Hunter's first book, and first edition; his most sought after book by fine book collectors, this novel dealt with World War II. This book was published by William Morrow and Company, then re-released as a paperback in 1996 by Island Books. From the dust jacket:
London, 1945. It has become evident to an office-bound American intelligence analyst, James Leets of the OSS, that deep within the Third Reich one last operation is being planned. Leets doesn't know much but what he does know terrifies him: it will involve a special man and a special rifle. The man is Repp, of the Waffen SS, of Totenkopf, the Death's Head Division - Repp, whose bravery and resolve are legendary, and who is called the "Master Sniper." Repp is the very best in his profession. But the stakes involved are huge, even for Repp."He's going to kill somebody. Somebody big," Leets tells his boss, Tony Outhwaite of British Intelligence. "He's going to snipe him." But who?Thus begins an extraordinary suspenseful journey across the face of a war and into the deep part of the human heart where the will to murder lurks...
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...
"Hunter is a deft craftsman with a sure sense of pace and scene. He also knows about irony and sprinkles just a bit over every corpse."--The Washington Post
"Mesmerizing suspense..."--Kirkus
