HOT SPRINGS is 1) a town in Arkansas; 2) the unofficial nickname the U. S. Secret Service has for the Lincoln Bedroom when Barbra Streisand is in town and Hilary is not; 3) the name of the latest thriller by Stephen Hunter; or 4) All of the above. The answer, of course, is 4); and, although I could go on ad nauseum about the other three answers, I'm going to confine myself to number three.

Stephen Hunter quite simply has no peer. There are a lot of people out there doing this type of action/adventure, three-explosions-or-firefights-per-chapter, but Hunter...well, he has carved out a little niche within a niche. Every one of his books has a memorable scene that readers are going to carry away with them. I can't even drive past a Denny's without thinking of DIRTY WHITE BOYS, or drive though a snowfall without thinking of the tracking scene in TIME TO HUNT. And I'm never going to be able to look at a staircase without thinking of a particular scene in Hunter's latest, HOT SPRINGS. Or, for that matter, drive past a railroad yard. Or a bar on a side street in a small, strange city. Hunter is that type of writer. And HOT SPRINGS is that type of book.

Hunter, in HOT SPRINGS, adds another chapter to the mythos of the Swagger family. This particular account jumps back in time to the post-war 1940s. Earl Swagger, a heavily decorated but haunted Marine, is back from the War and back in a world he does not fit into, despite the best efforts of his loving and suddenly pregnant wife. When Swagger is approached to train a group of law enforcement officers for a crime busting mission, he jumps at the chance.

The target of the group is the city of Hot Springs, Arkansas. The city, known for the alleged healing quality of its waters, is also rapidly becoming known for the easy availability of its illegal vices. The city is corrupt from the top down, and the newly elected prosecutor, with his eye on bigger and better things, has promised to clean it up. For Swagger, the planning and the mission --- and the attendant violence that goes with it --- remind him of the War; and Hunter is simply amazing as he subtly and gradually shades in a composite picture of a man who is simultaneously drawn to and repelled by those forces that have shaped him and continue to do so.

Hunter paints Swagger as a man who does not fear death and so fears nothing. What is one to do with such an adversary? Or, for that matter, with such an ally? The officers that Swagger trains and subsequently leads know him to be the heart and soul of their unit and are constantly amazed at his ability to lead and outthink the outlaws they set themselves against. There are conflicting agendas, however, on both sides. Maybe they will cancel each other out; maybe not.

Hunter is simply amazing here. His always amazing knowledge of ordnance --- not the Tom Clancy type, just your simple, garden-variety, spread-the-home-invader-all-over-the-walls-type that no household should do or be without --- is on display here once again and is alone worth the price of admission. The ancillary research that is quietly on display in the background --- the city of Little Rock, not to mention 1940s America and its people --- is incredible. And Hunter's ear for mountain dialogue --- half 14th Century royalty, half mountain, all real --- is not something that can be picked up in quiet afternoons in a library. HOT SPRINGS is a story of corruption in a time when people were not afraid to call it by its name and the people, like Swagger, who were not afraid to do something about it. Hunter makes the story as real as if it were taking place right now, next door, rather than a half-century ago in Arkansas. And, about a quarter of the way through, he has a little joke with Clinton too. Simply amazing, and highly recommended, for those who like their action undiluted.

     --- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub