This breezy account of snipers and sniping since prehistory is built on specific cases: British naval icon Horatio Nelson being felled by a sniper's bullet at the pivotal Battle of Trafalgar in 1805; legendary World War II correspondent Ernie Pyle dying at the hands of a Japanese sniper in 1945. Relying exclusively on published sources, Dougan (Dynamo: Defending the Honor of Kievas
), a Glasgow-based journalist, traces the evolution of weapons and tactics from "the sling and the bow" to the modern terrorist armed with "a weapon that can punch a hole in light armor at a distance of more than a mile." Dougan enlivens his narrative by employing frequent anecdotes about the pioneers and illustrious practitioners of this deadly art. On several occasions, the author uses apocryphal stories as examples even while admitting that they are likely spurious. And various errors, however minor, are too numerous to overlook. The American Revolution began at Lexington, Mass., not Kentucky; Germany invaded Belgium on August 4, 1914, not August 18; and Ernie Pyle died near Okinawa weeks before the war ended in Europe, not after. Such carelessness can only diminish the book's credibility. Agent, Lucy Vanderbilt at HarperCollins UK
. (June)
