Plot summary
Right after the official ceremony of receiving the Medal of Honor in Washington, D.C., 1stSgt Earl Swagger (retired) is being approached by district attorney of Garland County Fred Becker and ex-FBI agent D. A. Parker. The two men propose him a new job in Hot Springs, Arkansas to fight against organized crime and finally end the gambling and corruption of the city. Swagger's mission is to train twelve young policemen into a "dream team" and instruct them during operations in city casinos. The mission is to close down all gambling places, preferably without hurting people. If violence becomes necessary, they are outfitted with custom .45 automatics, Thompson submachine guns, and Browning automatic rifles as well as 12 gauge shotguns and M1 Carbines.
Soon after accepting the new job, Earl finds out that his wife June is pregnant. She doesn't support Earl's idea to work in Hot Springs and is afraid of him being killed.
One of the "dream team" members, young policeman Frenchy Short (who also has a critical but unseen role in Black Light ) is a smart young man, who feels that he can be above and better than the others in the team. Several times he tries to do something better than the others but in the end fails. That way he once killed two men during an assassination in the casino. Luckily for him, these two men were known bandits and Frenchy became sort of a hero. Next time, while supposedly on vacation, Frenchy finds the central office of the gambling network and reveals his research results to Swagger and Parker. This results in Becker firing him from the team because of illegal way of gathering evidence (as Frenchy, in fact, broke into a telephone office to search the maps). An enraged Short promptly goes over to the other side. For a little favor, he informs the city boss Owney Maddox (based on real-life Hot Springs gangster Owney Madden) of everything related to the "dream team".
On the other hand, during the holiday Short's "dream team" partner Carlo Henderson (later seen in Dirty White Boys ) is asked by D. A. Parker to investigate Swagger's past and find out, how is Swagger so familiar with Hot Springs's landscape. Swagger has shown knowledge of the city several times, pointing out important nuances during the operations, however claims that he's never been to Hot Springs before. Parker suggests that Swagger has the death instinct, because Swagger always tries to get into action himself, without wearing the bulletproof vest. During the investigation, Henderson finds out that Swagger's brother was beaten a lot by their father, Charles Swagger, former sheriff of Polk County. Carlo's investigation ultimately leads him to the belief that Earl was responsible for his father's death. When he finally questions him on the subject, Earl reveals that he did not kill his father, but found him dying in Hot Springs. He took him out of there and faked the robbery that supposedly got him killed to protect his father's reputation (and his own as well). Sam Vincent, who at the time is assistant of attorney in Garland, Arkansas. briefly assists Henderson with the investigation. Vincent also appears in other Hunter's novels, such as Point of Impact and Black Light.
In the meanwhile, the governor of Arkansas orders a Highway Patrol unit to confiscate all heavy weaponry and bulletproof vests from the team, leaving them only with their handguns. Several members decide to leave, leaving only seven men. Short suggests Maddox to make a trap for the "dream team", which results in seven of them dying, including old D. A. Parker. The sole survivors are Swagger and Henderson. They are then arrested by the police and later let go, with no money paid and on the condition that they never, ever return to Hot Springs.
Soon after, Maddox is being arrested with the accusation of owning stolen artwork. He's freed from prison by the crew of assassins who ambushed the raid team, but Swagger finds them in a place called Hard Bargain Valley and uses his Marine Issue M1A1 Thompson to kill all of them in a savage protracted gunfight, including Maddox. Swagger also finds out that Maddox was the actual murderer of his father.
In the meantime, June is in the hospital giving birth to their son, which doesn't appear to be easy because of an unusual position of the baby. The local doctor can't rescue both the mother and the child, so Earl brings another doctor with him, who is black. The locals in the town, outraged that a black doctor has entered a white hospital and is assisting a white patient, form a lynch mob and approach the hospital. Earl, carrying three loaded .45's, confronts them and warns them that if a fight occurs, a lot of them will die. The mob backs off. June survives, and successfully gives birth to their son, Bob Lee Swagger.
Other characters
Additionally the plot features two real-life persons from that period: American gangster Bugsy Siegel who was a major driving force behind large-scale development of Las Vegas and his friend, Chicago Outfit courier Virginia Hill. Two other real-life persons appear briefly, and with their identities only hinted at. The first, a screenwriter named "Bill", shares a table with Humphrey Bogart at a Hollywood nightclub. This is actually William Faulkner, the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, when he was working in the movie business. The second brief appearance is by a gay pool attendant named "Roy", whose full name is Roy Scherer, and who later became better known as Rock Hudson. Other real-life persons merely mentioned include Mickey Rooney, Orson Welles, Rita Hayworth, Dick Powell and Alan Ladd. Finally, Raymond Clinton, the owner of the Buick dealership in Hot Springs is mentioned twice. This is an allusion to a real individual, Roger Clinton who owned the Buick dealership in Hot Springs during this time period and, a few years later, married the widowed mother of former President Bill Clinton, eventually becoming future President Clinton's stepfather.
Hot Springs is a resort city in the state of Arkansas and the county seat of Garland County. The city is located in the Ouachita Mountains among the U.S. Interior Highlands, and is set among several natural hot springs for which the city is named. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a population of 37,930.
Charles "Lucky" Luciano was an Italian-born gangster who operated mainly in the United States. Luciano started his criminal career in the Five Points gang and was instrumental in the development of the National Crime Syndicate. Luciano is considered the father of modern organized crime in the United States for the establishment of The Commission in 1931, after he abolished the boss of bosses title held by Salvatore Maranzano following the Castellammarese War. He was also the first official boss of the modern Genovese crime family.
Arnold Rothstein, nicknamed "The Brain", was an American racketeer, crime boss, businessman, and gambler in New York City. Rothstein was widely reputed to have organized corruption in professional athletics, including conspiring to fix the 1919 World Series. He was also a mentor of future crime bosses Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Frank Costello, Bugsy Siegel and numerous others.
Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll was an Irish-American mob hitman in the 1920s and early 1930s in New York City. Coll gained notoriety for the allegedly accidental killing of a young child during a mob kidnap attempt.
Stephen Hunter is an American novelist, essayist, and film critic.
The Gopher Gang was an early 20th-century New York street gang who counted among its members Goo Goo Knox, James "Biff" Ellison, and Owney Madden, born in England of Irish ancestry. Based in the Irish neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen, the Gopher Gang grew to control most of Manhattan with their territory covering Fourth to Forty-Second Street and Seventh to Eleventh Avenue.
Owen Vincent "Owney" Madden was a British-born gangster of Irish ancestry who became a leading underworld figure in New York during Prohibition. Nicknamed "The Killer", he garnered a brutal reputation within street gangs and organized crime. He ran the Cotton Club in Manhattan and was a leading boxing promoter. After increased harassment from law enforcement in New York, Madden moved to Hot Springs, Arkansas, in 1935, where he remained until his death from natural causes in 1965.
The Irish Mob is a family based ethnic collective of organized crime syndicates composed of primarily ethnic Irish members which operate primarily in Ireland, the United States, The United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, and have been in existence since the early 19th century. Originating in Irish-American street gangs – famously first depicted in Herbert Asbury's 1927 book, The Gangs of New York – the Irish Mob has appeared in most major U.S. and Canadian cities, especially in the Northeast and the urban industrial, including Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Cleveland, and Chicago.
Rancho Notorious is a 1952 American Western film directed by Fritz Lang and starring Marlene Dietrich as the matron of a criminal hideout called Chuck-a-Luck. Arthur Kennedy and Mel Ferrer play rivals for her attention in this tale of frontier revenge.
Havana is a novel by the author Stephen Hunter. The third novel in the Earl Swagger series, it was released by Simon & Schuster in 2003. The story is set in Cuba during the emergence of Fidel Castro.
Bob Lee "the Nailer" Swagger is a fictional character created by Stephen Hunter. He is the protagonist of a series of 12 novels that relate his life during and after the Vietnam War, starting with Point of Impact (1993) up to the most recent Targeted (2022). Swagger is the protagonist of the 2007 film and the 2016 TV series Shooter, each based on Point of Impact. Hunter has said that Swagger is loosely based on Carlos Hathcock, a U.S. Marine Corps Scout Sniper.
Black Light is a 1996 thriller novel by Stephen Hunter. It is the second novel in the Bob Lee Swagger series and the sequel to Point of Impact.
Follow That Woman is a 1945 crime film starring William Gargan, Nancy Kelly, and Regis Toomey. The movie was directed by Lew Landers.
Roger Clinton Sr. was an American car salesman. He was the first stepfather of former U.S. president Bill Clinton.
The Hot Springs gunfight, also known as the Gunfight at Hot Springs, or the Hot Springs Shootout, was a gunfight on March 16, 1899, between two separate law enforcement agencies that occurred in Hot Springs, Arkansas during the Old West period in the United States.
Earl T. Ricks was a senior officer of the United States Air National Guard who served as deputy chief of the National Guard Bureau, chief of the Air Force Division, National Guard Bureau (1950–1954), and acting chief of the National Guard Bureau. His four months as acting bureau chief made him the first Air National Guard officer to hold the position.
The Conman is a 1998 Hong Kong action comedy film directed by Wong Jing and starring Andy Lau, Athena Chu and Nick Cheung. Despite the Chinese title, which translates as Knight of Gamblers 1999, Andy Lau does not reprise his role as the "Knight of Gamblers" from the God of Gamblers series, which was also directed by Wong Jing. The film was followed by a sequel, The Conmen in Vegas, in which Lau and Cheung return with new cast members Natalis Chan, Kelly Lin, Meggie Yu and Alex Man.
Bobby Bones is an American radio and television personality, best known for hosting the nationally syndicated The Bobby Bones Show, originating at KISS-FM in Austin, TX, and for his role as a full-time mentor on American Idol on ABC. He was the winner of season 27 of Dancing with the Stars with partner Sharna Burgess. He has also written two New York Times best sellers. Bones has also released a number of country music albums through Black River Entertainment.
Quincy Byrum Hurst was an American lawyer, judge, banker, and state legislator in Arkansas. He served in the Arkansas Senate for 22 years, including as President of the Arkansas Senate. He joined the Army in 1943 and later served as judge in Garland County. He ran for Governor of Arkansas in 1972. He was a member of the Democratic Party. He advocated for the legalization of gambling in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Lawyer and politician Q. Byrum Hurst Jr. is his son.
