The 47th Samurai is a 2007 thriller novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

, and the fourth in the Bob Lee Swagger

Bob Lee Swagger

Bob Lee Swagger is a fictional character created by Stephen Hunter. He is the protagonist in a series of books that relate his life after and during the Vietnam War—Point of Impact, Black Light, Time to Hunt, The 47th Samurai, Night of Thunder, I, Sniper and, most recently Dead Zero...

 series by Stephen Hunter

Stephen Hunter

Stephen Hunter is an American novelist, essayist, and Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic.-Life and career:Stephen Hunter was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and grew up in Evanston, Illinois. His father was Charles Francis Hunter, a Northwestern University speech professor who was killed in 1975....

. In narrative sequence it is preceded by Point of Impact

Point of Impact

Point of Impact is a 1993 thriller novel by award-winning author Stephen Hunter.-Plot introduction:The plot revolves around a former Vietnam sniper named Bob Lee Swagger or Bob 'the Nailer'. This character is loosely based upon the real Vietnam sniper and Marine Corps legend Carlos Hathcock...

, Black Light

Black Light (Novel)

-Plot summary:There are two interconnected plots that unfold simultaneously in this novel; one is set in the present, and deals with Bob Lee Swagger and Russ Pewtie, while the other is set in 1955, and deals with Bob Lee's father, Earl, and the events leading up to his death.This book catches the...

, and Time to Hunt

Time to Hunt

Time to Hunt is a 1999 thriller novel, and the third in the Bob Lee Swagger series by Stephen Hunter. In narrative sequence it is preceded by Point of Impact and Black Light.-Plot summary:...

.

Plot

The story begins with Bob Lee now living in Idaho. There along with his wife, former wife of his spotter Donny Fenn, he is cultivating his land by using a scythe. The story starts while Bob Lee is cutting away at his land with the scythe while an expensive car pulls up. Bob Lee is aggravated by this, since his previous encounters with such cars and men in them have led him into troublesome situations.

Having this predisposition to the men within the car, Bob Lee confronts them to make them leave him and his family alone. Instead he finds a man roughly the same age as himself, looking for Bob Lee, since he is the son of the man that killed his father during the battle of Iwo Jima.
Here the book changes to the situations that led to the awarding of the Medal of Honor, to Earl Swagger during a battle on Iwo Jima.