected plot twists. He manages to keep surprising me, and exceeds my expectations for creativity in providing clever, yet plausible outcomes to the sticky situations that Earl finds himself in.

It is the characters in this book that carry my interest. Earl Swagger is certainly a VERY different man in this book than he was in Black Light. In Black Light, Earl has it all together. In Hot Springs, Earl is much younger, and much more at war with himself. We finally get to meet and learn all about the enigmatic Frenchy Short, mentioned in so many other of Hunter's novels. Owney Maddox is a ruthless but believable villain, and his henchmen are brutal and dangerous as well. Stephen Hunter is very good at touching a realistic emotional chord, something which most of the writers of this genre don't do very well at all, if they even try.

Like most of the Hunter Books I have read (with the exception of his one miserable book, the Spanish Gambit), I could definitely see this one as a great movie. Hunter tends to focus on much smaller plots than someone like Tom Clancy does, in a much more realistic and personal scale, but this doesn't mean they are any less dramatic or exciting. This book is certainly no exception, and I would recommend it heartily. I don't understand why more people haven't heard about Stephen Hunter yet, but I think it is only a matter of time.

Stephen Hunter is simply a spectacular story teller. This is the latest in the Swagger saga and could be considered the prequel. "Hot Springs" presents the back story of Earl Swagger (Bob Lee a.k.a. "Bob the Nailer's" father.)

Earl returns from the Pacific campaign a Medal of Honor winner...a true hero. He is tapped to ramrod a strike force whose agenda is to put an end to the illicit activities so pervasive in Hot Springs, mostly controlled by Owney Maddox. The head of the strike force has grand polical ambitions, so Earl's enemies and allies both work against him.

Mr. Hunter brings the likes of Harry Truman, Bugsy Siegel, Virginia Hill, Mickey Rooney and Alan Ladd in for cameo appearances and sets the 1946 scene to perfection in many subtle ways.

The book moves at warp speed. You are compelled to turn pages in an attempt to keep up with the action.The story is presented from the minds of four or five main characters in alternating chapters so when you want to learn the outcome of one situation you must enjoy three or four more chapters to get that particular resolution. Like eating peanuts, you cannot read just one chapter.

Mr. Hunter delivers a nonstop action read laced with taut suspense and peopled with rich, well defined characters. No one (heroes especially) is perfect and this novel is hard boiled noir at its very best.

Whew - another great book from Stephen Hunter. Earl Swagger is an interesting character. This is of course, a prequel to the "Bob the Nailer" books which have come before - Dirty White Boys, Time to Hunt, etc. They are excellent. Of course, you have to be ready to read and imagine quite a bit of violence, but it works in these books. Go ahead, read this one first, and then go and find the ones that came before. Now, is the story of Earl's father to come later? Sounds like a good idea to me.

Too many people think of Hunter as simply the only novelist who happens to know the difference between the .30-06 and the .308. He does. So what? He also knows how to tell a complex story in a carefully evoked world, with biting dialogue, believable violence and stunning reversals. HOT SPRINGS is one of his best. Earl Swagger, a Marine hero from World War II, is exhausted by his return to a go-getting 40s America and can't forget the islands on which he fought and on which so many of his friends were killed. When an ambitious district attorney in Garland County, Ark., gives him a chance to ramrod a special raiding unit opposed to the gangsters who run Hot Springs, Arkansas's wide-open prototype of Las Vegas, it's the war that Earl must be looking for. But at the same time as Earl is leading his lawmen on their raids, and the stakes and bodycount arerising, a young officer is investigating Earl himself, and a whole biography emerges: we see a man naturally given to aggression who was formed by a violent upbringing at the hands of an abusive father. We see a man fighting to control his demons, his rages, his alcoholism, trying to do the right thing even as the political situation around him is shifting, and even as the gunfire grows even hotter. Earl may be Hunter's best creation: he's a hero who isn't a superman but a man of flaws, misjudgements, and self-doubts. He's the best thing a hero can be--human.

Heard the taped version of HOT SPRINGS by Stephen
Hunter . . . story of an ex-Marine sergeant, Earl Swaggert, who is
hired to wage a war on corruption in Hot Springs, Arkansas, in
1946 . . . I was afraid that I might not like it because of both the
era and the locale, but was I wrong . . . very quick-moving . . . Hunter
really gives you a feel for what it was like living in the South during
that time . . . this is the first book I have read by the author, but it
probably won't be the last . . . after finishing HOT SPRINGS, I
learned that it is actually a prequel to other novels involving the
Swagert family . . . but that did not impact upon my enjoyment
in this one; i.e., I did not feel "lost" without having Hunter's latter
works . . . Jay O. Sanders, long one of my favorite character
actors, did a superb job of narration . . . he shifted effortelessly
between characters, but perhaps most amazing was the fact
that I did not even recognize Sanders' voice--a real tribute to him.

Hot Springs, Arkansas. 1946. The most wide open town in the United States. The mob owns the police, the judges, and the politicians. Gambling, girls, whatever a man wants is freely available. But a newly elected prosecuting attorny decides to change that. He hires Earl Swagger, newly discharged Medal-of-Honor winner and legendary FBI man D.A. Parker to clean up the town. But Earl Swagger still carries emotional baggage from the war and even further back from his mean drunk of a father. Does Earl have a death wish as he leads ever more violent raids with reckless disregard? And now that the mob is throughly aroused will they bring in outside "hitters" to take Earl and DA Parker down?

This is the prequel to a few of Mr. Hunter's books, namely Black Light, A Time to Hunt, and Point of Impact. These other three books chronicle the life of legendary Marine sniper, Bob Swagger. Bob's father, Earl, is touched on briefly in those books but Hot Springs is Earl's own story.

Like all of the Stephen Hunter books I've read, this one was fast-paced and gripping. It wasn't quite as techincal as his previous books and there was a little more humor in this one. I didn't find it quite as strong as the Bob Swagger books but it is still a very good read. I'd recommend it highly. The reader may also want to read the Bob Swagger books first, but it really isn't necessary to enjoy this one. Another good book from a very good writer.

In my opinion the Swagger novels are the best that Mr. Hunter has to offer. This prequel involves Earl as he has just returned stateside from WWII. He joins a newly elected D.A. who has visions of higher office and believes that cleansing Hot Springs of mob activity is the way to the promised land.

Earl trains a handful of young men into a highly specialized unit to take on the criminal element in the city. The action scenes are awesome and Mr. Hunter describes Hot Springs perfectly. I have been to the city several times and I could picture in my mind exactly where everything took place.

This is a wonderful novel involving the very charismatic Earl Swagger. Try it out.