Point of Impact

Bob Lee Swagger, jungle-smart hillbilly and premier shootist, explodes as a thinking man's Rambo when Hunter's ( The Day Before Midnight ) canny plot overcomes the barrage of high-tech ballistics data in this otherwise satisfying thriller. Swagger's sniper kills were legendary in Vietnam until an enemy bullet sent him into seclusion at his home in the Arkansas mountains. Retired Col. Schreck lures him back into ``the World'' on the pretense that he will be testing new bullets, but instead presses him into his special ``Agency'' unit. Swagger's job is to predict which site on the president's upcoming speaking tour a professional sniper would choose for an assassination attempt--so Schreck's unit can prevent it. Swagger calls the hit just right but is shot and framed in the assassination by Schreck's men. Only FBI agent and sniper ace Nick Memphis believes that Swagger is innocent. Memphis and Swagger trace the real assassin through the shootist network, making clever use of gun-lore magazines. They take on FBI bureaucrats, Schreck's nasties, Salvadoran death squads and local law agencies to get to the final showdown. While the novel's firearms details may be daunting to non-NRA members, the characters, plot and courtroom finale will leave readers wrung out. (Mar.)