THE YEAR is 1951.
A smooth-talking Chicago lawyer has come to chat with Sam Vincent, a former prosecutor, about a dangerous unknown -- a prison for violent black convicts in Thebes, Mississippi, a place of many questions but no answers. Would Sam, a white man and a Southerner, be willing to investigate?
When Sam vanishes in the mists and swamps, his old friend Earl Swagger keeps his promise to follow if Sam does not return. He packs his gun and heads to Thebes where he discovers sinister secrets that extend far beyond the prison walls. The whole town guards itself from nosy strangers with a private army of brutal, gun-toting, Klan-type thugs and rednecks. After barely escaping, Early vows to right things and reclaim Thebes from the throes of a dark conspiracy. But first, he enlists just a little help from his friends.
Pale Horse Coming revisits the mythic Wild West which Stephen Hunter has made his own in his previous novels.
Published by Century at £17.99.
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