Black Light by Stephen Hunter

This was a great story, and I’m sorry it had to come to an end. It was about fathers and sons, starting with my favorite sniper, Bob Lee Swagger, and his dad Earl. Added to that we had the Jimmy and Lamar Pye, Russ Pewtrie and his dad, boss Harry and Hollis Etheridge, `and finally Red Bama and the story of his daddy’s rise from poverty to wealth. So rich in background information, this book could have started the Bob Lee Swagger series, but it was the second or third (written in 1996), depending on how you count Hunter’s novels. Hunter weaves a rich tale about how the characters have interacted with one another and how their family histories tie together. He also adds in a rich portrayal of the racism of Arkansas in 1955, the year Earl Swagger was murdered. The book begins with Earl investigating the rape and murder of Shirelle Parker, a 16-year-old Black girl, a nigra in the language of the day. Her body was discovered by Earl who began the investigation on the same day that Jimmy Pye was released from prison, the same day that Earl was gunned down. 40 years later, we find Bob Lee trying to figure out the connection among those events. Hunter is masterful in bouncing back and forth in time from the 50s to the 90s, and from one father and son story to the next. The language is priceless. Sam, the wise old country attorney is responding to Russ, a reported and future novelist, when Sam says, “Well, I’ve read enough books not to give a hunk of spit and a quart of whittler’s shavings for any of em.” Or near the end of the book, the literate Russ sums up the plot, “I never really got enough. Not enough facts, not enough documentation. But it turned out to be exactly as I thought it would be, didn’t it. A profound endorsement of the genetic theory of human behavior. Good fathers, good sons. Bad fathers, bad sons, straight down the line. Like a laboratory experiment.” But then, at the end, after setting up this paradigm, Hunter shows how it is not true. If you haven’t read Hunter yet, start here. If you have, don’t miss this one.