Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hot Springs | 2000 | Stephen Hunter | Buy |
| 2 | Pale Horse Coming | 2001 | Stephen Hunter | Buy |
| 3 | Havana | 2003 | Stephen Hunter | Buy |
| 4 | The Bullet Garden | 2023 | Stephen Hunter | Buy |
The Earl Swagger series follows Bob Lee Swagger’s father, a World War II Medal of Honor recipient who becomes a law enforcement officer in Arkansas. Hot Springs (2000) sends Earl to the corrupt spa city to take on organized crime. Pale Horse Coming (2001) puts him up against a brutal prison farm in Mississippi, and Havana (2003) takes him to Cuba in the final days before Castro’s revolution.
The Bullet Garden (2023) returned to Earl’s story after a 20-year gap, following him during World War II in Normandy. Hunter uses the Earl Swagger books to explore a different era of American history while maintaining the same focus on marksmanship, violence, and moral reckoning that defines the Bob Lee Swagger novels.