THE SECRET

4 stars out of 5

This book, the 28th in the Jack Reacher series, is set in the late 1990s and takes readers back to his days in the military. As might be expected, he's a little less the maverick and loner we've come to know and love; even his physical prowess is toned down a bit. What we do see, though, is some of what shaped what he became in more recent books as told in an enjoyable, engrossing story.

Actually, there are two threads; as part of his regular assignment as Military Police Officer at the Rock Island Arsenal in Illinois, Reacher is dealing with stolen gun parts and trying to track down not only who's behind the theft but where they're ending up. Just as he's making progress, though, he gets pulled off to serve as the Army's representative on a task force looking into the presumed murder of a man who was involved in a top-secret government research project in India 20-plus years ago. Prior to that, eight other people related to that project have bitten the dust, although in ways that didn't attract suspicion till now. Since the task force was formed at the behest of the U.S. Secretary of Defense, time is of the essence and failure isn't an option.

The trick, if there is one, is to explore the connections among all the victims, determine whether there could be more victims to come (and if so, find ways to protect them), and, ultimately, find out who's doing the killing. Given all the secrecy surrounding the project and all the years that have intervened, that's no small job. It gets even more complicated as the task force's worst fears come to fruition. Readers meanwhile get treated to a behind-the-scenes look at everyone involved, so they know more than Reacher does almost every step of the way except near the end, when Reacher beats us all to it (well, almost - I correctly guessed it fairly early on). Needless to say, there's no shortage of Reacher tough-guy action, though as I mentioned earlier, it's not as full-on as in later books.

All told, it's another attention-holding adventure that's easy to read (good thing, since I really wanted to get through it in one sitting; didn't quite make it). Many thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for allowing me to read and review a pre-release copy. 

The Secret by Lee Child and Andrew Child (Delacorte Press, October 2023); 304 pp.

NO MAN'S LAND

5 stars out of 5

Sometimes, I want to kick back and read a book or two just for the pure pleasure of it. Such is the case now, when the notion of cooking Thanksgiving dinner for two groups of relatives on two different days has had me stressed out for a month. So, I put my ever-growing stack of free-for-review books aside and turned to new entries by a few of my favorite authors.

And oh, what a relief it is! This is the fourth in the John Puller series, and I've been looking forward to reading it ever since I learned the release date. Now I admit it's a bit on the technologically far-fetched end of the spectrum (especially considering the backstory happened 30 years ago), but it came so close to the realm of possibility that I wasn't bothered at all. In fact, I hated to put it down, and on the day before the first of the two crowds was to arrive, I even put off making my delicious (if I do say so myself) deviled eggs for the half-hour I needed to finish it.

In the beginning, chapters flip between scenes from two story lines. In the first, a criminal named Paul Rogers is released after 10 years in jail; clearly, he's hell-bent on revenge for something that happened to him 30 years ago that turned him into nothing short of a monster. And just as clearly, he'll stop at nothing to get it. Meantime, Puller is notified that the case of his mother's disappearance back when he was 8 years old will be reopened. She was never found, and now it seems someone has accused Puller's elderly three-star-general father of murdering her. 

Puller, an Army special agent, and his brother Robert, an Air Force major, don't believe the accusations and want to learn the truth. The government, though, doesn't make it easy, putting roadblocks and cease-and-desist orders at every turn. But even though his brother's hands are tied and he's unable to follow through, John throws caution to the wind and refuses to give up (turning to his capable and attractive friend Veronica Knox for help).

As expected, the two story lines begin to converge; the Puller brothers' mother, Jackie, disappeared when the family lived at Fort Monroe, Virginia. And at that time, Rogers was at the Fort as well. The deeper Puller digs into the past, the closer it brings him to Rogers. It's a high-stakes race with an inevitable clash at the end - and the resulting fallout could be deadly. But for whom?

Honestly, I'd love to spill the beans, but I'm out of time. Gotta get that turkey in the oven stat!

No Man's Land by David Baldacci (Grand Central Publishing, November 2016); 432 pp.

THE ESCAPE

5 stars out of 5

It's impossible to describe what a treat it is to read a well-written action thriller that kept me turning pages even when I should have been doing other things and kept me wondering how it would turn out until close to the end. Of course, it shouldn't have come as a big surprise; this is the third book featuring U.S. Army Special Agent John Puller, and I gave 5 stars to Book No. 2, Zero Day, and 4 to the first, The Forgotten.

This one, though, has a major twist; Puller's intellectually gifted older brother, Robert, has been convicted or treason and has been in a high-security military prison. Then one day, he somehow escapes, leaving an unidentified dead man in his cell (who, apparently, he has murdered). Then something truly unheard of happens: John Puller is allowed to hunt down his brother and bring him in. On the surface, it doesn't feel right; just as an attorney shouldn't defend nor a surgeon operate on a close relative, under normal circumstances Puller wouldn't be allowed near the case. Some government big-wigs, though, seem to think he's the person best qualified to get the job done, and in part because he's never quite believed his brother really committed treasonous acts, Puller agrees.

Very early on, it becomes clear that some folks don't want Robert Puller brought in alive - and they may well be lurking among the very folks who gave John Puller the assignment. Also early on, the younger Puller finds himself stuck with a mostly unwanted female partner - also an agent, but not necessarily allied with the same powers-that-be as Puller. Who to trust, in fact, becomes an almost bigger issue than trying to find a runaway soldier whose skills and experience in the field may be sharper than Puller's - and he's no slouch in either department. The only thing that's crystal clear is that something big is afoot, and some very powerful people want to make sure the truth never gets out no matter what the human cost.

The Escape by David Baldacci (Grand Central Publishing, November 2014); 470 pp.