STEPHEN HUNTER was born in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1946. He graduated from Northwestern University in 1968 and spent two years in the United States Army. He joined the staff of the Baltimore Sun in 1971, where he has been a copyreader, a book review editor, a feature writer, and a film critic. He is also the author of The Master Sniper, The Second Saladin, The Spanish Gambit, Point of Impact, and Dirty White Boys. Mr. Hunter is married and lives in Columbia, Maryland, with his wife and two children.