Dead Zero by Stephen Hunter

Marine sniper unit 2-2 is in country in SE -Stanland. Whiskey 2-2 and his spotter have been assigned to take out The Beheader, a charismatic Afghan warlord. Dressed as goat herders, they take a week to work their way towards this clown's town. The brass in the rear watch their approach real-time on satellite and Predator images when they see a squad of 6 in textbook ambush alignment approach and cut the spotter in half with that .50 Barrett monster. Whiskey 2-2 manages to crawl through the desert after taking out a few of the shooters and stays of task. He'll cry for his spotter later.

Watching his every move, the guys in the rear see him approach a small hotel where he can get a look down shot on Zarzi, the Beheader. Minutes later, the hotel is turned into a crater. Whiskey 2-2, the Marine's top sniper, is presumed to be among the remains of the 31 dead.

Fast forward six months. The sudden disappearance of that hotel resulted in an epiphany that turned Zarzi into a believer that the war is a lost cause and that the Afghans need to embrace the US if they want to survive. Zarzi has quickly become a political force and confidant of the US not to mention a media darling. He is on his way to the States to meet with the new President and other political heavies to announce his candidacy for the Afghan presidency.

FBI ass't director Nick Memphis is tasked with his safety. A bizarre message comes to light. Whiskey 2-2 is still on task and will do whatever it is to complete his assignment. Memphis asks his old friend Bob Lee Swagger to scope out just how a sniper would go about killing Zarzi.

What follows is an intense and delicate dance between Swagger, Whiskey 2-2, and what everyone now knows was a squad of mercenaries hell bent to also finish their task and take out Whiskey 2-2. But the real question is who is pulling the strings of these mercs? And how the hell do they manage to be right behind Bob Lee every damn time he gets close to Whiskey 2-2?

Memphis and Swagger sets traps with varying degrees of success to track back to just who could have authorized a missile hit on the Afghan hotel in real time.

This is Hunter's latest Bob Lee book and as you know, I am a devoted fan of the Bob Lee series. I thought iSniper and Time to Hunt were first rate yarns and this one sits right along side of those two. Actually laid down to read in bed last night and read deep into the night polishing off around 150+ pages of flash bang instense chases, counters, dodge, shoot outs, a peek behind the Predator curtain, a huge twist to the real intentions of The Beheader, and one jaw dropping revelation (plus a little comic relief of a cross country road trip by a Palestinian, a missile expert, and a programmer)

For me, Hunter is a can't miss for testosterone-laced thrillers. Bob Lee may be 65 now, but he is still THE MAN.

And so is Hunter.

That revelation? Let's just say the next book could begin near the end of 'The Sniper Strikes Back."

East Coast Don