Dead Zero, Stephen Hunter
Dead Zero, Stephen Hunter
5 Rating(s)
List: $42.99 | Sale: $30.10
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Dead Zero

Author: Stephen Hunter

Narrator: Buck Schirner

Unabridged: 13 hr 38 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 12/28/2010


Synopsis

Who killed Whiskey 2-2? And why won’t it stay dead? A marine sniper team on a mission in tribal territories on the Afghan-Pakistan border, Whiskey 2-2 is ambushed by professionals using the latest high-tech shooting gear. Badly wounded, the team’s sole survivor, Gunnery Sergeant Ray Cruz, aka “the Cruise Missile,” is determined to finish his job. He almost succeeds when a mystery blast terminates his enterprise, leaving a thirty-foot crater where a building used to be — and where Sergeant Cruz was meant to be hiding. Months pass. Ray’s target, an Afghan warlord named Ibrahim Zarzi, sometimes called “The Beheader,” becomes an American asset in the region and beyond, beloved by State, the Administration, and the Agency. He arrives in Washington for consecration as Our Man in Kabul. But so does a mysterious radio transmission, in last year’s code. It’s from Whiskey 2-2. MISSION WILL BE COMPLETED. CONFIDENCE IS HIGH. Is Ray Cruz back? Has he gone rogue, is he insane, or just insanely angry? Will he succeed, though his antagonists now include the CIA, the FBI, and the same crew of bad boys that nearly killed him in Zabol province? Not to mention Bob Lee Swagger and a beautiful CIA agent named Susan Okada who gives Swagger more than just a patriotic reason to take the case. Swagger, the legendary hero of seven of Hunter’s novels from Point of Impact to last year’s bestselling I, Sniper, is recruited by the FBI to stop the Cruise Missile from reaching his target. The problem is that the more Swagger learns about what happened in Zabol, the more he questions the U.S. government’s support of Zarzi and the more he identifies with Cruz as hunter instead of prey. With its hallmark accuracy on modern killing technologies, Dead Zero features an older, more contemplative Swagger, but never lets up on the razor-sharp dialogue, vivid characterizations, extraordinary action scenes, and dazzling prose that define Hunter’s landmark series. And with this installment, the stunning revelations — both political and private—will leave listeners begging for more long after the last bullet finds its way home.

About Stephen Hunter

Stephen Hunter has written fifteen novels. The retired chief film critic for The Washington Post, where he won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Criticism, he has also published two collections of film criticism and a nonfiction work. He lives in Maryland.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Mike (the Paladin) on October 24, 2012

I just finished this book and the one that follows it in the "series" (if I may call them a series) Soft Target (review to follow, LOL). I've now read all but one of the books considered part of the Bob Lee Swagger series except one. I somehow missed the third in the series (Time To Hunt) I'm about......more

Goodreads review by Blondish And on September 03, 2019

Another excellent book by Stephen Hunter! I don't think I've ever read one of his books that wasn't fantastic. One reason for this is that they start out with a bang, and get you caught up in the story immediately. Gunnery Sergeant Ray Cruz is a lethally talented sniper. He and his spotter, Lance Co......more

Goodreads review by SteVen on March 14, 2022

Book Review - With its hallmark accuracy on modern-day sniper killing technologies, author Stephen Hunter’s “Dead Zero” features an older, more contemplative Bob Lee Swagger. Dead Zero with Swagger as the legendary protagonist of seven of Stephen Hunter’s novels, never lets up on the razor-sharp dia......more

Goodreads review by Scott on October 13, 2014

This book started out really well, but the ending was so incredibly stupid that I have to give it just a couple of stars. The book starts out with Ray Cruz, a Marine sniper who is tasked with having to assassinate an Afghan warlord named Ibrahim Zarzi. However, out in the Afghan wilderness, he and h......more

Goodreads review by Paul on February 03, 2011

Ray Cruz is a Marine sniper. He is on a mission to take out Ibrahim Zarzi (aka The Beheader". Ray is in big trouble, in fact, so big that his Commanding Officer has asked everyone at headquarters to, "pray for Ray if you're religious. And if you're not religious, pray for Ray. That's an order". Ray ha......more