After a couple of a disappointing entries in the Jack Reacher saga, it's nice to see Lee Child get back to form with Make Me.
Traveling cross country bAfter a couple of a disappointing entries in the Jack Reacher saga, it's nice to see Lee Child get back to form with Make Me.
Traveling cross country by train, Reacher stops in the town of Mother's Rest. Curious about how the town got its name, Reacher inadvertently steps into a conspiracy and cover-up. He meets up with Michelle Chang, a private investigator who came to Mother's Rest at her partner's request. Now that partner is missing and Reacher is drawn into the mystery behind his disappearance.
The set-up for Make Me is classic Reacher. And for the first half, watching Reacher take swings in the dark as to exactly what he's stumbled across is a great deal of fun and makes for a compelling mystery. It's once we get to the second half of the story that that things begin to break down a bit. It's not terrible by any stretch of the imagination and it certainly fits well into the Reacher mythology. But I couldn't help but feel a bit like, "That's it?" when we finally figure out what's going on in Mother's Rest and meet the various forces behind a massive cover-up.
The typical Reacher tropes are on full display here. Reacher not only has his handy travel toothbrush, but he also drinks a lot of coffee in diners and buys new clothes and underwear as needed. And yet, this time around, these tropes felt a bit more natural to the story than they have in the last couple of Reacher installments. It could be that I took a break from the Reacher novels after reading several in quick succession in the last couple of years, so these recurring threads didn't stick out as much.
As for the ending, Child hints that there could be changes coming for Jack Reacher. To which my response is -- I will believe it when I see it. We've had stories in the past where it seemed like Reacher might be making a longer-term connection than one book or story or might make a few changes to his nomadic lifestyle only to see those changes swept away in the next book. I will be curious to see where Child goes next with the character and for the first time in a couple of books I find myself intrigued to see where this series will go next. ...more
Hitchhiking his way across the country, Reacher ends up in Maine near the Canadian border. Picked up by tourists from Canada, Reacher shares a ride anHitchhiking his way across the country, Reacher ends up in Maine near the Canadian border. Picked up by tourists from Canada, Reacher shares a ride and a meal with them (in a diner, because where else would Jack Reacher have a meal?!?), he parts ways with them. Only to find a few hours later that the trails are closed and the military police are out in force.
Reacher is drawn into the mystery of what happened to the hikers and what the military police are so intent on hiding from the world at large.
As far as Reacher stories go, this one is a perfectly entertaining enough one. Honestly, it felt a lot more complete and enjoyable that the last longer Reacher novel in the series. It doesn't overstay its welcome and it tells an effective little mystery.
One of the better Reacher novellas that Lee Child has published in the last few years. ...more
In a bus station in Seattle, Jack Reacher comes across a copy of the Army Times with a classified ad addressed to him with instructions to make contacIn a bus station in Seattle, Jack Reacher comes across a copy of the Army Times with a classified ad addressed to him with instructions to make contact. Reacher does and is quickly swept up into a race against time to stop a potential assassin from taking out the heads of state of the world superpowers at an upcoming economic summit.
One of the potential killers has a connection to Reacher -- he was put behind bars years ago during Reacher's time in the army. And it appears the potential assassin has an ax to grind with Reacher and wants to take him out as well as the heads of state.
The nineteenth entry in Lee Child's Jack Reacher series Personal is most disappointing one I've read so far. Usually the novels narrated by Reacher have been among my favorites in the series, but Personal never quite clicks and spends seemingly long periods of time with Reacher doing little or nothing to impact the investigation or the plot. Part of the problem is that Reacher is part of a team this time around. The character has had help in the past, but he seems less the unstoppable force that he has been in previous novels.
In fact, there were points during this book that I found myself double-checking to make sure this was a Reacher novel and not so other standard thriller I'd picked up. But every few pages, I'd be reminded of Reacher's love of coffee and diners and the portable toothbrush is the greatest invention in the history of humankind so I knew I wasn't reading the wrong book.
I've made this observation before, but I think it bears making again here. In the past year or so, Child has published several Reacher novellas and stories that felt a bit rushed and left me wanting for more and a couple of Reacher novels that felt like a short story expanded far past their natural length. Personal continues this trend, feeling more like a solid novella or short story than a full length novel.
And while I didn't love the latest entry in the series, I'm still hopeful that Child will find his grove again for the upcoming twentieth installment in the series. ...more
Reading a large sampling of the Jack Reacher series in the past year, I have a fairly good idea of what I'll get when I crack the cover of one of Lee Reading a large sampling of the Jack Reacher series in the past year, I have a fairly good idea of what I'll get when I crack the cover of one of Lee Child's literary popcorn offerings.
Every once in a while Child will surprise me a bit by deviating from the standard Reacher formula, but it seems those stories are the exception and not the rule.
The eighteenth Reacher novel Never Go Back is another standard entry in the formula, though early on it appears that Child was considering exploring a different avenue in the long running series.
Reacher is recalled to the headquarters of his old unit, the 110th MP. After speaking to the current commander, Major Susan Turner, on the phone, Reacher hitchhikes his way across country to report in and ask Turner out to dinner. (He's intrigued by her voice and wants to see if the mental image he's created matches reality). When he arrives, Reacher finds Turner has been removed from her post and arrested. In addition, he's reinstated into the Army and arrested for two crimes that he committed during his time in the service. One is the severe beating of another solider and the other is a potential paternity suit.
Of course, it's not long before Reacher realizes that there are larger forces working against him and Turner. Reacher quickly breaks out of military prison, taking Turner with him. The two begin a cross-country trek to find out the truth, all while eluding bad guys who want to do Reacher harm. Oh, and of course, Reacher and Turner hook up along way, doing a will they or won't they dance for the novel's first third before finally giving into their animal instincts.
As with all Reacher novels, I learned that everything a person needs to survive can be found in two locations -- a drugstore and a diner. All other stores or restaurants pale in comparison and as long as you can pick up a travel toothbrush, that's all you really need to survive. Well, I guess that's the case if you're Jack Reacher.
I also learned that you can break the fingers of your adversaries while on a crosscountry flight and no one around you will notice or say anything.
As I've said in other reviews of the Reacher novels, Child is a modern day Ian Fleming and the Reacher novels are Bond novels for a modern era. They're fun, light-weight thrill novels that give us clues on how men should function and relate to the world. Reacher's attitude and reaction to everything is intriuging as is the fact that every single woman he crosses paths with instantly falls in lust with his animal magnetism. (It surely can't be his clothes since, again, he buys EVERYTHING at the drug store and thinks a great date is grabbing food at the local greasy spoon. Not much room for romance in the Reacher world).
Never Go Back is entertaining and Child knows how to keep you turning the pages. But I found the first half of the novel far more intriguing and compelling than the last half. The novel's last quarter feels a bit drawn out -- far too much time is spent in a cat and mouse game surrounding the girl who could be Reacher's daughter -- and it feels as if Child leaves a couple of opportunities to strengthen the series on the table. In fact, I will be stunned if the events from this novel have any long-term impact on Reacher and the series. ...more
**spoiler alert** After reading half a dozen or so Reacher novels in the last couple of months, a couple of things are starting to become clear. The f**spoiler alert** After reading half a dozen or so Reacher novels in the last couple of months, a couple of things are starting to become clear. The first is that Jack Reacher really, really loves coffee. And that the fold-out toothbrush is one of the great inventions of modern civilization.
Another thing that becomes quickly apparent is that while these books are fun, popcorn reads, Lee Child has little, if any, interest in long-term continuity. I says this because I came to the end of Tripwire with Reacher inheriting a house and in a long-term relationship (with a woman he'd pined for 15 years, mind you). Having read-ahead in the series and finding Reacher without house or girlfriend, I assumed something interesting must happen in Running Blind to remove Reacher from this comfort zone.
Apparently, not so much.
The house and the girlfriend are barely a blip on the radar as Reacher is drawn into the events of Running Blind. Seems women with a little or no connection except that they were in the military and may have known Reacher are being murdered. At first, Reacher is a suspect (it doesn't help that he wanders across a mob shakedown of a local mom and pop restaurant where he steps in and stirs up trouble), but then he becomes an outside investigator into the murders. It appears the killer has a time table and that Reacher is racing against the clock to figure out who is doing this before the next victim is offed. The military uses Reacher's act of helping out the mom and pop place as leverage against him by bringing the girlfriend into things.
At first reluctant, Reacher eventually agrees, but as always he's playing by his own set of rules. And it's here that the book begins to break down a bit because it's hard to believe this many people owe Reacher this many favors. Or that Reacher couldn't call in a favor or two based on his experiences in previous novels to clear up some things early on in the story. If you can suspend your disbelief for that, then I guess you can suspend it enough once the identity of the killer is revealed and how the victims are being killed. I'll admit it stretched my disbelief almost to the breaking point and were it not for the goodwill I'd felt toward the series after Tripwire, I might have been ready to write off the series--at least for now. ...more
While I've been aware of Lee Child's best-selling Jack Reacher novels for a while, I hadn't really cracked the cover of one until I heard there was a
While I've been aware of Lee Child's best-selling Jack Reacher novels for a while, I hadn't really cracked the cover of one until I heard there was a movie based on the series headed our way. Being the guy who has to read the book first, I headed out to the local library and picked up the first novel, Killing Floor, assuming that the movie series would start with the first novel in the series.
That's what I get for assuming. Turns out that Reacher, like the Bond movies, has decided not to start with the first published novel in the series, but with the ninth novel One Shot. After reading both One Shot and The Killing Floor, I think this is a pretty good idea. As an introductory novel, The Killing Floor is OK, but it's not great. Having just been released from the Army after 13 years of service, Jack Reacher is wandering the country by bus. On a whim, he decides to visit a small town in Georgia to look in on his younger brother and soon finds himself embroiled in a conspiracy.
The first novel is a good one, but a lot of it depends on coincidence. Reacher happens to wander into vital information and situations at just the right time. This works the first time or two it happens, but I found myself rolling my eyes a bit as it kept occurring through the entire run of the novel.
And so it was that after reading the first Reacher, I jumped forward to the ninth novel, One Shot so I could do the inevitable comparing the book to the movie when I see it. As an action thriller novel, One Shot works extremely well. When a sniper goes on a killing spree, the prime suspect has only one request--find Jack Reacher. Turns out our accused sniper was trained by the military for this exact purpose and had a run in with Reacher as an MP. Reacher arrives on the scene and starts investigating, once again finding there's more here than meets the eye. There's too much evidence pointing to our main suspect, which Reacher finds suspicious. There's also a conspiracy in play and Reacher kicking a lot of tail on various people who make the mistake of crossing him.
As the outline for an action film, I can see why Hollywood would choose this one first. It's got a good build-up to Reacher arriving on the scene and it's got some good action moments for the character. It shows him as a man of action/detective of sorts, all while pulling in Reacher's past and previous experience. I'll even admit that the first trailer for the film had me hopeful because it looked fairly faithful to the source material, especially the last 30 or so seconds with the big brawl in the street.
That said, I just can't quite understand why Tom Cruise was cast as Jack Reacher. (OK, I get it--the guy is a box office draw). If you've read the novels, you know that Reacher is a tall, imposing man who uses that to his advantage to impose his will upon people. I know that Hollywood can't always cast a character just as he or she originally is described in a novel, but surely they could come a bit closer than Tom Cruise. Interestingly as I waited for The Hobbit to start last weekend, there was a extended sneak peek at Jack Reacher with author Lee Child extolling that Cruise is a good Reacher. My first thought was, of course he's not going to tear down the casting choice saying "Boy, they sure blew it on this one." That won't encourage your faithful audience to head out and see the film now then will it?*
*That is, unless you're Clive Cussler, who famously was not a huge fan of what they did to Sahara, thus killing the potential Dirk Pitt franchise.
After One Shot, I was significantly intrigued enough to want to read more of the adventures of Reacher. So, I sought out the second novel in the series, Die Trying. Reacher is in the wrong place at the wrong time and gets pulled into a vortex when he tries to help a woman out on the street. I have to admit of the five novels I've read in the series so far, this is my least favorite. It just didn't quite grab my attention and hold me the way three of the five novels in the series have.
Next up, I jumped ahead to The Affair. It's the sixteenth novel in the series but one that cycles back to the time before The Killing Floor and details the events that led to Reacher leaving the Army. In Carter Crossing, Mississippi, a small town next to an Army base, a local woman has been killed. Reacher is assigned to go into the town undercover and cozy up to the local law enforcement to find out what they know. However, the sheriff is an ex-Marine MP and sees Reacher coming a mile away. She allows him to stay around and begin to investigate things, soon finding a pattern to events taking place in the town. It all adds up to (wait for it ) another conspiracy and Reacher being caught in the cross-hairs.
I'll admit The Affair works a lot better as an introduction to Reacher than the first two novels did. Reading the books, I keep finding myself comparing the character to that of Bond--he's a man's man that all women seem to find irresistible. He also has some eccentricities that are repeated in each novel (or so it seems). He doesn't use toothpaste, instead always opting for a fold-up toothbrush and mints. (Reacher loves his fold-up toothbrush, to the point that you'd think it was the greatest thing since sliced bread). He travels light, often washing the same set of clothes in the hotel sink multiple times per book (and he gets all the ladies, how again?). He also doesn't believe in settling in any one place for any length of time.
Which is why the third novel in the series struck me as a bit odd. Tripwire stars off with Reacher digging pools in Key West. When a PI shows up looking for him, Reacher denies who he is and the detective gets killed. Curious as to why finding him cost the PI his life, Reacher begins digging around and heads to New York to find the elusive Mrs. Jacobs who hired the PI. Turns out Mrs. Jacobs is Jody Garber Jacobs, divorced attorney and daughter of his former CO. The CO has just passed away and Reacher was like a son to him. It also turns out that Jody pined for Reacher when she was 15 and Reacher always wondered what might have been had she been a bit older. (There's a nine year gap in their age). After a quarter of the novel is spent fraught with sexual tension between the two, they finally admit they're hot for each other, have been for years and begin hooking up. They also look into a situation her father was examining when he died involving a guy with a hook for a hand, scars on his face and a connection to an MIA Vietnam vet.
Tripwire works well because it has an interesting adversary for Reacher. Hobie Hook is menacing in that Bond villain kind of way and I could honestly see the book translating well to a second film should the first one prove successful. Hobie chews scenery with the best of them and his plan to bilk a rich guy out of his company is an interesting one. Of course, a lot of the book would have to be set somewhere else since, unnervingly, Hobie's office is on the 88th floor of the Twin Towers. (The book was written well before Sept. 11th).
It's also in Tripwire that Reacher is at his most Bond-like. At one point he gets shot in the chest only to survive because his pecs are so strong the bullet simply couldn't get to his heart.
Of course, it's also interesting to see that Reacher is left the house of his former CO in the novel and elects to remain near Jody as the book ends. Considering she's not on the scene by the time we reach One Shot, I can only assume she exits the series at some point. I just hope she doesn't meet the same fate as Tracy Bond...
So far, I like the Reacher novels. They're not great literature, but they're fun, entertaining action adventures stories that when they're good, keep the pages turning. I'll be interested to see how the movie does and if that will drive audiences to the books. I also plan to try and continue reading more of the adventures of Jack Reacher, if only because I'm curious as to what happens to Jody and why, if she's the great love of Reacher's life, she vanishes from the series.
While I've been aware of Lee Child's best-selling Jack Reacher novels for a while, I hadn't really cracked the cover of one until I heard there was a
While I've been aware of Lee Child's best-selling Jack Reacher novels for a while, I hadn't really cracked the cover of one until I heard there was a movie based on the series headed our way. Being the guy who has to read the book first, I headed out to the local library and picked up the first novel, Killing Floor, assuming that the movie series would start with the first novel in the series.
That's what I get for assuming. Turns out that Reacher, like the Bond movies, has decided not to start with the first published novel in the series, but with the ninth novel One Shot. After reading both One Shot and The Killing Floor, I think this is a pretty good idea. As an introductory novel, The Killing Floor is OK, but it's not great. Having just been released from the Army after 13 years of service, Jack Reacher is wandering the country by bus. On a whim, he decides to visit a small town in Georgia to look in on his younger brother and soon finds himself embroiled in a conspiracy.
The first novel is a good one, but a lot of it depends on coincidence. Reacher happens to wander into vital information and situations at just the right time. This works the first time or two it happens, but I found myself rolling my eyes a bit as it kept occurring through the entire run of the novel.
And so it was that after reading the first Reacher, I jumped forward to the ninth novel, One Shot so I could do the inevitable comparing the book to the movie when I see it. As an action thriller novel, One Shot works extremely well. When a sniper goes on a killing spree, the prime suspect has only one request--find Jack Reacher. Turns out our accused sniper was trained by the military for this exact purpose and had a run in with Reacher as an MP. Reacher arrives on the scene and starts investigating, once again finding there's more here than meets the eye. There's too much evidence pointing to our main suspect, which Reacher finds suspicious. There's also a conspiracy in play and Reacher kicking a lot of tail on various people who make the mistake of crossing him.
As the outline for an action film, I can see why Hollywood would choose this one first. It's got a good build-up to Reacher arriving on the scene and it's got some good action moments for the character. It shows him as a man of action/detective of sorts, all while pulling in Reacher's past and previous experience. I'll even admit that the first trailer for the film had me hopeful because it looked fairly faithful to the source material, especially the last 30 or so seconds with the big brawl in the street.
That said, I just can't quite understand why Tom Cruise was cast as Jack Reacher. (OK, I get it--the guy is a box office draw). If you've read the novels, you know that Reacher is a tall, imposing man who uses that to his advantage to impose his will upon people. I know that Hollywood can't always cast a character just as he or she originally is described in a novel, but surely they could come a bit closer than Tom Cruise. Interestingly as I waited for The Hobbit to start last weekend, there was a extended sneak peek at Jack Reacher with author Lee Child extolling that Cruise is a good Reacher. My first thought was, of course he's not going to tear down the casting choice saying "Boy, they sure blew it on this one." That won't encourage your faithful audience to head out and see the film now then will it?*
*That is, unless you're Clive Cussler, who famously was not a huge fan of what they did to Sahara, thus killing the potential Dirk Pitt franchise.
After One Shot, I was significantly intrigued enough to want to read more of the adventures of Reacher. So, I sought out the second novel in the series, Die Trying. Reacher is in the wrong place at the wrong time and gets pulled into a vortex when he tries to help a woman out on the street. I have to admit of the five novels I've read in the series so far, this is my least favorite. It just didn't quite grab my attention and hold me the way three of the five novels in the series have.
Next up, I jumped ahead to The Affair. It's the sixteenth novel in the series but one that cycles back to the time before The Killing Floor and details the events that led to Reacher leaving the Army. In Carter Crossing, Mississippi, a small town next to an Army base, a local woman has been killed. Reacher is assigned to go into the town undercover and cozy up to the local law enforcement to find out what they know. However, the sheriff is an ex-Marine MP and sees Reacher coming a mile away. She allows him to stay around and begin to investigate things, soon finding a pattern to events taking place in the town. It all adds up to (wait for it ) another conspiracy and Reacher being caught in the cross-hairs.
I'll admit The Affair works a lot better as an introduction to Reacher than the first two novels did. Reading the books, I keep finding myself comparing the character to that of Bond--he's a man's man that all women seem to find irresistible. He also has some eccentricities that are repeated in each novel (or so it seems). He doesn't use toothpaste, instead always opting for a fold-up toothbrush and mints. (Reacher loves his fold-up toothbrush, to the point that you'd think it was the greatest thing since sliced bread). He travels light, often washing the same set of clothes in the hotel sink multiple times per book (and he gets all the ladies, how again?). He also doesn't believe in settling in any one place for any length of time.
Which is why the third novel in the series struck me as a bit odd. Tripwire stars off with Reacher digging pools in Key West. When a PI shows up looking for him, Reacher denies who he is and the detective gets killed. Curious as to why finding him cost the PI his life, Reacher begins digging around and heads to New York to find the elusive Mrs. Jacobs who hired the PI. Turns out Mrs. Jacobs is Jody Garber Jacobs, divorced attorney and daughter of his former CO. The CO has just passed away and Reacher was like a son to him. It also turns out that Jody pined for Reacher when she was 15 and Reacher always wondered what might have been had she been a bit older. (There's a nine year gap in their age). After a quarter of the novel is spent fraught with sexual tension between the two, they finally admit they're hot for each other, have been for years and begin hooking up. They also look into a situation her father was examining when he died involving a guy with a hook for a hand, scars on his face and a connection to an MIA Vietnam vet.
Tripwire works well because it has an interesting adversary for Reacher. Hobie Hook is menacing in that Bond villain kind of way and I could honestly see the book translating well to a second film should the first one prove successful. Hobie chews scenery with the best of them and his plan to bilk a rich guy out of his company is an interesting one. Of course, a lot of the book would have to be set somewhere else since, unnervingly, Hobie's office is on the 88th floor of the Twin Towers. (The book was written well before Sept. 11th).
It's also in Tripwire that Reacher is at his most Bond-like. At one point he gets shot in the chest only to survive because his pecs are so strong the bullet simply couldn't get to his heart.
Of course, it's also interesting to see that Reacher is left the house of his former CO in the novel and elects to remain near Jody as the book ends. Considering she's not on the scene by the time we reach One Shot, I can only assume she exits the series at some point. I just hope she doesn't meet the same fate as Tracy Bond...
So far, I like the Reacher novels. They're not great literature, but they're fun, entertaining action adventures stories that when they're good, keep the pages turning. I'll be interested to see how the movie does and if that will drive audiences to the books. I also plan to try and continue reading more of the adventures of Jack Reacher, if only because I'm curious as to what happens to Jody and why, if she's the great love of Reacher's life, she vanishes from the series.
While I've been aware of Lee Child's best-selling Jack Reacher novels for a while, I hadn't really cracked the cover of one until I heard there was a
While I've been aware of Lee Child's best-selling Jack Reacher novels for a while, I hadn't really cracked the cover of one until I heard there was a movie based on the series headed our way. Being the guy who has to read the book first, I headed out to the local library and picked up the first novel, Killing Floor, assuming that the movie series would start with the first novel in the series.
That's what I get for assuming. Turns out that Reacher, like the Bond movies, has decided not to start with the first published novel in the series, but with the ninth novel One Shot. After reading both One Shot and The Killing Floor, I think this is a pretty good idea. As an introductory novel, The Killing Floor is OK, but it's not great. Having just been released from the Army after 13 years of service, Jack Reacher is wandering the country by bus. On a whim, he decides to visit a small town in Georgia to look in on his younger brother and soon finds himself embroiled in a conspiracy.
The first novel is a good one, but a lot of it depends on coincidence. Reacher happens to wander into vital information and situations at just the right time. This works the first time or two it happens, but I found myself rolling my eyes a bit as it kept occurring through the entire run of the novel.
And so it was that after reading the first Reacher, I jumped forward to the ninth novel, One Shot so I could do the inevitable comparing the book to the movie when I see it. As an action thriller novel, One Shot works extremely well. When a sniper goes on a killing spree, the prime suspect has only one request--find Jack Reacher. Turns out our accused sniper was trained by the military for this exact purpose and had a run in with Reacher as an MP. Reacher arrives on the scene and starts investigating, once again finding there's more here than meets the eye. There's too much evidence pointing to our main suspect, which Reacher finds suspicious. There's also a conspiracy in play and Reacher kicking a lot of tail on various people who make the mistake of crossing him.
As the outline for an action film, I can see why Hollywood would choose this one first. It's got a good build-up to Reacher arriving on the scene and it's got some good action moments for the character. It shows him as a man of action/detective of sorts, all while pulling in Reacher's past and previous experience. I'll even admit that the first trailer for the film had me hopeful because it looked fairly faithful to the source material, especially the last 30 or so seconds with the big brawl in the street.
That said, I just can't quite understand why Tom Cruise was cast as Jack Reacher. (OK, I get it--the guy is a box office draw). If you've read the novels, you know that Reacher is a tall, imposing man who uses that to his advantage to impose his will upon people. I know that Hollywood can't always cast a character just as he or she originally is described in a novel, but surely they could come a bit closer than Tom Cruise. Interestingly as I waited for The Hobbit to start last weekend, there was a extended sneak peek at Jack Reacher with author Lee Child extolling that Cruise is a good Reacher. My first thought was, of course he's not going to tear down the casting choice saying "Boy, they sure blew it on this one." That won't encourage your faithful audience to head out and see the film now then will it?*
*That is, unless you're Clive Cussler, who famously was not a huge fan of what they did to Sahara, thus killing the potential Dirk Pitt franchise.
After One Shot, I was significantly intrigued enough to want to read more of the adventures of Reacher. So, I sought out the second novel in the series, Die Trying. Reacher is in the wrong place at the wrong time and gets pulled into a vortex when he tries to help a woman out on the street. I have to admit of the five novels I've read in the series so far, this is my least favorite. It just didn't quite grab my attention and hold me the way three of the five novels in the series have.
Next up, I jumped ahead to The Affair. It's the sixteenth novel in the series but one that cycles back to the time before The Killing Floor and details the events that led to Reacher leaving the Army. In Carter Crossing, Mississippi, a small town next to an Army base, a local woman has been killed. Reacher is assigned to go into the town undercover and cozy up to the local law enforcement to find out what they know. However, the sheriff is an ex-Marine MP and sees Reacher coming a mile away. She allows him to stay around and begin to investigate things, soon finding a pattern to events taking place in the town. It all adds up to (wait for it ) another conspiracy and Reacher being caught in the cross-hairs.
I'll admit The Affair works a lot better as an introduction to Reacher than the first two novels did. Reading the books, I keep finding myself comparing the character to that of Bond--he's a man's man that all women seem to find irresistible. He also has some eccentricities that are repeated in each novel (or so it seems). He doesn't use toothpaste, instead always opting for a fold-up toothbrush and mints. (Reacher loves his fold-up toothbrush, to the point that you'd think it was the greatest thing since sliced bread). He travels light, often washing the same set of clothes in the hotel sink multiple times per book (and he gets all the ladies, how again?). He also doesn't believe in settling in any one place for any length of time.
Which is why the third novel in the series struck me as a bit odd. Tripwire stars off with Reacher digging pools in Key West. When a PI shows up looking for him, Reacher denies who he is and the detective gets killed. Curious as to why finding him cost the PI his life, Reacher begins digging around and heads to New York to find the elusive Mrs. Jacobs who hired the PI. Turns out Mrs. Jacobs is Jody Garber Jacobs, divorced attorney and daughter of his former CO. The CO has just passed away and Reacher was like a son to him. It also turns out that Jody pined for Reacher when she was 15 and Reacher always wondered what might have been had she been a bit older. (There's a nine year gap in their age). After a quarter of the novel is spent fraught with sexual tension between the two, they finally admit they're hot for each other, have been for years and begin hooking up. They also look into a situation her father was examining when he died involving a guy with a hook for a hand, scars on his face and a connection to an MIA Vietnam vet.
Tripwire works well because it has an interesting adversary for Reacher. Hobie Hook is menacing in that Bond villain kind of way and I could honestly see the book translating well to a second film should the first one prove successful. Hobie chews scenery with the best of them and his plan to bilk a rich guy out of his company is an interesting one. Of course, a lot of the book would have to be set somewhere else since, unnervingly, Hobie's office is on the 88th floor of the Twin Towers. (The book was written well before Sept. 11th).
It's also in Tripwire that Reacher is at his most Bond-like. At one point he gets shot in the chest only to survive because his pecs are so strong the bullet simply couldn't get to his heart.
Of course, it's also interesting to see that Reacher is left the house of his former CO in the novel and elects to remain near Jody as the book ends. Considering she's not on the scene by the time we reach One Shot, I can only assume she exits the series at some point. I just hope she doesn't meet the same fate as Tracy Bond...
So far, I like the Reacher novels. They're not great literature, but they're fun, entertaining action adventures stories that when they're good, keep the pages turning. I'll be interested to see how the movie does and if that will drive audiences to the books. I also plan to try and continue reading more of the adventures of Jack Reacher, if only because I'm curious as to what happens to Jody and why, if she's the great love of Reacher's life, she vanishes from the series.
While I've been aware of Lee Child's best-selling Jack Reacher novels for a while, I hadn't really cracked the cover of one until I heard there was a
While I've been aware of Lee Child's best-selling Jack Reacher novels for a while, I hadn't really cracked the cover of one until I heard there was a movie based on the series headed our way. Being the guy who has to read the book first, I headed out to the local library and picked up the first novel, Killing Floor, assuming that the movie series would start with the first novel in the series.
That's what I get for assuming. Turns out that Reacher, like the Bond movies, has decided not to start with the first published novel in the series, but with the ninth novel One Shot. After reading both One Shot and The Killing Floor, I think this is a pretty good idea. As an introductory novel, The Killing Floor is OK, but it's not great. Having just been released from the Army after 13 years of service, Jack Reacher is wandering the country by bus. On a whim, he decides to visit a small town in Georgia to look in on his younger brother and soon finds himself embroiled in a conspiracy.
The first novel is a good one, but a lot of it depends on coincidence. Reacher happens to wander into vital information and situations at just the right time. This works the first time or two it happens, but I found myself rolling my eyes a bit as it kept occurring through the entire run of the novel.
And so it was that after reading the first Reacher, I jumped forward to the ninth novel, One Shot so I could do the inevitable comparing the book to the movie when I see it. As an action thriller novel, One Shot works extremely well. When a sniper goes on a killing spree, the prime suspect has only one request--find Jack Reacher. Turns out our accused sniper was trained by the military for this exact purpose and had a run in with Reacher as an MP. Reacher arrives on the scene and starts investigating, once again finding there's more here than meets the eye. There's too much evidence pointing to our main suspect, which Reacher finds suspicious. There's also a conspiracy in play and Reacher kicking a lot of tail on various people who make the mistake of crossing him.
As the outline for an action film, I can see why Hollywood would choose this one first. It's got a good build-up to Reacher arriving on the scene and it's got some good action moments for the character. It shows him as a man of action/detective of sorts, all while pulling in Reacher's past and previous experience. I'll even admit that the first trailer for the film had me hopeful because it looked fairly faithful to the source material, especially the last 30 or so seconds with the big brawl in the street.
That said, I just can't quite understand why Tom Cruise was cast as Jack Reacher. (OK, I get it--the guy is a box office draw). If you've read the novels, you know that Reacher is a tall, imposing man who uses that to his advantage to impose his will upon people. I know that Hollywood can't always cast a character just as he or she originally is described in a novel, but surely they could come a bit closer than Tom Cruise. Interestingly as I waited for The Hobbit to start last weekend, there was a extended sneak peek at Jack Reacher with author Lee Child extolling that Cruise is a good Reacher. My first thought was, of course he's not going to tear down the casting choice saying "Boy, they sure blew it on this one." That won't encourage your faithful audience to head out and see the film now then will it?*
*That is, unless you're Clive Cussler, who famously was not a huge fan of what they did to Sahara, thus killing the potential Dirk Pitt franchise.
After One Shot, I was significantly intrigued enough to want to read more of the adventures of Reacher. So, I sought out the second novel in the series, Die Trying. Reacher is in the wrong place at the wrong time and gets pulled into a vortex when he tries to help a woman out on the street. I have to admit of the five novels I've read in the series so far, this is my least favorite. It just didn't quite grab my attention and hold me the way three of the five novels in the series have.
Next up, I jumped ahead to The Affair. It's the sixteenth novel in the series but one that cycles back to the time before The Killing Floor and details the events that led to Reacher leaving the Army. In Carter Crossing, Mississippi, a small town next to an Army base, a local woman has been killed. Reacher is assigned to go into the town undercover and cozy up to the local law enforcement to find out what they know. However, the sheriff is an ex-Marine MP and sees Reacher coming a mile away. She allows him to stay around and begin to investigate things, soon finding a pattern to events taking place in the town. It all adds up to (wait for it ) another conspiracy and Reacher being caught in the cross-hairs.
I'll admit The Affair works a lot better as an introduction to Reacher than the first two novels did. Reading the books, I keep finding myself comparing the character to that of Bond--he's a man's man that all women seem to find irresistible. He also has some eccentricities that are repeated in each novel (or so it seems). He doesn't use toothpaste, instead always opting for a fold-up toothbrush and mints. (Reacher loves his fold-up toothbrush, to the point that you'd think it was the greatest thing since sliced bread). He travels light, often washing the same set of clothes in the hotel sink multiple times per book (and he gets all the ladies, how again?). He also doesn't believe in settling in any one place for any length of time.
Which is why the third novel in the series struck me as a bit odd. Tripwire stars off with Reacher digging pools in Key West. When a PI shows up looking for him, Reacher denies who he is and the detective gets killed. Curious as to why finding him cost the PI his life, Reacher begins digging around and heads to New York to find the elusive Mrs. Jacobs who hired the PI. Turns out Mrs. Jacobs is Jody Garber Jacobs, divorced attorney and daughter of his former CO. The CO has just passed away and Reacher was like a son to him. It also turns out that Jody pined for Reacher when she was 15 and Reacher always wondered what might have been had she been a bit older. (There's a nine year gap in their age). After a quarter of the novel is spent fraught with sexual tension between the two, they finally admit they're hot for each other, have been for years and begin hooking up. They also look into a situation her father was examining when he died involving a guy with a hook for a hand, scars on his face and a connection to an MIA Vietnam vet.
Tripwire works well because it has an interesting adversary for Reacher. Hobie Hook is menacing in that Bond villain kind of way and I could honestly see the book translating well to a second film should the first one prove successful. Hobie chews scenery with the best of them and his plan to bilk a rich guy out of his company is an interesting one. Of course, a lot of the book would have to be set somewhere else since, unnervingly, Hobie's office is on the 88th floor of the Twin Towers. (The book was written well before Sept. 11th).
It's also in Tripwire that Reacher is at his most Bond-like. At one point he gets shot in the chest only to survive because his pecs are so strong the bullet simply couldn't get to his heart.
Of course, it's also interesting to see that Reacher is left the house of his former CO in the novel and elects to remain near Jody as the book ends. Considering she's not on the scene by the time we reach One Shot, I can only assume she exits the series at some point. I just hope she doesn't meet the same fate as Tracy Bond...
So far, I like the Reacher novels. They're not great literature, but they're fun, entertaining action adventures stories that when they're good, keep the pages turning. I'll be interested to see how the movie does and if that will drive audiences to the books. I also plan to try and continue reading more of the adventures of Jack Reacher, if only because I'm curious as to what happens to Jody and why, if she's the great love of Reacher's life, she vanishes from the series.
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