Product Description: Jack Reacher. Hero. Loner. Soldier. Soldier’s son. An elite military cop, he was one of the army’s brightest stars. But in every cop’s life there is a turning point. One case. One messy, tangled case that can shatter a career. Turn a lawman into a renegade. And make him question words like honor, valor, and duty. For Jack Reacher, this is that case.
New Year’s Day, 1990. The Berlin Wall is coming down. The world is changing. And in a North Carolina “hot-sheets” motel, a two-star general is found dead. His briefcase is missing. Nobody knows what was in it. Within minutes Jack Reacher has his orders: Control the situation. But this situation can’t be controlled. Within hours the general’s wife is murdered hundreds of miles away. Then the dominoes really start to fall.
Two Special Forces soldiers—the toughest of the tough—are taken down, one at a time. Top military commanders are moved from place to place in a bizarre game of chess. And somewhere inside the vast worldwide fortress that is the U.S. Army, Jack Reacher—an ordinarily untouchable investigator for the 110th Special Unit—is being set up as a fall guy with the worst enemies a man can have.
But Reacher won’t quit. He’s fighting a new kind of war. And he’s taking a young female lieutenant with him on a deadly hunt that leads them from the ragged edges of a rural army post to the winding streets of Paris to a confrontation with an enemy he didn’t know he had. With his French-born mother dying—and divulging to her son one last, stunning secret—Reacher is forced to question everything he once believed…about his family, his career, his loyalties—and himself. Because this soldier’s son is on his way into the darkness, where he finds a tangled drama of desperate desires and violent death—and a conspiracy more chilling, ingenious, and treacherous than anyone could have guessed.
Read them all and loved them all ^ OK, so Lee Child isn't exactly Tolstoy or Dickens, and his hero is a misanthropic thug, but who hasn't daydreamed about being a non-person, wandering about using wits, wiles, and fists to right injustices and settle scores? And that's Jack Reacher who does not try to subvert or trick the system with false IDs and such. He takes the bus, pays cash, buys new clothing when the old stuff wears out. No family, no friends, no entanglements, no regrets - a strong, self-reliant character who floats on the surface, diving deeper only when he feels an injustice has been done. The premise is strained, no doubt, but the writing is just good enough to make it readable. I find it a guilty pleasure and enjoy watching Reacher get himself into and out of difficult circumstances, trying to make things right. So, yep, most of the one- and two-star reviewers are correct, but then they probably think James Bond is not entertaining. If you don't much care for Bond, Reacher won't please you much either, for Reacher is the crude American cousin to Bond. Who says sociopaths aren't entertaining?
Classic Reacher! ^ This is an unusual Reacher book. All the books to this point, Reacher was out of the Army, but this could be considered a prequal, because Reacher is still in the army.
It's New Year's Day, and a General is found in a motel room, dead. Not only is he dead, but his brief case is missing, and they army wants it back. The problem is that the General wasn't alone. Reacher gets the call and he has to sort out what happened. In the process, Reacher has a new Colonel, and he's telling Reacher not to investigate what has happened. Also in the process, a DELTA solider is killed, and they think that Reacher did it. It's up to Reacher to find the truth, no matter where it leads.
While all of this is going on, Reacher gets a call from his brother, and his mom isn't doing well. That's all I really want to say on the plots. There's a lot more going on, but you get the jist of it. I don't want to give away any spoilers.
This is such a great read! It has a lot of plot twists, and fantastic characters that will keep you glued to the end, and still wanting more. If you've read the past Reacher books, then you know what to expect and you won't be let down. If you haven't started and of the Reacher books, then this is a good one to start with. Do your self a favor and pick it up!
I can promise you won't be sorry, I know I wasn't.
Amazing that Lee Child continues to come up with good new stories.... ^ Lee Child has done it again. His Jack Reacher series has fast become one of my all time favorites. Not sure what else to say, just start reading....
Lazy Jack Reacher Entry ^ I'm hooked on the Reacher series and have been compulsively reading them straight through. Most I have thoroughly enjoyed...but, when Child is coasting it is painfully obvious. In fact, this is the third out of eight that I've found myself continuing to read simply because I couldn't believe how awful it was and/or there was still enough of a hook in some part of the story that I wanted to find out how he would resolve. In this particular novel, he took us 80% through the novel to have Jack stumble across what anyone paying attention to the actual story....and not getting all tangled up in looking for a yogurt cup or the usual page after page of details about armaments.....knew from almost the beginning about who was doing the killing and the big secret about the first dead guy. Anyway....buyer beware.....Lee is really cheating his readers on this one and should be ashamed of himmself.
Lee Child always delivers ^ Lee Child always delivers a great mystery and hero in Jack Reacher. This 'book' takes us back to Reacher's military career which is an interesting break from his 'wandering' days. It includes many of the good and bad aspects of military life (having come from that myself). A great audio book for a long road trip.
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