IN TOO DEEP

4 stars out of 5

Let me say at the outset that I've loved Jack Reacher for years (in the books, I hasten to add, of which this is the 29th). This one is not my favorite - maybe by half a country mile - but I stayed up past my bedtime to polish it off nonetheless.

Mostly, I guess, I just didn't warm up to any of the overabundance of characters - probably because it was a little hard to tell the good guys and gals from the bad. And for some reason, Reacher himself seemed a little "off" - but then, if I'd lost a chunk of my recent memory on top of trying to do my usual super-human feats with a broken wrist, I guess I'd be a little cranky as well. The wrist, in fact, is where it begins; Reacher wakes up tethered to a table in an unknown location. In typical Reacher fashion, he manages to get free - but he has no recollection of how he got to be where he is. So when a man arrives and shows him he's survived a car accident in the Ozarks during which an FBI agent was killed, Reacher decides, at least for the time being, to believe him.

But of course, not everyone is who they claim to be, and chapter perspective shifts let readers in on what's going on behind Reacher's back. Along the way, Reacher meets up with a disgraced female agent who's on the trail of the man she claims murdered her father - who, as it turns out, is directly connected to characters who are causing headaches for Reacher as well. Joining forces, then, is a no-brainer - especially since she's a computer whiz while Reacher remains a troglodyte when it comes to technology (although it amazes me how much he knows about it even though he doesn't even own a cell phone).

Needless to say, what they learn along the way turns out to be a huge threat to the American way of life, and as expected, saving our skins depends on Reacher learning the truth before the other side does. The fun - and action - is in the getting there, and trust me, there's plenty of it from start to finish. Another good installment, and I thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for allowing me to read and review a pre-release copy.

In Too Deep by Lee Child and Andrew Child (Delacorte Press, October 2024); 328 pp.

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 PLAN B

4.5 stars out of 5

Every loyal reader of this series knows nobody messes with Jack Reacher - he can take down half a dozen very big, very angry men in the blink of an eye. In this one, he proves he can give MacGyver a run for his skills as well.
 

The plot has four "legs," if you will - and that made it a little tough for me to follow, at least for the first half or so of the book, just because of the number of characters and switchbacks from one to the other. There's a guy who wants revenge, another looking for a long-lost someone, some very bad guys who don't want to get caught doing what they're doing and, of course, raison d'etre that puts Reacher, at first inadvertently and then intentionally, in the middle of the whole mess.

The whole thing begins as Reacher sees a man throw a woman under the bus - quite literally - after which he steals her purse and runs. Something Reacher saw seems to have triggered feelings of ill will, so to speak, from some folks who would rather it not be seen - what was there threatens the good thing they want to keep going. Reacher, doing his Reacher thing, smells a rat (and we all know he doesn't react well to threats), so he vows to get to the bottom of it even if it takes him halfway across the country. While this is going on, those other folks begin to converge at the same place - the Minerva Correctional Facility in Winson, Mississippi.

The details, of course, I can't reveal, except to say there's never a dull moment; all points converge at the end, and readers learn what happens to all the people who started off as strangers but end up as, well, you'll have to read it for yourself to find that out. It's fast-paced, fun and another adventure I'm sure Reacher fans will enjoy. I heartily thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for allowing me to read and review a pre-release copy. Well done!

No Plan B by Lee Child and Andrew Child (Delacorte Press, October 2022); 368 pp.

THE SENTINEL

3.5 stars out of 5

I'm a longtime fan of the Jack Reacher series - heck, I've even forgiven the 2012 movie that cast diminutive Tom Cruise as Goliath-sized Reacher. Based on his physical stature alone, it wasn't a good fit.

And this book isn't the best fit for the series, either. If I had to describe it in one word, it would be contrived; it seemed as if the intent was to identify a couple of in-the-news hot topics and then try to fabricate a story around them. The dialog seemed forced as well; granted, Reacher is a loner and a man of few words - and that's true here, in spots. But in others, he spouts lengthy and intricate explanations of computer functions which, coming from a guy who needs help operating a smartphone, just didn't quite, well, ring true. Time will tell, I guess, if that's the result of the author's collaboration with his younger brother Andrew to write this book (the person he's chosen to carry on the Reacher series in the not-too-distant future).

All that aside, it's an intriguing story that held my interest throughout - but then, I admit to having a computer geek side. Hiking out of Nashville to anywhere else, Reacher gets a lift from a guy who's headed in that direction - namely, to a much smaller town in Tennessee. Not long after he's dropped off, Reacher's killer senses kick in and he saves local guy Rusty Rutherford from an apparent kidnapping. Not that he'll be thanked anytime soon, mind you; Rusty is despised by just about everyone for the role they think he played in the recent disastrous crash of all the town's computer systems and phones. 

Rusty, though, insists he's totally innocent; in fact, he was trying to keep that from happening. Now a pariah and, more importantly, out of a job, he and a former FBI friend are hoping to salvage a program they wrote to protect the town computers that could make them very wealthy. For his part, Reacher takes pity on the two (plus he figures the would-be kidnappers aren't likely to stop at a single attempt) and agrees to stick around for a bit.

From there on, the plot gets pretty complicated - even to the computer geek side of my brain. There are Russians who may not be Russians, undercover FBI agents and physical attacks from all corners of the town - leading to the usual blowout fights in which Reacher is outnumbered and must reach to new levels of his considerable pugilistic abilities to survive. Confusion over who's who and what's where leads Reacher down a back alley (or two or five) until near the end, when it's time to put up or forever be shut up. 

Conclusion: Fast-paced and action-filled, this may not be the best entry in the Reacher series, but it's still Reacher and anything Reacher is still worth reading. Bring on the next one!

The Sentinel by Lee Child and Andrew Child (Delacorte Press, October 2020); 352 pp.

BLUE MOON

3 stars out of 5

With the possible exception of a book detailing the battles of World War II, I think it would be hard to find one with a body count as high as this one. If blood and guts in just about every chapter is your thing, you'll love everything about it. Honestly, multiple murders, no matter how gruesome, usually don't bother me, but too many happen here that just don't seem to be justified even if the victims are really, really bad guys.

In this case, they're members of rival Albanian and Ukrainian gangs who have made an uneasy peace running their loan shark and "protection" rackets in the smallish town where the bus carrying Jack Reacher to just about anywhere makes a pitstop. As he's about to step off, Reacher sees an about-to-happen robbery of an elderly man and steps in to thwart it. He then learns the man and his wife have borrowed money from the wrong people, resulting in dire consequences if it's not repaid pronto. Taking pity on the couple - who were victims of circumstances with which most readers would sympathize - Reacher decides to do what he can to take care of the problem. Temporarily, at least, his idea works - but it doesn't take Reacher long to realize he's put himself smack dab in the middle of a turf war with the take-no-prisoners gangs. If he's going to make things all better  - even with a little help from a couple of brawny friends and one tiny but tough waitress - Reacher himself must adopt a take-no-prisoners approach.

In addition to the murders are numerous car chases, narrow escapes and, of course the wry humor for which Reacher (via the author) is known. One in particular tickled me, as he and the waitress drive the mob getaway car they've stolen (but not before loading three newly deceased mobsters in the trunk. As the back end of the car bounces into the road multiple times during their getaway, those extra 600 pounds, Reacher muses, were "Maybe never taken into account during the Lincoln's design process."

 All told, the book is easy to read and entertaining, if perhaps a bit implausible (the extensive deductive reasoning of Reacher and his cronies alone is daunting, to say the least). If you like your heroes strong in mind and body and love constant knock-'em-down, shoot-'em-up action, this one's for you. For me, it was just a little too far over the top.

Blue Moon by Lee Child (Dell, October 2019); 359 pp.

PAST TENSE

4.5 stars

Honestly, I'm not at all sure how much I'd like Jack Reacher if I met him in person because he doesn't pull any punches, but I'm certain I'd want him on my side in a fight for the same reason. And in this, the 23rd book in the series, he gets plenty of opportunity to practice his considerable skill.

The story begins as Reacher walks and hitchhikes near a remote and tiny town in New Hampshire on his way to wherever else the wind (or more accurately, any driver who gives him a lift) takes him. When he recalls his late father Stan saying he grew up in the town, though, Reacher decides to pay a visit to the family homestead - if he can find it, that is.

Concurrently, Shorty and Patty, a pair of grifters from Canada - on their way to New York with a get-rich-quick plan in tow - have car trouble. Just as the old jalopy is ready to blow, they spot a sign pointing to a motel in a heavily wooded area of (you guessed it), New Hampshire. Yep, there's a halfway decent room available - but very soon, it becomes obvious that this isn't your average Motel 6. In fact, they may have happened upon their very worst nightmare.

Chapters follow the progress as Reacher tries to find what appears to be nonexistent evidence of his father's old home and the couple try to find their way out of the mess they're in. As expected, the two storylines end up converging - but not before plenty of action takes place in both. Early on, Reacher gets on the bad side of a bad seed and his wealthy father; although the local police are for the most part on Reacher's side - after all, he's been both an Army guy and a fellow cop - they don't want Trouble with a capital T that rhymes with P that stands for Problem. Just go on your way, they tell Reacher, hoping he'll heed their advice.

He'd love to, but he's got problems of his own (not the least of which is getting on the bad side of the folks he runs into when he finally locates the family town). Besides that, other local and otherwise innocent folks are finding themselves in potential danger simply because they helped Reacher; how can he possibly turn his back on them and hike away?

And so it goes, with excitement and action building all the way from town to the woods and back to an explosive end. If I have an issue, it's that I have a hard time believing in coincidences - meaning things that happen at precisely the time they should to make the story work. Life usually doesn't follow that kind of pattern - but then again, it's Reacher's life, not mine. In the end I'm happy, and I'll be looking forward to the next installment as usual. Meantime, I'm thanking the publisher (via NetGalley) for the opportunity to read an advance review copy of this one.

Past Tense by Lee Child (Dell, November 2018); 400 pp.

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.

NIGHT SCHOOL

4 stars out of 5

There's a bit of a different feel to this one, the 21st, I believe, in the author's popular Jack Reacher series. That's probably because it takes place back in 1996, when Reacher is still in the army. He's got pretty much the same swagger, mental and physical capabilities, but he seems a little less, well, for want of a better word, exciting. Put another way, except for the obvious physical size differential, at times I actually could envision Tom Cruise in the movie role this time around.

The story, though, is no less interesting - even if it does happen when computers aren't yet the norm and the Internet is not much more than a gleam in Al Gore's eye. It begins as Reacher is getting another medal - one that will be kept secret and in that sense is rather meaningless. After the ceremony, he's surprised at being ordered immediately to "night school," which turns out to be something else entirely - the start of a clandestine operation. In the classroom are two other men, one from the FBI and the other from the CIA. Then, they learn the reason they're there: A CIA spy who has infiltrated a Middle-Eastern sleeper cell in Hamburg, Germany, has passed on a message that "The American wants a hundred million dollars."

That's an almost unheard-of sum of money, setting off alarm bells as to what's being bought and sold and by whom. To help, Reacher reels in an extremely competent soldier and friend, Sgt. Frances Neagley. From the start, their investigation must be conducted in utmost secrecy - with less than a handful of individuals aware of what they're doing (one of whom is the President of the United States). Other characters enter the mix as needed, some of whom have motives that aren't exactly in line with the goals of Reacher and his team.

Along with a plain old good story, Reacher shows flashes of the character he will become in later books: A man who loves his country enough to die for it, but who at the same time is willing to deviate from standard practices when getting the job done requires thinking outside government-issue boxes. 

As always, it took me a few chapters to get used to the short, almost jabbing sentences (or, more accurately, sentence fragments - always like fingernails on a blackboard to a grammar freak like me). But also as always, the story grabbed ahold of all my senses and I quickly got into the rapid flow of things. All in all, another winner for the author - although I do hope he brings Reacher back to the here and now in the next one. Guess I just like my guys with a little more maturity under their shoulder holsters.

Night School by Lee Child (Delacorte Press, November 2016); 385 pp.

MAKE ME

This 20th book featuring former U.S. military police guy Jack Reacher puts him smack dab in the middle of nowhere - a tiny place with the strange name of "Mother's Rest" that is surrounded by endless fields of wheat. Since he's been wandering around aimlessly for a while, stopping wherever and whenever the mood strikes, he figures finding out how the town got its name is reason enough to get off the train and squat for a bit. Almost immediately, he spies Michelle Chang, who turns out to be a former FBI agent who's now a private investigator looking for her missing partner. This godforsaken place, she says, is her partner's last known destination.

Lacking anything better to do, curiosity about what happened to the partner (and the town's name) prompts Reacher to agree to help. They manage to learn that the partner booked a room at the local motel, but he's not there or anywhere else they look. And instead of being the helpful denizens that are common in small communities, the rather odd townsfolk are almost hostile - giving Reacher and Chang grief over everything from buying new pants to paying for a hotel rooms of their own even though vacancies are plentiful. Clearly, they conclude, something's not right here.

More sleuthing leads the pair to another man who's looking for a missing relative and a newspaper reporter and, as the search widens, possible (and very dark) connections begin to unfold that take Chang and Reacher out of Mother's Rest to places like Los Angeles, Oklahoma City, Phoenix and Chicago. All roads lead to Mother's Rest, though, where they must return to bring the whole thing to conclusion. In between all the travels are ventures deep into the Dark Web (technology plays a major role here even though Reacher considers anything beyond a basic cell phone beyond his comprehension and interest).  And not surprisingly, lots of folks turn up dead - and ferreting out the truth tests Reacher's mental and physical limits to the max. 

Accordingly, there's plenty of literal blood and guts (not that there's anything wrong with that in my mind, but forewarned is forearmed). An unexpected twist at the end is especially gory, but - given the rest of the story - it comes as a fitting conclusion. In fact, when I finished the last page, the line from Walter Scott's epic poem Marmion immediately came to mind: "Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive!"

The book is easy to read with short, almost jab-you-in-the-ribs sentences (many are non-sentences, BTW - which always takes some getting used to by a grammar freak like me - but the book is good enough that I was able to overcome that concern early on. Which beings me to another conclusion. I wish I had a quarter for every sentence that started with "Which"...

Make Me by Lee Child (Delacorte Press, September 2015); 416 pp.

PERSONAL: A JACK REACHER NOVEL

5 stars out of 5

As part of the "praise" for the book here at Amazon.com, another favorite author of mine, Stephen King, calls this "The best one yet." It may not be the best in the series that I've ever read, but it's sure close to the top. The only real downside was the monumental effort it took not to envision the comparatively scrawny Tom Cruise in the role of 6-foot-5-inch, 250-pound-plus Jack Reacher in the 2012 movie of the same name. 

If it's action you want, you'll get an overload here. It begins as Reacher is called back into service for the State Department and the CIA, who inform him that someone has taken a shot at the president of France. The bullet was American-made, and the super long-distance shot could have been pulled off by less than a handful of snipers (even though it missed the target by a few hairs). One probability comes to mind immediately - John Kott, who, thanks to Reacher, spent the past 16 years in prison and was released recently.

Almost all of the time, Reacher works solo; but this time, he gets a rookie partner named Casey Nice (young and beautiful, naturally) - and it's hard for Reacher to forget thinking about a different female partner who bit the dust on his watch a few years earlier. Nice proves herself to be competent, which is nice, but he still doesn't want the same thing to happen again. 

Trying to catch the shooter before he tries again - the conventional thinking is that the next target will be one (or more) of the world leaders who will be attending an upcoming G-8 summit - puts both Reacher and Nice within shooting distance of mobsters from various countries and, of course, whoever turns out to be the sniper. If it is Kott, the whole scenario could change on a dime; his reason for killing (and his intended target) could turn out to be very (you guessed it) personal.

Personal: A Jack Reacher Novel by Lee Child (Delacorte Press September 2014); 369 pp.