Great story - kept me hanging right to the end.

This book is an enjoyable read, with one annoying flaw. The whole structure of the book requires the reader to accept one totally ridiculous idea and that is that a convent full of orphan children, in Switzerland, during WW II is only allowed out of the cellar of the convent for one half hour per day at midnight. If this is not accepted then the whole premise of the book collapses. I found myself while reading the book, constantly questioning such a silly idea and this took away from the book. ( )

Really weird sniper story. Weird mission, very weird kit. No likeable characters. I'll try another of his. ( )

Keep in mind this is Stephen Hunter's first novel, and the characters appear in this book only. But it is still better than most other thriller writers, and a crackling good read. It deals very realistically with real issues from WW2, which was really not that far away in terms of real history, so for those of you who are younger, read it and learn about what happened not so long ago. (p.s. the sniper technology used by the Germans in this book was a REAL item, and lead to the current generation of night scopes). Learn your history, so you can understand current events. The Serbia-Bosnia conflict was in many ways a final eddy of the evils and rivalries of 19th century Europe, WW1 and WW2. Over one hundred years of history and hatred does not disappear in one or 2 generations. ( )

I liked this better than the last book of his I read, "Havana" but not as well as the first Bob Lee Swagger book. This has nothing to do with the Swagger characters that I could see. Just a straight WWII yarn. The narrative is 3d person & from basically 2 separate POV's; a German sniper's & an American Intelligence man who is tracking him. I found the sniper's thought processes pretty well done - scarily so. His dedication, hatred & motivations seemed very real. Surprisingly, I didn't feel that way about the 'good guys'. I don't think they were as well portrayed. Hemingway makes another caricature appearance. Hunter doesn't seem to like him much. There was a lot of good action, some of it surprising, some sickening, all of it fairly realistic. It portrays the last days of the war pretty well, I think. I'm no expert, but it seemed right to me. All in all, it was an OK read, but I don't think I'll bother again. I'd give it 2.5 stars. ( )