by Stephen Hunter
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Product Description
It is the spring of 1945, and the Nazis are eliminating all the witnesses to their horrible crimes, including Jews and foreigners remaining in the prison camps. Kommandant Repp, who is known as a master sniper, decides to hone his sniping abilities by taking a little target practice at the remaining laborers in his own prison camp. But one man escapes and becomes the key to solving the mystery of the cold, calculating Kommandmant Repp and his plans for ending the war.
Repp was the master sniper whose deadly talent had come to the notice of British Intelligence as the linchpin of a desperate Nazi plot to reverse the fortunes of the Third Reich at the eleventh hour. But what was the nature of the weapon that Repp was to aim--and who was to be his last target? Allied Intelligence officers Leets, from the U.S., and Outhwaite from England are dispatched to identify and abort his lethal mission. And when they finally learn the truth, the Second World War's deadliest race against time is on....
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Okay but not great, 2008-08-10
I have not read many WWII stories, fiction or non, so this was a bit different for me. I did enjoy the book, but it does not compare to 'Point of Impact' or 'Time to Hunt'. Even though the ending was predictable, I would still recommend this as a good (and quick) read.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 THE MASTER SNIPER by Stephen Hunter, 2008-07-19
THE MASTER SNIPER is an early novel by Stephen Hunter; it was originally published in 1980. It is a thriller of the Second World War--a sub-genre I love--and it reminded me just a little of Jack Higgins' bestselling THE EAGLE HAS LANDED.
Captain Leets is an officer with the Office of Strategic Services, a paper-pusher really, who specializes in Nazi firearms. He, as everyone else, is waiting out the war. It is January 1945, and the Nazis are against the ropes. They still have enough muscle to do some damage, but the end of the war is in sight, and no one wants to take too many chances, and Captain Leets is no different.
That all changes when a strange report crosses his desk: a small shipment of Stermgewehr-44s--an assault rifle that was produced and requisitioned in the thousands--was sent from the factory to a place called Anlage Elf. Leets isn't sure why, but something bothers him about this shipment of rifles. It's not just the number of rifles being shipped, but no one has heard of the requesting agency, and why would the Germans risk shipping such a small amount of rifles across the country when the war is lost?
This sets up a mystery that Captain Leets will struggle to solve throughout the rest of the novel. He will go against his superiors, participate in a parachute raid of an enemy camp, discover things about himself that he doesn't like, alienate friends, and slowly, ever so slowly discover what the Germans are up to.
THE MASTER SNIPER is a rewarding read. The prose is quick and spry, while the plot is rich enough to keep you guessing until shortly before the end. Mr. Hunter ratchets the tension and suspense perfectly, and the characters are enjoyable and likable--Mr. Hunter does an excellent job of creating a likable hero, while also creating a villain who doesn't seem terribly bad until the novel begins to unwind, and then he is unmasked as a truly despicable and dangerous person.
Ben Boulden, Gravetapping
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Master novel, 2008-06-04
Hunter does a great job setting this novel back in the time of WW2. Character and plot development is good. Action is very fast paced. I did find some of the combat situations a bit implausible but then I have never partaken of that particular pastime myself-certainly not in WW2. The character of Repp is developed well-a person who seems not sociopathic as much as simply devoid of any normal human emotion-just dead emotionally. The novel is a bit scary in that it shows what happens when mortal instruments are placed in the hands of inhuman humans. Those younger folks who have suffered the effects of the , IMO, very poor educational system of the past 30 years might want to avail themselves of the many sources of information about the holocaust. The novel requires the reader to understand that what happened DID HAPPEN, whether or not the kind of techno thriller stuff described in the book took place. It's important to never break the chain of knowledge from generation to generation that what happened must not again if we can stop it.
Off soap box now. My dad was a WW2 vet/ Europe. He could not watch WW2 movies without sobbing. It's taken me years to understand why. The reason was it all really happened. For true. Good book here.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
With a Letter From The Author , 2007-08-13
I first read this book back in 1983 and found it one of the strangest but certainly more interesting novels I have read set in WW II. The style of writing is remarkable with well drawn characters. Set within the closing weeks of WWII the book invokes a deeply mystical aura supported with a comprehensive knowledge of contemporary German weaponry and organisation. I was so intrigued by the book that I wrote to the author. His reply illuminates the thoughts behind the book and, having re-read the book recently I feel sure his letter will be of similar interest to other readers:
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
From Stephen Hunter, April 1983.
Thanks for your kind note concerning "The Master Sniper"; it encourages an author to know that his book is still being read. I shall try to answer your questions.
In Repp, I was trying to represent authentically the German point of view viz a viz the Holocaust. I felt that too many popular novels had portrayed the Nazis as slithering fiends, cowards, bullies, molesters; in other words, so safely distanced from the human condition as to let all the rest of us off the hook. In Repp I tried to build a man in many ways honourable, even heroic, quite decent. Except that he murdered people and believed in it ; I felt that what no book had quite caught was the zeal, the missionary passion, the Nazis had for their self-appointed mission; I felt that they weren't cynics at all, but rather idealists and for this reason were far more terrifying a moral phenomenon. And naturally a part of this view (was) the conviction that the Jews caused the war and were responsible for their own death...my idea was that this, in its utter self delusion, was far more terrifying than the more conventional theatrical evil that the movies seem to insist on giving us.
As for "Vampir" yes, such a device existed, much as I described it; I took the liberty however, of developing the "solar assist" unit, because I needed an artificial device to hold the Germans in that camp (Anlage Elf simply means installation 11, although I liked the pun in the word elf, because it suggested goblins and children, which are, of course, two other themes in the book) while Leets and his team tried to locate it.
As for Vollmerhausen, no, he's not based on anybody specific (although I did use the Giepel team for some background) ; I simply borrowed the name from a road that runs near my house. And, in fact, other readers, when they pass under it on the super highway, have been compelled to call and find out if that's where I got the name. And all the organisatons of the Third Reich -- from WVHA to Amt IV-b-4 -- all existed.
And thanks for your suggestion for another book on Repp, but in all honesty, I don't think it's in the cards -- although I almost wrote a book in which Leets and Evans got involved in the MacLean-Burgess-Philby espionage case. But at least for now, I've spent my obsessive interest in World War II and particularly the Third Reich. But I haven't given up history; my next book is set in 1937 in Spain, during the Civil War and I'm having a great time.
Thanks and best
Stephen Hunter
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
An enjoyable action novel about the closing days of World War II, 2007-07-17
An enjoyable action novel about the closing days of World War II. Hunter's plot strains credibility a bit in the end - not so much the secret weapon cooked up by the Germans but the use to which it is put. Still, he is a good writer, with a cool, sardonic tone just right for the tale. The technical detail about a next generation sniper weapon is absorbing, is consistent with the historical one-step-ahead state of Nazi science, and is unfolded well to drive the plot.
Hunter also does a good job drawing German sniper Repp - modest, fearless, invincible in battle, seemingly an all-purpose war hero until you learn more about him. He is tracked doggedly by Leets, an out-of-shape, underrespected, mostly ignored American intelligence desk jockey who must glean the tiniest of clues to determine what's up. Hunter's depiction of concentration camp survivor Shmuel, a lone witness to the plot, is touching and a cut above what I expected in this sort of military novel.
Quibbles: The text could use a decent copy-editing; there were numerous errors involving quote marks. And Hunter allows himself an indulgence- a twenty-page passage on Leets' annoying college-boy assistant who plays an exhibition tennis match with no plot connection. It's just an excuse for Hunter to write about a sport he apparently loves.
This is still a pretty good book. It keeps moving, it's paced right and it's absorbing.
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