PAST TENSE

May 6, 2019

Lee Child. PAST TENSE. Delacorte, 2018.

Jack Reacher finds himself in New Hampshire and decides to do a little genealogical research on the town where his father was born. Someone with the same last name owns an old motel in Ryanstown. When Reacher investigates, he finds out that the programs -- Bow Hunting Men -- offered at this stop are not your usual game. 

A WANTED MAN

Lee Child. A WANTED MAN: A Jack Reacher Novel. 2012.

533 pages read in 2 days. Yeah! Reacher is hitchhiking, picked up by two men and a woman to get them through roadblocks. Somewhere in Nebraska, and ending up near Kansas City. 

THE MIDNIGHT LINE

Lee Child. THE MIDNIGHT LINE. Delacorte, 2017.

Another lost weekend spent with Jack Reacher. This time, we meet in Rapid City, South Dakota and travel to Wyoming looking for a missing veteran. The plot centres around opioid addiction and options available to patients seeking pain medication.  

Bad Luck and Trouble

Lee Child. Bad Luck and Trouble. Delacorte, 2007.

Fraud in a defense contract puts the nation at risk. Reacher and three former colleagues meet in LA to try to rescue four others. Helicopters and a side trip to Vegas are involved. 

Night School

April 30, 2017

Lee Child. Night School. Delacorte, 2016.

It is 1997, before Y2K and 9/11. Jack Reacher, after being awarded another medal, is sent inexplicably to Night School, to learn “inter-agency cooperation.” They end up in Germany. The mission it to keep something (lost fifty years before and recently found) from getting into the hands of dangerous people. 

Killing Floor

Lee Child. Killing Floor: The First Jack Reacher Novel. 1997.

Another lost weekend, starting and finishing a 500-page thriller. The first Jack Reacher novel, set in Georgia. Jack's brother has called him to Margrave in search of Blind Blake. Jack meets Roscoe, a local policewoman, and other residents of the mysteriously clean and well-kept town. Chaos ensues. 

Never Go Back

Lee Child. Never Go Back. Delacorte, 2013.

Jack Reacher goes back to his old HQ, 110 MP in DC, and finds that the new CO has been arrested. Together they figure it out. From DC to Pittsburgh to LA and back again. 

Another three days glued to my reading chair. 

Worth Dying For

April 19, 2016

Lee Child's Worth Dying For

Worth Dying For, #15 in the Jack Reacher series, is set in Nebraska. Dastardly deeds involving a community held hostage, a child missing for 25 years, organized crime including smuggling. I lost track of how many different ways people die. But it's usually the bad guys, so I guess that's supposed to be OK. 

I love this writer's style. So fast. Literally, a page turner. Short chapters. Multi points of view. Many characters in orbit around Reacher. Excessive detail. Good use of repetition.  Heavy on the action, especially hand-to-hand combat, weapons, and explosions. 

Love the Bryan Adams allusion in the title. Everything I do, I do it for you. Which includes the Robin Hood allusion, from the Kevin Costner movie. Reacher like Robin fights for the underdogs against abusive authority. 

Gone Tomorrow

March 18, 2016

Lee Child's Gone Tomorrow

Jack Reacher's on the New York Subway, watching a woman in the same car, checking off all the ways she fits the suicide bomber checklist. Working with the feds, and an NYC policewoman, his hands are tied. She likes her job and her life but he will be gone tomorrow. 

Make Me

March 13, 2016

Lee Child's Make Me (a Jack Reacher novel)

Jack Reacher gets off the train at a stop called Mother's Rest. A private detective meets him, mistaking him for another. He helps follow the Internet trail. If you want me to stop, you're going to have to make me.

Persuader

Lee Child Persuader 

Scrabble-playing friend BK says he reads & enjoys Lee Child. I had never heard of this British-born American writer although it seems he has been on the NYTimes best seller lists for years. That same night I was offered a Lee Child as a door prize, at the Giller Glitter evening, so I assumed it was fate. Since then I've read 4, 3 of them, including this one, gifts. The Affair. The Hard Way. Personal. I groan when I receive one because I know it will mean 3 days lost, sitting, turning pages obsessively, to see what Jack Reacher does next. I also find that I cannot remember later which book was about what. The Affair was set in the US South, Carter Crossing, Mississippi, near a base, and a sexual assault cover-up. Personal was a revenge plot about a sniper in Paris & the G8 in London. The Hard Way? Starts in NYC, a ransom pick-up gone wrong. Persuader is set in NE US, Portland, Maine perhaps, about a carpet import business, a son who was kidnapped previously, Reacher infiltrating the family home on a cliff. An undercover DEA operation which turns into an ATF operation, because the Persuader is a weapon.