Stephen Hunter
I, Sniper
The sixth book in the Bob Lee Swagger series, 2009
This book is dedicated to the American writers who have provided me with so much education, illumination, insight, enjoyment, and delight over the past twenty-five very good years, with apologies to the many I’ve left out:
Michael Bane, Massad Ayoob, Jan C. Libourel, Rick Hacker,
David M. Fortier, Chuck Taylor, Peter G. Kokalis, Wiley Clapp,
Don Cates, Sam Fadala, Patrick Sweeney, Craig Boddington,
Barrett Tillman, Duane Thomas, Layne Simpson, Garry James,
Walt Rausch, John Feamster, John L. Plaster, Frank James,
Roy Huntington, Charles Cutshaw, Gary Paul Johnston,
Mike Venturino, John Barsness, LeRoy Thompson, Dan Shea,
Frank Iannamico, Jacob Gottfried, Dave Anderson, John Taffin,
Holt Bodinson, Gene Gangarosa, Rick Jamison, Wayne Van Zoll,
Terry Wieland, Clint Smith,
and
the late Chuck Karwan and the late Robert T. Shimek.
Why, they couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance!
MAJOR GENERAL JOHN SEDGWICK,
COMMANDER, UNION VI CORPS, MOMENTS
BEFORE HIS DEATH BY RIFLE FIRE FROM
CONFEDERATE SHARPSHOOTERS,
SPOTSYLVANIA, VIRGINIA, MAY 9, 1864
1
The time has long passed in America when one can say of a sixty-eight-year-old woman that she is “still” beautiful, the snarky little modifier, all buzzy with irony, signifying some kind of miracle that one so elderly could be so attractive. Thus everyone agreed, without modification, that Joan Flanders was beautiful in the absolute-fully beautiful, extremely beautiful, totally beautiful, but never “still” beautiful. Botox? Possibly. Other work? Only Joan and her doctors knew. The best in dental work, an aggressive workout regimen, the most gifted cosmeticians and hairdressers available to the select? That much certainly was true.