Pale Horse Coming

Pale Horse Coming, featuring Stephen Hunter's beloved sniper heroes Earl and Bob Lee Swagger, the first Swagger thriller from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author.

The time is 1951. A smooth-talking Chicago lawyer comes to chat with Sam Vincent, the former prosecutor of Polk County, Arkansas, about a dangerous subject--a big prison for violent black convicts near Thebes, Mississippi, up the Yaxahatchee River from Pasagoula. Thebes seems to have dropped out of the Union--letters and phone calls go unanswered, and the lawyer has questions that need answers. Would Sam--an ex-lawman, a white man and a Southerner--agree to go up there and find out what he can?

The ex-prosecutor takes on the job, but first he goes to see his old friend Earl Swagger, and tells him that if he isn't back in a week, Earl is to come looking for him. When Sam vanishes into the mists and swamps around Thebes, Mississippi, Earl packs his gun, explains to a distraught Junie that duty is duty and a promise is a promise, and sets off for Thebes, Mississippi to track his friend down.

Soon enough, Earl--who approaches Thebes and its sinister prison with the stealth of a good Marine on a recon mission--realizes that something very strange indeed is going on there, that the prison is more than just a place that chills the blood of even the most hardened convict, that in fact the whole town of Thebes is hiding a secret--and it's a place where people disappear all too easily, particularly inquisitive strangers, for whom burial in the swamps follows torture.

“"Visceral and raw." -- The Washington Post Book World”

San Francisco Examiner One of the best storytellers of his generation.
The Providence Journal-Bulletin Cements Hunter's status as the best thriller writer going today. Maybe ever.
The Washington Post Book World Classic hard-boiled fiction....Features some of Hunter's best writing.

Stephen Hunter is creator of the Bob Jee 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.

Mississippi, 1951: The last place any sane man wants to visit is Thebes State Penal Farm. Of the few who make the journey there, even fewer return. But when an old friend disappears inside Thebes, ex-marine and Arkansas State Police Sgt. Earl Swagger takes a personal interest in the case. As he infiltrates the prison, what he experiences defies his wildest nightmares-a savage world where death is the only salvation. As tough as he is, Swagger barely escapes with his life-and his mind-intact. But he's not going to stay away for long. Recruiting six of the hardest, deadliest gunmen ever known, bloody vengeance is soon at hand. Because Earl Swagger is going back to Thebes. And Hell follows with him.

New York Timesbestselling author Stephen Hunter has been hailed by critics as an immediate successor to the legendary Dashiell Hammett. Now he continues the story of the heroic Earl Swagger in a masterful depiction of crime and punishment in the Old South. Mississippi, 1951:The last place any sane man wants to visit is Thebes State Penal Farm. Of the few who make the journey there, even fewer return.But when an old friend disappears inside Thebes, ex-marine and Arkansas State Police Sgt. Earl Swagger takes a personal interest in the case. As he infiltrates the prison, what he experiences defies his wildest nightmares -- a savage world where death is the only salvation. As tough as he is, Swagger barely escapes with his life -- and his mind -- intact. But he's not going to stay away for long. Recruiting six of the hardest, deadliest gunmen ever known, bloody vengeance is soon at hand. Because Earl Swagger is going back to Thebes. And Hell follows with him.

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.