{"id":41586,"date":"2026-05-11T07:47:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T11:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/?p=41586"},"modified":"2026-05-11T11:53:30","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T15:53:30","slug":"bullet-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/?p=41586","title":{"rendered":"THE BULLET GARDEN: AN EARL SWAGGER NOVEL by Stephen Hunter \/ Z-View"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

THE BULLET GARDEN: AN EARL SWAGGER NOVEL<\/a> by Stephen Hunter<\/p>\n

First sentences…<\/p>\n

\n

“No, no,” said Basil St. Florian.\u00a0 “Bren\u00a0<\/em>guns.\u00a0 We need the Bren guns.\u00a0 It is simply not feasible without Bren guns.\u00a0 Surely you understand?”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The Overview:\u00a0 Beware of Spoilers\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

July 1944.\u00a0 D-Day was a month ago and a success.\u00a0 Since then Nazis snipers have killed hundreds of Allied soldiers daily.\u00a0 The snipers strike with no warning and then fade away before a counter-attack can take shape.\u00a0 Somehow these Nazi sharpshooters know where the American GIs are going to be and the safest locations to kill as many as possible.<\/p>\n

Army intelligence has come up short in a solution.\u00a0 General Eisenhower decides that perhaps the Army’s best marksman might have insight.\u00a0 So Gunnery Sergeant Earl Swagger, a decorated war hero and our military’s best shot is brought in.\u00a0 Swagger is given carte blanche to figure out a response to the Nazi snipers.<\/p>\n

Swagger realizes that part of the problem is the military intelligence operatives working on a solution are doing it from a safe location far from the front.\u00a0 They’re eating well, sleeping well and going to parties and social events.\u00a0 Swagger knows as dangerous as it will be, he will need to work on a solution from the front.<\/p>\n

Swagger is given an aide, a former Harvard student who is the son of a wealthy American.\u00a0 Swagger doubts the kid will be much help until the kid tells him:\u00a0 “I’ve been here long enough to know the politics of this place. I know who wants you to succeed and those who’d like to see you fail. They don’t like the idea of a NCO figuring out what they couldn’t… and I can get you anything you want or need.”<\/p>\n

Someone is tipping off the Nazis to American troop movements.\u00a0 This gives the enemy snipers the ultimate advantage.\u00a0 Swagger’s a great shot and an unsurpassed hunter but he will find himself up against a squad of snipers led by Nazi with skills equal to his.<\/p>\n

Stephen Hunter has written another winner.<\/p>\n

Rating:<\/strong>
\n\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE BULLET GARDEN: AN EARL SWAGGER NOVEL by Stephen Hunter First sentences… “No, no,” said Basil St. Florian.\u00a0 “Bren\u00a0guns.\u00a0 We<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":912,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[61,52,74],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-authors","category-books","category-z-view"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/912"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41586"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41684,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41586\/revisions\/41684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}