CHAIN REACTION

5 stars out of 5

Reading as many for-review books as I do each year – hovering around 100 – it’s always a special treat to dive into one I know I’m going to enjoy. Sometimes, it’s by a tried-and-true author; other times, it’s a character (or characters) I’ve come to know and love. The best times happen when those two come together – as in the Jack Reacher series (I’ve lost count of how many of the 30 others I’ve read over the years, but I know I’ve missed fewer than a handful, if that).

So it was that I started this one with high expectations – and while I won’t say this one has the most interesting or unique storyline (I “get” that data centers are the topic du jour these days and for rightly so, but personally I’ve grown a little weary of reading so many books this year with that as the focus). I did love, though, that usual lone wolf Reacher got back in touch with a special person from previous books – now a General, Susan Turner – who somehow managed to track him down when he stopped at a bank in Arlington, Virginia, to pick up his renewed ATM card.

The good general, it seems, lost one of her best men – killed in a rather remote spot in Colorado when he was sent there on a mission related to possible cybercrime. The murder happened in a rather dingy bar – not the kind of place her guy was known to frequent – so she’s afraid he’d been targeted. And if that’s true, it likely means she’s got a mole on her top-secret team. She needs someone who can separate truth from fiction – hopefully without getting killed in the process – and that means her old pal Reacher. His initial investigation – which early on doesn’t end well for a couple of bad guys – suggests ties to a large law firm based in San Francisco and some mysterious massive data centers he found in that remote location.

Tracking down specifics, though, quickly turns dangerous for everyone involved, but as usual, Reacher puts his considerable physical and analytical skills to get the job done. Details, of course, other readers will have to learn for themselves; but suffice it to say this is another adventure that kept me turning pages as fast as I could. Definitely recommended, and I thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for allowing me to get in on the considerable action by way of a pre-release copy.

Chain Reaction by Lee Child and Andrew Child (Bantam, October 2026); 416 pp.