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The Master Sniper
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....
292 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1980
337 people are currently reading
899 people want to read
About the author
Stephen Hunter
110 books1,965 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Stephen Hunter is the author of fourteen novels, and a chief film critic at The Washington Post, where he won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize. He lives in Baltimore, Maryland.
Stephen Hunter is the author of fourteen novels, and a chief film critic at The Washington Post, where he won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize. He lives in Baltimore, Maryland.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 108 reviews
July 8, 2019
I discovered Stephen Hunter a couple of years ago and devoured all of his Bob Lee Swagger and Earl Swagger novels as well a a couple of his stand alones--about 15 or so books. I loved them all. His writing is beautiful and the characters are wonderfully drawn and unforgettable. I was eagerly awaiting his next Bob Lee Swagger novel (to be released on July 30), and while rooting around in my library (don't ask how many books are there--literally thousands), I came across his first novel, "The Master Sniper" written in 1980. I don't recall buying it and it has set on a bookshelf through four house moves since it was published. So I decided to read it and I cannot believe that I missed this great debut novel about the search by American (OSS) and British (MI-6) agents for a SS sniper with a new secret weapon. Hunter is a great writer and for any fan of his who has not read this book, I recommend it highly.
October 23, 2014
I liked this better than the last book of his I read, "Havana" but not as well as the first Bob Lee Swagger book. This has nothing to do with the Swagger characters that I could see. Just a straight WWII yarn.
The narrative is 3d person & from basically 2 separate POV's; a German sniper's & an American Intelligence man who is tracking him. I found the sniper's thought processes pretty well done - scarily so. His dedication, hatred & motivations seemed very real. Surprisingly, I didn't feel that way about the 'good guys'. I don't think they were as well portrayed. Hemingway makes another caricature appearance. Hunter doesn't seem to like him much.
There was a lot of good action, some of it surprising, some sickening, all of it fairly realistic. It portrays the last days of the war pretty well, I think. I'm no expert, but it seemed right to me. All in all, it was an OK read, but I don't think I'll bother again. I'd give it 2.5 stars.
The narrative is 3d person & from basically 2 separate POV's; a German sniper's & an American Intelligence man who is tracking him. I found the sniper's thought processes pretty well done - scarily so. His dedication, hatred & motivations seemed very real. Surprisingly, I didn't feel that way about the 'good guys'. I don't think they were as well portrayed. Hemingway makes another caricature appearance. Hunter doesn't seem to like him much.
There was a lot of good action, some of it surprising, some sickening, all of it fairly realistic. It portrays the last days of the war pretty well, I think. I'm no expert, but it seemed right to me. All in all, it was an OK read, but I don't think I'll bother again. I'd give it 2.5 stars.
October 27, 2012
A good read that could have been better. The plot was excellent, with enough wrinkles and surprises to maintain the tension. There was also more than a dash of technology, which I always like in any novel. What I found lacking was a more rounded understanding of the characters, particularly the sniper. Why did he think as he did? How did he become such a blinded, non-thinking Nazi? These are questions I hope to explore in the novel I am currently writing, and I was disappointed not to get Hunter's view.
April 17, 2024
home for the week and my dad made me read this… exactly what you would expect
October 26, 2010
Although I've been reading Hunter's film reviews in my local paper for years, I've never picked up any of his books. However, I have a soft spot for WWII-based thrillers, so when I stumbled across this first book of Hunter's (originally published in 1980), I figured I'd give it a whirl. Set in the waning weeks of the war in Europe, the story concerns a top-secret Nazi plan to use their top sniper and a special weapon to eliminate a mysterious target. Meanwhile, an OSS small-arms analyst in London is given a scrap of information to check out, a tiny thread that he can't stop pulling on, which slowly but surely puts him on the trail of the German plot. The book then follows a fairly conventional thriller trope, as the Allied team races against the clock to stop the Nazis before it's too late.
The resulting narrative has the unevenness you might expect from a first novel. Some sequences are quite good, and some are really flat, some characters are decent developed, others are stiff. For example, the description of the battle in Russia that turned the German sniper into a hero is outstanding. But there is an extended section in the middle about an exhibition tennis match one of the supporting characters in involved in which has nothing to do with anything. Parts of it are wildly over sentimentlized, while others are distinctly cold-blooded. The plot also relies entirely upon a ridiculous coincidence which brings the American analyst into contact with the one person who can provide him with several crucial pieces of information. Another big disappointment is the revelation of the target for this elaborate plot, which left me entirely underwhelmed. On the whole, I suppose it's a serviceable WWII-thriller, but nothing worth seeking out unless you're a fan of the genre. It does have enough bright parts to make me interested in checking out one of Hunter's later books to see if he's ironed out the wrinkles in his writing.
Note: The secret weapon at the heart of the story is basically an infrared night-vision device heavily based on the real "Zielgeraet" system developed for the Sturmgewehr 44 assault rifle and really deployed sometime in late 1944, early 1945.
The resulting narrative has the unevenness you might expect from a first novel. Some sequences are quite good, and some are really flat, some characters are decent developed, others are stiff. For example, the description of the battle in Russia that turned the German sniper into a hero is outstanding. But there is an extended section in the middle about an exhibition tennis match one of the supporting characters in involved in which has nothing to do with anything. Parts of it are wildly over sentimentlized, while others are distinctly cold-blooded. The plot also relies entirely upon a ridiculous coincidence which brings the American analyst into contact with the one person who can provide him with several crucial pieces of information. Another big disappointment is the revelation of the target for this elaborate plot, which left me entirely underwhelmed. On the whole, I suppose it's a serviceable WWII-thriller, but nothing worth seeking out unless you're a fan of the genre. It does have enough bright parts to make me interested in checking out one of Hunter's later books to see if he's ironed out the wrinkles in his writing.
Note: The secret weapon at the heart of the story is basically an infrared night-vision device heavily based on the real "Zielgeraet" system developed for the Sturmgewehr 44 assault rifle and really deployed sometime in late 1944, early 1945.
March 23, 2013
Stephen Hunter's first novel, from 1980. His capability as a writer, to portray events and people in a very first-person "you are there" fashion is well above average. His sentence grammar is also well above the norm for action, or war and suspense novels.
This book had a very dark overtone. With its focus on so many details of individual fighting action, and on the topics of death camps at the end of WW2, it was not a pleasant, leisurely read. It was also very different from the shoot-em-up video game type of action sequence novels so often seen today. The writing has a very realistic, earthy feel.
There's a great deal of shooting detail which is accompanied by the blood and stench of dead bodies. This book does not have an objective of attempting to glamorize snipers, or localized firefights.
On the downside, I felt that the German shooter operated too efficiently, with far fewer setbacks than what might realistically be expected. The only shortcoming came on the last 2 pages, with the lead filled rifling in his rifle barrel. I think that even a good shooter, much less a top class sniper, would have known of this possibility, and seen the result in testing. For example, in a 25 shot sequence, there should have been some misses as the fouling accumulated. Yet the only person who seemed to be aware of this was the gun engineer/designer, who was killed before being able to report the condition. Because of the barrel rifling and soft ammo, the problem would have been consistent across tests, of which there were several, and everyone familiar with firearms should have been aware and checking for the problem. In the case of the book, overlooking the issue allowed the hero and sidekick good-guys to unexpectedly live to close their chase in the last few paragraphs, after the reader was led to believe that they had been eliminated and failed.
This book had a very dark overtone. With its focus on so many details of individual fighting action, and on the topics of death camps at the end of WW2, it was not a pleasant, leisurely read. It was also very different from the shoot-em-up video game type of action sequence novels so often seen today. The writing has a very realistic, earthy feel.
There's a great deal of shooting detail which is accompanied by the blood and stench of dead bodies. This book does not have an objective of attempting to glamorize snipers, or localized firefights.
On the downside, I felt that the German shooter operated too efficiently, with far fewer setbacks than what might realistically be expected. The only shortcoming came on the last 2 pages, with the lead filled rifling in his rifle barrel. I think that even a good shooter, much less a top class sniper, would have known of this possibility, and seen the result in testing. For example, in a 25 shot sequence, there should have been some misses as the fouling accumulated. Yet the only person who seemed to be aware of this was the gun engineer/designer, who was killed before being able to report the condition. Because of the barrel rifling and soft ammo, the problem would have been consistent across tests, of which there were several, and everyone familiar with firearms should have been aware and checking for the problem. In the case of the book, overlooking the issue allowed the hero and sidekick good-guys to unexpectedly live to close their chase in the last few paragraphs, after the reader was led to believe that they had been eliminated and failed.
August 28, 2011
Let me put it bluntly - author had a great idea when he came up with the story for this book... and then he completely failed in the execution of that idea. You have all the components for a great story here - the mystique of snipers, one last mission at the end of WWII and human hunt for a very clever and dangerous individual. In a way, the premise of the book strongly reminds of the classic 'Day of the Jackal', only in different setting.
However, Stephen Hunter doesn't come even close to the classic of Frederic Forsythe. His characters are dull and never awoke my interest. Secondary plots that are intended to bring them to life are pretty pointless; some of them can even be described as pure filler text, because they have nothing to do with main plot. The worst thing however is that even the 'main event' isn't very interesting and I doubt that anybody would notice it, if it had happened for real.So basically it's a quite disappointing book.
Luckily, Stephen Hunter gets much better in his later efforts - I would for example strongly recommend 'Point of Impact' to any reader that likes techno-thrillers and snipers as a plot device. But if you'll give 'Master Sniper' a pass, then you won't be missing on much.
However, Stephen Hunter doesn't come even close to the classic of Frederic Forsythe. His characters are dull and never awoke my interest. Secondary plots that are intended to bring them to life are pretty pointless; some of them can even be described as pure filler text, because they have nothing to do with main plot. The worst thing however is that even the 'main event' isn't very interesting and I doubt that anybody would notice it, if it had happened for real.So basically it's a quite disappointing book.
Luckily, Stephen Hunter gets much better in his later efforts - I would for example strongly recommend 'Point of Impact' to any reader that likes techno-thrillers and snipers as a plot device. But if you'll give 'Master Sniper' a pass, then you won't be missing on much.
May 29, 2021
A friend recommended Stephen Hunter books as superbly crafted thrillers. She was right. MASTER SNIPER was worth every second of reading time. The story takes place at the end of WWII. One final desperate mission to ensure the rise of the Forth Reich. Of course, there is an allied intelligence officer and his team trying to stop the ‘master sniper.’ The story has more than a ‘darker undertone’ and a final plot that will raise the hair on the nape of anyone’s neck. My advice for any reader is to make sure that they can finish the last hundred pages in one sitting before they start the last hundred pages. I wanted there to be more. I guess that I’ll just have to read his other books. For me, Stephen Hunter and MASTER SNIPER is pure five-star fun. Jeff Bailey, author of NOT ON MY WATCH.
July 3, 2024
Insanely good plot, just lacking character development and I was left with some questions
April 21, 2025
eponymous sentence:
p21: The Master Sniper.
le mot juste:
p12: It hit the cement floor with a thud and broke apart.
p12: Askew on the cement, a great fluffy pile of excelsior spewing out of it like guts, the box lay broken on the floor.
p72: He nearly stumbled into a trench that ran between cement blockhouses that were surely new since the last time he'd come this way.
p164: The Cour Centrale at Roland Garros sat in the center of a steeply tiered cement ampitheater which was now jamming up with uniforms.
This is my first Stephen Hunter book but if the film Sniper (feat M Walhberg) is a faithful adaptation, I should expect some sort of firearm tech to be featured with each volume.
Firearm featured here is the StG-44 (Sturmgewehr 44, a German assault rifle) with ZG 1229 (Zielgerät 1229, code named Vampir--an active infrared device). I first encountered the gun playing Medal of Honor video games--I forget which one exactly, but maybe it was Allied Assault; I'm pretty sure it was in Airborne as well, but I played Allied Assault first. I didn't know about Vampir, though.
p21: The Master Sniper.
le mot juste:
p12: It hit the cement floor with a thud and broke apart.
p12: Askew on the cement, a great fluffy pile of excelsior spewing out of it like guts, the box lay broken on the floor.
p72: He nearly stumbled into a trench that ran between cement blockhouses that were surely new since the last time he'd come this way.
p164: The Cour Centrale at Roland Garros sat in the center of a steeply tiered cement ampitheater which was now jamming up with uniforms.
This is my first Stephen Hunter book but if the film Sniper (feat M Walhberg) is a faithful adaptation, I should expect some sort of firearm tech to be featured with each volume.
Firearm featured here is the StG-44 (Sturmgewehr 44, a German assault rifle) with ZG 1229 (Zielgerät 1229, code named Vampir--an active infrared device). I first encountered the gun playing Medal of Honor video games--I forget which one exactly, but maybe it was Allied Assault; I'm pretty sure it was in Airborne as well, but I played Allied Assault first. I didn't know about Vampir, though.
December 23, 2016
My interest waxed and waned with this book which I believe was the author's debut work. The time spent on the description of the making the weapon put a stop to any of the action that had been going on at the time. Some pretty graphic violent scenes. It is war, I know yet.... The storyline really revolved around a German sniper's grand mission ( the target we don't find out until very near the end) and the American intelligence officer who stumbles onto information that leads him to believe an assassination attempt is in the works during the waning days of WWII. The story is told through these two voices and their contrast of ideology, support for each of their "missions", and character helps the suspense & tension build.
September 5, 2014
This book was just ok enough to get 3 stars from me. Two stars would have been too harsh. It was a bit weak in delivering suspense and excitement. It would be fine as a book to kill time with while traveling.
January 7, 2015
Not as good as the Bob the nailer books.
March 17, 2015
I LOVE everything this guy writes. Gritty, hard core, unrelenting. A master wordsmith and story teller. He's the only writer I ever sent an actual fan letter to--and he answered! Awesome story.
June 7, 2019
Great story
I first read this book in the early 80's strictly by chance. I picked it off the paperback shelf at a bookstore because I liked the title. I enjoyed the book and it stuck in the back of my mind. Recently I recalled the story but I didn't remember the title or the author. I have pretty good Google-fu and soon found what I was looking for. Bought it for my kindle and enjoyed it even more than the first time. Then I found out about Bob the Nailer and have read several of those tales. I liked the WW2 weapon technologies Hunter wrote about in Master Sniper and it opened the door to further my interest in WW2 history. Great read and I highly recommend.
I first read this book in the early 80's strictly by chance. I picked it off the paperback shelf at a bookstore because I liked the title. I enjoyed the book and it stuck in the back of my mind. Recently I recalled the story but I didn't remember the title or the author. I have pretty good Google-fu and soon found what I was looking for. Bought it for my kindle and enjoyed it even more than the first time. Then I found out about Bob the Nailer and have read several of those tales. I liked the WW2 weapon technologies Hunter wrote about in Master Sniper and it opened the door to further my interest in WW2 history. Great read and I highly recommend.
May 10, 2020
The Master Sniper by Stephen Hunter
This is a stand alone and has no Swaggers in it. The book takes place at the end of WWII. The plot involves a Nazi sniper and those attempting to stop his attempted mission.
The details of the concentration camps are as depressing and horrific as usual. There is no understanding of how supposed civilized beings stooped so low. It really shows the depth of depravity that prejudice can engender.
Hunter, as usual, provides a story that captivates and always has a plot twist that surprises.
I recommend the book.
This is a stand alone and has no Swaggers in it. The book takes place at the end of WWII. The plot involves a Nazi sniper and those attempting to stop his attempted mission.
The details of the concentration camps are as depressing and horrific as usual. There is no understanding of how supposed civilized beings stooped so low. It really shows the depth of depravity that prejudice can engender.
Hunter, as usual, provides a story that captivates and always has a plot twist that surprises.
I recommend the book.
October 28, 2023
finished 28th october 2023 good read three stars i liked it kindle library loaner story about the war against the nazi and one of their last actions and the planning behind that action discovered by the escape of a jewish man from a camp and the slow and tedious unraveling of the nazi action. i've another two hunter stories loaded on kindle one open and ready to go this one from 1980 and he has quite a collection available. has a series that i also started...ummmm...can't remember the title character...just came to me...bob swagger. anyway. another one to the list
February 24, 2022
Near the end of WWll. Hitler is dead. Germany has lost but their leaders want to continue with "The Final Solution" ...the extermination of the Jews. An SS Sniper who kills without remorse, a monster, is given a mission to continue the fight.
This novel was written in 1980 but as a period piece, the age doesn't matter. Hunter delves into the minds of the SS and Nazi's hatred....the hatred that allowed them to slaughter over 6 million in their concentration camps.
Facinating
This novel was written in 1980 but as a period piece, the age doesn't matter. Hunter delves into the minds of the SS and Nazi's hatred....the hatred that allowed them to slaughter over 6 million in their concentration camps.
Facinating
November 19, 2017
Great read. A desperate end of the war mission, by a nazi psycho plotting an even more heinous killing than all his previous deranged killings combined, which are numerous, while testing the first night vision equipment in WW2 Germany. Hunted by dogged British and American intelligence agents as he makes his way to his final assignment.
July 5, 2019
A Stephen Hunter stand-alone, not a Swagger to be found in this WWII thriller of an OSS arms specialist seeking to stop an SS operation right at the end of the war in Europe...The operation involves new technology that makes the best SS sniper a huge threat to the post-war peace...It is a page turning thriller right up to the denouement
June 9, 2020
Another strong writing effort by Hunter. The story is well crafted with interesting characters. I enjoyed comparing the sniper Repp to Bob Lee Swagger. Very different in some ways but also alike in others.
December 6, 2021
Not a bad story. I only listened to it on CD as I didn't have another book on CD to listen to. It was more engaging than I expected. WWII is ending, and a sniper is on the loose to make one more kill for the Germans.
June 21, 2025
Good plot, fun beach read. I found the book in a neighborhood ‘Little Library’ and it looked interesting. Overall it was a good read, certainly held my attention and had enough twists and turns- will have to take it back to the beach👍
August 18, 2025
I found the book stretched out far longer than it needed to be. It dragged on and at many points I thought of stopping. I kept going thinking there might be something more around the corner that might save it. I should have stopped earlier.
August 28, 2018
A good WWII thriller
A good thriller with a great cast. Well written and you can really understand the individuals and their emotions. Great job.
A good thriller with a great cast. Well written and you can really understand the individuals and their emotions. Great job.
May 3, 2019
Good read it has it all.
January 30, 2022
I wasn't sure about this when I started. However as I went on it began to intrigue me. The final chapter was nail biting and brilliant.
March 19, 2022
Dam good book.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 108 reviews