THE MIDNIGHT LINE

5 stars out of 5

By now - the 22nd book in the series - Jack Reacher seems like an old friend. And like most old friends, he's welcome to visit my home any time he wants. Thankfully, though, he's not the real deal and I don't need to feed him; at 6 feet 5 and not far from 300 pounds, this former West Pointer wouldn't make it much beyond breakfast on what we've got in our fridge.

Speaking of West Point, the academy provides the impetus for this story. On his way to nowhere in particular from a short stretch in Hawaii at the end of summer, Reacher ends up on the shores of Lake Superior. In a small town there, he stops at a pawn shop and finds a ladies' West Point class ring from 2005 - with a price tag of 40 bucks. Given all that the owner went through to get that ring, Reacher figures she didn't relinquish it under normal circumstances. So, he makes it his mission to track her down and, if she's still alive, return it.

Turns out, though, that she wasn't the one who brought it to the pawn shop; a few physical encounters later (Reacher 1, bad guys 0), all Reacher can get is the name of the man who did. That trail winds its way to Rapid City, Iowa, and a man named Arthur Scorpio - a guy the local cops and feds have been trying, so far unsuccessfully, to put behind bars. He owns a laundromat with a suspicious back room, but despite stakeouts by local law enforcement like Detective Gloria Nakamura, enough evidence to get a search warrant hasn't turned up.

As an aside, Scorpio's colorful description is an example of one of the reasons I love these books: He was, "Maybe six feet two. Maybe a hundred and sixty pounds. But only if he had a dollar's worth of pennies in his pocket."

Eventually, Reacher manages to learn the name and background of the woman he's searching for. That in turn leads him to a close relative and former FBI guy Terrence Bramall, who's now a private investigator. They end up in remote Wyoming, where of course Reacher and Bramall find themselves on the receiving end of even more physical encounters (hey, that's another reason I love these books). The rest of the story isn't pretty (figuratively and literally), and it also puts a spotlight on issues facing way too many returning U.S. veterans. No doubt that's a big part of the point; the book is dedicated to Purple Heart recipients.

That's about all I can say without revealing too much, although as usual, Reacher's considerable survival and intuitive skills get a good workout. The story seems a bit darker than some of the others, but everything gets resolved at the end. That is, perhaps for one thing: Did that person who got tied up in Scorpio's back room ever get out? Inquiring minds would love to know.

The Midnight Line by Lee Child (Random House LLC, November 2017); 384 pp.