Night of Thunder: A Bob Lee Swagger novel

I've just finished Steven Hunter's newest book, "Night of Thunder".

This is a book which I was able to put down.

Once.

It showed up in my mail box, courtesy of Amazon.com, two days ago. I read the first three pages and thought I better go do my chores. When I went to bed, I read some more, but was too tired to continue. So I put it down the second time.

When I picked it up the next day, I finished it. I didn't need the bookmark because I couldn't put it down.

Yes, this is another Bob Lee Swagger book, and Bob The Nailer is in high form.

I admit, I was a little disappointed by the preceding Swagger novel, "The 47th Samurai". I read this in October of 2007, and reported that Bob "Goes All Samurai". Although I enjoyed the concept and especially the dialogue, I thought the scene where a sixty year old broke-down sniper learns The Art of The Sword in a few weeks and then beats a Master Swordsman in a fair fight was too great a strain on my willingness to suspend disbelief.

No such stretch of the imagination here. The skills and abilities of Bob are reasonable, considering that Hunter worked hard to set the circumstances to match the possibilities of our Aging Hero.

The Aging Hero
The Possibilities of the Aging Hero are harder to portray than are the Problems of the Aging Hero.

For years, Robert B. Parker worked hard to keep his no-first-name hero Spenser young, viral, active and strong. Spenser was a Korean War Veteran, which put his birth date somewhere around 1938 or 1939 (The war ended July 27, 1953. Spenser must have spent at least 6 months in-country. He would have been in training for six months before being posted, and was 17 when he enlisted according to Spenserian Lore. Do the math.) The Godwulf Manuscript, the first Spenser book, appeared in 1973 ... Spenser would have been about 37 years old. The last Spenser book, Now and Then, was published in 2007. Parker is struggling to get the last book out but he has moved on to 'other heroes' because the penultimate book "Hundred Dollar Baby" (2006) illustrated a 33 year timespan ... Spenser would have been at least 68-70 years old, if continuity of time had been a factor in composing the stories. Unlikely to be beating up recalcitrant bad-guys.

That's not a problem if you're Charley Brown, who stayed 10 years old for over 30 years. But if you want to depict a realistically strong hero who is a 3+ tour veteran of the Vietnam War (Bob), and you deliberately put your latest book in an action sequence which ends in 2009, you must acknowledge the effects of time on your Last Action Hero.

Hunter allows Bob to age. Bob has doubts, makes mistakes in logic, questions his competence. Hunter also portrays Bob as 63 years old in 2008 or 2009, which puts his birth date around 1944 or 1945.

What can Bob actually ... do? In a combat situation?

He can rely on his skills and conditioning. (Bob is a man who never stops 'playing with guns', practicing skills, and doesn't lose that competitive edge. He's also a hard-working rancher, who maintains a better physical condition than, for example, a same-aged Geek slaving all day over a hot keyboard.)

No, the character of Bob, as portrayed in this book, is not inconsistent with his chronicled age. I don't know what Hunter will do with him next year, but this year he's more believable than he was last year.

The Story
The pace of the story was excellent.

Some of the clues to the mystery weren't hidden so well that the reader couldn't figure out solution. Rather than detract from the story, this is the mark of the Master Mystery Writer: it is consistent with the goal that Agatha Christie always strove for, an Honest Mystery. The clues are there for the reader. It's not enough to spot them, the Amateur Detective must figure how they fit with the facts, and interpret them correctly. There are sufficient Red Herrings tossed into the fish stew to make it both challenging and fun. No, I didn't have it all figured out, it wasn't what you could call predictable. Still, I 'had a clue' and that added to the fun of reading.

One of the joys was the discovery that we renew our acquaintance with the Grumley and Pye families, who are returning characters in previous incarnations of the Swagger Saga. Not these particular Grumleys and Pyes, of course: the descendants of the (few) survivors of those books. They're just as bad, they're just as evil, they're just as degenerate as they have been for three generations ... and they continue to constitute a Target Rich Environment.

There's even a strong "USPSA" thread, which I believe makes this a "Must Read" book.

Read The Book/Own The Book
Don't borrow this book. Don't check it out of the library. Buy it! You will find yourself going back through your collection of Hunter novels and re-reading a select few which deal with the sword play, the history of Nikki (now a 24 year old journalist), and the adventures of Earl and Hot Springs.

(Note to The Usual Subjects: SWMBO gets my copy to read next. Yes, I refused to let her read it first. After all, she has been bogarting the latest J. A. Jance novel for the past 2 weeks.)

At 287 pages, this isn't the longest book that Hunter has written. But with its continuity of time and place, the tight writing, the sparkling dialogue and driving action (sorry, I couldn't resist), this could well be one of the best.

Given Stephen Hunters consistently high quality of writing, that's high praise indeed.