Targeted by Stephen Hunter

Published by Atria/Emily Bestler Books on January 18, 2022

Targeted is a novel of extremist paranoia, a work of propaganda that pushes all the far-right buttons, from “they’re coming to take away our guns” to “fake news” invented by mainstream media reporters (one of whom is described as “vagina-faced”). After reading Game of Snipers, a decent thriller with a minimal injection of politics, I expected better from Stephen Hunter. My expectations weren’t worth the paper the book was printed on, particularly the paperless digital edition.

A congressional subcommittee made up of “leftists” in Washington is investigating Bob Lee Swagger because they don’t have anything more important to investigate. Maybe Hunter wrote this novel before January 6, 2021; maybe he means to distract from it. Ruled by an evil leader who is clearly a stand-in for Nancy Pelosi (variously referred to as “the crazy lady,” “dragon bitch,” and “Mother Death”), the “leftists” (including a Democrat identified as “the mewling baby man”) are out to get Bob Lee Swagger, not because of his silly name, but because he is a true American hero who loves guns and isn’t afraid to use them. Sigh.

The novel’s tired premise is that the left hates heroes who use guns and wants to hamper the efforts of patriotic cops who are just trying to protect American citizens from suspicious people with dark skin. What better strategy could the “leftists” concoct than to investigate Swagger and have him prosecuted with the expectation that police officers will be crippled by the fear of similar consequences and will never again use force to protect white people from the criminals who terrorize them? The investigation is supposedly based on Swagger’s use of “unauthorized ammunition” (Swagger’s special recipe), a charge that will hardly dissuade the police from using conventional ammunition. Sorry Hunter, but nobody on the left would be stupid enough to think this investigation makes sense. Prosecuting Swagger would make him the poster boy for the next Blue Lives Matter campaign. Who needs that?

In the real world, the Justice Department isn’t going to indict the man who (in the previous novel) saved Obama’s life (and was prepared to save Trump’s) from a terrorist sniper because he did so by using “unauthorized ammunition.” Nor would Democrats vote to investigate a war hero in a wheelchair. Nor would a judge allow the case to go forward, since shooting a killer with “unauthorized ammunition” as the killer is lining up a shot to take out an ex-president doesn’t remotely constitute wanton endangerment, which (at least as described here) isn’t even a federal crime. The idiotic concept of Targeted is jaw-dropping. It’s also ridiculous to think that cops would care whether Swagger is prosecuted for using ammunition that they don’t use, given that the prosecution of Derek Chauvin didn’t deter other cops from kneeling on the necks of unarmed suspects.

Swagger is insufferably self-righteous as he feigns humility. His philosophy is simple, to match his simple mind: liberals weak, rough man strong. Hunter portrays everyone on the left as ignorant because, unlike the virtuous Swagger, they couldn’t possibly understand the crucial distinction between a bullet and a cartridge. At several points, the novel suggests that education is useless unless it relates to guns and killing. Swagger’s poor grammar is apparently intended to convey that “book learning” don’t mean nothing compared to knowledge of firearms. Oddly, Swagger likes to read histories of war but his reading ain’t improved his grammar none. When he isn’t crafting Swagger’s dialog, Hunter at least manages to construct sentences with pain-free grammar. Gosh, did Hunter acquire a dangerous education somewhere?

The point of this novel is not to tell a realistic story. The point is to push the intended audience’s propaganda buttons by demonstrating how, consistent with the fevered imaginations of conservative extremists, “leftists” hate cops and guns. This isn’t a fair-minded discussion of whether cops should be screened for racism and sadism or whether guns should be regulated. It’s a full course red meat dinner for readers on the far right who live in a fact-free echo chamber, readers who believe that “rough men” who use violence to protect us all must be free from criticism when they turn their violence against people who are armed with nothing but dark skin. Swagger gives a tedious speech about the long line of “rough men” in his family who preceded him and how we all love them when we need them. Dull stretches of this dull novel even follow one of his ancestors in 1780, apparently to make the point that “rough men” have always been vital to American life. And perhaps to suggest that a facility with guns is hereditary.

This nuttiness takes up the first half of a slow-moving story. Hunter tries to pick up the pace in the second half by introducing Chechen prisoners who steal a prison bus and perform the miraculous task of crashing into an otherwise impregnable high school auditorium where the congressional subcommittee is holding a hearing on Swagger. Why are members of Congress convening in a high school auditorium in Boise? Well, they thought it would be wise to meet Swagger on his home turf rather than Washington. Seriously? The real reason is that prisoners can’t easily drive a stolen bus into the Capitol — only insurrectionists on foot can manage that invasion.

The Chechens terrorize the “soft” liberals and guess who comes riding to the rescue? Hint: he’s riding a wheelchair. In fact, he’s zip tied to the wheelchair and (spoiler alert) has apparently been stabbed to death, but that doesn’t stop him from fighting armed terrorists because righteous tough guys always prevail. Unlike all the rough men wannabes who regularly threaten Nancy Pelosi from their parents’ basements, the true patriot knows that his job is to protect women, even the ones for whom he feels contempt. Mind you, Swagger makes clear that he wouldn’t mind if Pelosi were killed, but he’s willing to sacrifice himself to “make a point,” which apparently has something to do with the moral superiority of rough men with guns.

Unfortunately, every time the novel seems to be moving forward, Hunter takes a break to give us another diatribe, in one instance imagining a New York Times reporter dictating policy to the government’s hostage team, insisting that they use no violence because “the day of the heroes is over” and lamenting that Swagger might ruin the story by doing something heroic. The Times reporter, of course, doesn’t know the difference between Utah and Idaho. At other times, Hunter pauses the action to show us how bureaucrats, unlike rough men with guns, can’t get anything done. Hunter even takes a shot at Stephen Colbert, mistaking the comedian for a “political analyst,” likely because Hunter has no sense of humor.

The simple-minded mentality of Targeted comes down to the superiority of Men With Guns to Men Without Guns — not just superiority at shooting guns and killing people (although those are the only things that really matter to the celebrated Rough Men), but superiority at all things: making policy, raising kids, teaching history to white children. They probably bake better brownies; you can’t go wrong with Men With Guns. Put them behind keyboards, however, and you can’t count on them to produce compelling fiction, unless you need loving descriptions of guns to make your day.

NOT RECOMMENDED

Basil's War by Stephen Hunter

Published by Mysterious Press on May 4, 2021

Basil’s War is an expanded version of the short story “Citadel.” That story is fun. The novel, with the addition of new adventures as Basil carries out his mission, is even more fun.

Basil St. Florian is a spy, but he’s not a James Bond clone. He combines the wit and charm of Bertie Wooster with the sly intelligence of Jeeves. Basil is a captain in the British Army during World War II. He has a fondness for cocktails and actresses.

The British believe that a German spy is using a book code to transmit secrets. The book is actually a manuscript, The Path to Jesus, published in 1767. To break the code, the Brits need the manuscript, but there are only two copies in existence. They can’t access the one in the Oxford Library because the German spy would learn that they have tumbled to the source of the code. Hence, Basil is to make his way into France and photograph relevant pages of the second manuscript, where it is housed in a rare document collection at the Institut de France in Paris.

Basil changes the mission plan while entering France for reasons that are revealed in the end. He uses his wits and pickpocketing talents to avoid the Germans who are searching for him. More Germans need to be foiled to complete his mission. All the while, Basil’s attitude is one of breezy self-confidence. In the British tradition, he is self-effacing rather than cocky, but he brings a “nothing ventured” philosophy to the more dangerous aspects of his mission. For example, he decides to steal an airplane, and having watched pilots fly them in the past, he thinks it really can’t be that hard. Landing turns out to be trickier than he anticipated.

The light tone distinguishes Basil’s War from a James Bond or George Smiley novel. Since the story isn’t meant to be taken seriously, it would be easy to forgive improbabilities. Yet Stephen Hunter tells a credible story, avoiding the outrageous while spicing the plot with believable action scenes. Well, maybe sleeping with Vivian Leigh and working with Alan Turing is a stretch, but it all adds to the fun. Basil’s War is easy to read and easy to enjoy.

RECOMMENDED

Game of Snipers by Stephen Hunter

Published by G.P. Putnam's Sons on July 30, 2019

This is the fourth novel that Stephen Hunter has written with the word Sniper in the title, although I suspect that all of the eleven Bob Lee Swagger novels remind the reader that Swagger was a Marine sniper and is still handy with a gun. As obsessions go, being obsessed with snipers is more concerning that most, making Swagger novels a sort of guilty pleasure for those of us who do not think Craig Harrison deserves the veneration that Hunter and other sniper fans give him because he managed to kill Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan from a distance of 1.5 miles.

Swagger is thinking about guns and snipers (I’m not sure he ever thinks about anything else) when he is visited by the mother of an American sniper who was killed by a sniper in Baghdad. The mother wants revenge for her son’s death in 2003 because she believes that when America invades a country, the enemy isn’t supposed to fight back. It is admitttedly unsettling for the enemy to make disgusting YouTube videos, as Juba the Sniper is credited with doing, and it is apparentnly Juba's fame that motivates the mother to ask the 72-year-old Swagger to find Jubba and take him out. At least she’s not ageist.

The mother has rather improbably traced the sniper to Syria. Swagger sensibly declines to do the deed but he agrees to ask a contact in Mossad for an assist. After Mossad is satisfied that Swagger is a legitimate gun nut, Mossad assigns Swagger to track down Juba — which should be no problem for a 72-year-old white guy in Syria. Why does Mossad think an old American from Arkansas is more skilled than Mossad at finding terrorists in Syria? You just have to roll with it if you want to enjoy the novel.

A reader will need to accept other unlikely events, including IDF’s willingness to bring Swagger along (and to arm him, no less) when they raid a location where the sniper might be practicing. That’s fine with Swagger, because as he admits, he loves war and really loves shooting people. Swagger is probably not a good candidate for a nursing home.

Of course, when Swagger uncovers evidence that Juba plans to shoot a high value target in the US, the FBI welcomes not only a Mossad agent but Swagger to help them catch the sniper. At various other points, the police are happy to bring this septuagenarian civilian along on raids and to loan him weapons to boot. In what world would that happen?

To prove what an awful terrorist he is, we are told that Juba once shot a bunch of children on a bus in Israel while telling himself Praise Be to Allah. Being a terrorist isn’t bad enough; the guy has to be a demonically evil terrorist or sniper fans who admire “hard men” might come to like him as much as they like Swagger.

Other red meat dishes are on a menu that is meant for a particular kind of reader. A strong woman is described as having “butch aggression.” A Mossad guy frets that Americans are not sufficient committed to fighting terror because we don’t torture suspects and insist on legal niceties like trials. Law enforcement characters complain that restrictions on FISA warrants are based on “a party game called Don’t Make Anybody Mad” as opposed to a rational fear that giving law enforcement the unlimited right to spy on Americans is the recipe for a police state. Stephen Hunter compares the “busy beauty of Christian religious ambience” to the “severity and simplicity of Islam,” apparently having never seen the busy beauty of the Süleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul or the stark simplicity of most monasteries. Marines are worshipped because “they are shooters” just as Mossad is worshipped for its ruthlessness. For good measure, a character opines that a Mexican cartel leader is responsible for all of America’s drug woes because drug cartels are part of a diabolical plot to undermine white America. That’s why “Mexicans, they make their living in tunnels” (apparently there are no doctors or farmers in Mexico, although there are plenty of puta and to care about their deaths is “gringo madness”). My eyes began to tire from rolling so often.

At the same time, characters occasionally recognize that the adoration of guns is a path to craziness. I particularly enjoyed the comparison of gun cultists who buy accessories for their weapons to little girls who obsessively collect Pretty Ponies. A few characters also understand that “fake news” doesn’t come from mainstream media outlets, but from bloggers and fringe media outlets that present fiction as fact to further their agenda.

The plot? Well, the terrorist sniper prepares to shoot his target, kills some other people, and manages to stay a step ahead of our heroes while Swagger does his own heroic thing. The reader is asked to guess at the target and, like the characters, will probably be surprised. The terrorist’s motivation is plausible, given that most enemies of America these days, like the president, see their job as making Americans even more divided. The action ending is wild, but plausibility is not the key to enjoying an action hero story, particularly when the action hero is a senior citizen.

Game of Snipers is just outlandish enough to be entertaining, in part because of Hunter’s skill at making the outlandish seem real. His eloquence in describing the mechanics of sniping and the comparative advantage of various rifles, scopes, bullets, and loaders keeps the lengthy descriptions from becoming tedious (although describing a well-crafted bullet as “sublime” is a bit over the top). Devotees of gun porn will love it. But while most gun porn contents itself with listing the model numbers and specifications associated with favorite weapons, Hunter actually takes time to explain the factors that might influence a sniper’s decision to use a particular gun, ammunition, and associated paraphernalia. This is, at least, educational gun porn.

A good many people hold red meat opinions that are similar to those expressed by characters in Game of Sniper. I don’t hold it against a writer for portraying characters who might live in the real world, even if I disagree with them, provided the writer does not propagandize in favor of a repulsive worldview. Hunter occasionally comes close to crossing that line but I am willing to cut him some slack and to recommend Game of Snipers because the novel delivers the excitement that an action thriller should.

RECOMMENDED

Citadel by Stephen Hunter

Published by MysteriousPress.com/Open Road on January 19, 2016

Citadel is a light war/adventure/spy story with an emphasis on light. It is part of the Bibliomysteries series of mystery/suspense stories that feature books or libraries as a part of the plot. Other entries in the series have been short stories, but Citadel is longer, although certainly not long enough to be classified as a novel. It is probably fair to call it a novella.

In 1943, Basil St. Florian, a British Army captain, agrees to volunteer for a dangerous assignment. His quest is to recover a rare manuscript from Occupied France. The manuscript is a copy; the original resides in a library at Cambridge. The Cambridge manuscript is thought to be a “code book” that allows the Soviets to send messages to a spy in Britain.

Photographing the original in Cambridge is impossible but, rather implausibly, an easier job might be made of photographing a copy in occupied Paris, where it is under the guard of the Germans. That becomes St. Florian’s mission. If he is unsuccessful, the war is likely to be prolonged on the Russian front because, without additional proof that only the code can provide, Stalin will not believe that the British have uncovered Hitler’s plot to deal a sharp blow to the Russians.

St. Florian has the kind of droll wit that suits the era in which the story is set. He would make a good 1940s movie star. He meets adversity with breezy charm.

Citadel is too light to generate true suspense. The action climax left me scratching my head and asking “Why did that happen?” followed by a scene that had me asking “How could that possibly happen?” But Stephen Hunter doesn’t ask the reader to take the story seriously, so I guess believing it doesn’t matter so much. The post-action conclusion, in which the meaning of the code is pondered, is moderately clever, if a bit anti-climactic.

RECOMMENDED