Exit Strategy by Lee Child and Andrew Child

The wanderings of Jack Reacher make its 30th stop, this time in Baltimore, MD. Reacher is sitting in his usual haunt - a coffee shop - and scoping out the customers. Only thing kinda unusual is a 4-top with two couples, one elderly.  As he exits the shop, a customer coming in brushes up against Reacher (who then checks his pockets to make sure his passport and some cash are intact). They are. On the street is a 2nd hand store he stops in to buy a warmer coat giving the upcoming change in seasons. While transferring his meager existence to the new coat, he notices a note has been inserted into a pocket. A desperate plea for help. Could only have come from that brushpass at the door.  

But first, that older couple. Reacher recognized the shakedown as soon as he saw it. Con artists trying to scam the elderly for all their savings. He tells the couple they been taken and to sit tight while he confronts the scammers, gently tells them of the err of their ways, and returns the money to the couple (standard opening scene for most Reacher books is for him to help out someone getting scammed). 

What Reacher wants to do is find out who's behind the scam. What takes over, however, is the note he received. The note asks him to return the cash or the the man delivering the note will be killed. Obviously the note was given to him in error. This guy was told to deliver the note to the biggest guy in the coffee shop. Yeah, that was Reacher. But it was still the wrong guy. Another (bigger) guy was on the way to the shop when he was killed in a freak accident (we are led to believe) a block or two away.

Now it gets complicated and heavily layered involving a Blackwater-ish paramilitary contractor, fraudulent contracts, any number of thugs that unfortunately get in Reacher's way, Armenian separatists, CIA operatives, tunnels and caves used to train military dropouts, lots of coffee, and little sleep. 

This was a first for me . . . a Reacher story that didn't grab or hold my interest. I finished, but the further I got into the book, the more outrageous the plotline became. Upon closing the book, I breathed a sigh of relief. Done. A friend of mine saw I was reading the book to which he said, 'First Reacher book I ever quit reading.' I stuck with it, but if this was my first Reacher book, I doubt I'd be looking forward to reading another. As Amazon Prime continues to produce in the Reacher series (season 4 starts back up the end of March or April), think I'm safe in saying that this story is unlikely to be greenlit. 

ECD 

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In Too Deep by Lee Child and Andrew Child

Never gets old. Even after 29 books, the Jack Reacher story continues to roll on.

Somewhere near the Ozarks, Jack Reacher (no middle initial) is having a burger, coffee, and a slice of pie. Outside, it looks like a couple punks are trying to steal a car. Reacher’s sense of right/wrong won’t let him ignore them, steps outside and in his typical friendly manner, convinces the would-be thieves to rethink their plan.

The car owner is quite grateful and in the ensuing conversation learns that Reacher is headed toward New Orleans via his thump and a bus ticket. The grateful car owner offers Reacher a ride. While showing off what his car can do, the driver runs the car off the road. Driver dead. Reacher unconscious. No memory of the attempted car theft, the ride, of the crash.

Somehow, Reacher ends up in a hospital with a healthy case of retrograde amnesia and a casted broken wrist. A day in the hospital is more than Reacher can stand and makes his leave against medical advice.

His first task is to find out more about the driver. On second thought, that might not have been his best decision because he’s stumbled onto a small ‘gang’ of crooks who specialize in stealing/selling counterfeit or original artwork. And they’ve been pretty good at it.

One member of this gang is quite the online researcher. She directs her compadres on where to find and obtain said artwork. But she’s also hacked into something called Cone Enterprises and has hit on what could be the motherlode of motherlodes. A report whose contents are so explosive that they could name any price and sell it to enemies of the US. Reacher, a suspended Phoenix PD detective, and the FBI try to track down the report and keep it away from any form of prying eyes.

Good grief. This is the 29^th Jack Reacher book. And Child and Child still manage to keep the story fresh and current. This was a fast 3-day read for me. Saying it was a page-turner is trite. You just can’t wait to see where the next page will take you.

And if you’ve been living in a cave, Amazon Prime Studios has two seasons of Reacher for streaming. And no, Tom Cruise isn’t playing Reacher. Alan Ritchson (all 6’2” and 240 lbs of him) is carrying the weight of the franchise on his considerable shoulders. Season 3 is being shot now and a 4^th season has already received the green light. With 29 books, the Reacher character has plenty of source material.I've watched both seasons twice. A third is in my future.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance reviewer copy. Publication date is 22 OCT 2024 so reserve your copy now . . . not tomorrow. NOW.

East Coast Don

1586. The Secret by Lee Child and Andrew Child

Reacher #28.

1992. An earlier case that didn’t go welland got Reacher busted back to Captain and assigned to the minor leagues. He’s investigating the sale of M16 firing mechanisms that can turn a civilian version into a fully automatic weapon that only the military should have. Small operation. A couple of clerks at an Illinois arsenal processing Desert Storm surplus for demolition remove the devices and sell them on the black market. Reacher and a female FBI agent take down this little operation barely breaking a sweat.

That’s just the preamble. It may be 1992, but his next assignment has its origin in 1969 at a chemical plant in India. The Russians were concentrating efforts on the development of chemical weapons. The response by the US was to double their efforts at finding defensive antidotes. Thus, this plant in India.

Morgan Sanson was a mid-level administrator at the plant whose assignment was safety. He unearthed some cost-cutting to swindle money and was preparing to send his findings up the chain of command. When his findings are ignored, he decides to go public. Apparently filled with guilt or remorse at the lack of action, he takes his own life leaving behind his wife and four children to be shipped back to Germany to fend for themselves.

While the India plant was doing what was advertised, there was another lab doing its own weapons development. Seven scientists worked in secrecy, but it was their work that was what Sanson uncovered. An accident at the plant happens and about a half dozen people died. Sanson is a convenient patsy now that he’s not around.

Back to 1992. Four respected and mostly retired scientists have died. Mostly by accident or suicide. The next one to die was in a hospital and found below his window from a long fall. That one doesn’t sound like the others.

The deaths were those scientists who worked secretly at the India plant. The Defense Dept is now interested. A task force is assembled with a rep from the Army (Reacher), FBI, CIA, and Treasury with the purpose of developing a list of names of whomever might be behind these deaths/murders. One of the first, and most interesting questions, is why were these four selected for this task force? Because of they are investigative terriers or because each has some black marks on their record. If anything goes wrong . . . the chances for further demotions loom large.

This isn’t the rambunctious street fights we are used to with Reacher. More of a research procedural. Doesn’t take long to figure out who is behind the deaths or their motivations. Think of this as the Child’s version of a Lt. Columbo story. Everyone knows who’s guilty and the story is not the ‘who’. Rather the story is the search and just how will this task force. 

The addition of Andrew (Lee’s son) to the mix (this is maybe the 3^rd or 4^th collaboration) indicates that the dad (Lee) is moving closer to full retirement. While Andrew is a publish author, he is still learning how to present a Jack Reacher story. I see improvement, but it’s still not there yet, but I’m hopeful. 

Two things I liked about this outing. First is that the story investigates Reacher’s history. I seem to remember one earlier book (with Reacher in the former Yugoslavia, can’t recall the title) and would like to see more. Second is purely coincidental. This is the first Reacher book to come out since the casting of Alan Richson as Reacher by Amazon Prime. Was always kind of hard to picture Reacher as Tom Cruise. Not so now. Each page turned brought a new image of Richson in my mind’s eyes. That works so much better. 

ECD

#1496. No Plan B by Lee Child and Andrew Child

Jed, a 15yo kid in foster care somewhere in LA, learns that the father he never knew is soon to be released from prison in Mississippi and takes off on an ill-conceived cross-country trip.

Minerva Correctional is one of those new-fangled for-profit prisons designed to help inmates return to normalcy. Not to mention that they specialize in cleaning up the records of the wrongly convicted.

An arsonist-for-hire’s son has destroyed his liver through drug abuse. An off-the-radar group performed a transplant that failed. He’s on the prowl to destroy anyone involved in the supply chain of the diseased liver.

Angela St. Verain, bookkeeper, dies in Gerrardsville, CO. Suicide. Hit by a bus.

An accountant, this one in Winson, MS died the week before in a house fire. Apparently, he died while smoking in bed.

Jack Reacher saw the woman’s death. She didn’t step in front of the bus. She was pushed. Reacher takes off after the guy in the hoodie, corners him in an alley, ‘suggests’ the guy fess up. Checked out an envelope the guy pulled from the woman’s purse. Only thing he learns is Winson, MS and a photo.

Cops arrive. The detective interviews Reacher. Runs his name and is impressed by his record. Wants help. The detective says there has been another recent death. Ray, a local 40ish accountant, divorced and living next door to his ex-, died of a heart attack. His ex-, Hannah, discovered the body. Also a numbers guy, he was an obligatory exerciser who died of a heart attack. 

Suicide. Heart attack. Fell asleep smoking. Life sucks. Stuff happens.

All 3 cases are closed. No connection seen. Reacher checks up on the two Colorado deaths. Both had worked for Minerva Corrections. Some irregularities were found by the Winson victim (also a Minerva employee). He talked with Angela because the numbers didn't add up. Angela takes the data to Ray, a mentor to her. Now all three are dead. To find some justice for Angela, Reacher sets out for Winsom, MS. Ray’s ex-, Hannah, decides she wants justice for Ray so she grabs Ray’s truck and takes off driving Reacher to MS.

All roads lead to Winson. The CEO of the prison and his top subordinates do more than house and rehabilitate inmates. They get their pick of inmates, some of which are ne’er do wells that no one will miss. They also house some who have some medical experience, forgers, and anyone smart enough to follow directions while cooking. These hand-picked cons are housed apart from gen pop. Get extra privileges. The prison's feature activity is when they get wrongly convicted inmate acquitted. When this happens, the CEO puts on a big show for the publicity. And this week’s acquittal just happens to be none other than Jed’s father, neither of which knows the other. But their profit margin comes not from housing prisoners.

And the arsonist will be arriving the same day Reacher, Hannah, and Jed turnover the remaining puzzle pieces.

If Reacher’s involved, you should be able to guess what’s gonna happen when all these ingredients get shoved into the same pot. The CEO thought he knew how to take care of a homeless lug. 

Problem is, when confronted by Reacher, he has no plan B.

The MRB boys have been firmly in Reacher’s camp since we first started this blog way back when (’05? ’06?). Child delivers what his readers want. An alpha male who wanders around helping out those in trouble for no reason other than to do what’s right regardless of what the law says. Since daddy Child (Lee) retired, he’s been joined by son Andrew to carry on the Reacher saga. This is the 3^rd book written jointly. I thought that I could tell when a different Child was writing in the first book. Not anymore. I see the story as being a seamless effort by the two. The Childs continue to deliver what fans want. With 2 movies and 1 Prime series, there is no loss of subjects for more Reacher streams.

This one is a bit more complex than recent Reacher books what with multiple story lines finally intersecting in a typically Reacher-ish conclusion. Doesn't matter. It's a fast read. Got it from the library on Monday. Finished in on Friday. Not to mention I managed to read Plan B while being distracted by the World Cup – my true obsession.

East Coast Don

 

Better Off Dead

The Sentinel by Lee Child and Andrew Child

The 24^th edition about the wanderings of Jack Reacher has Jack getting off the bus in Nashville. Looking for some coffee to enjoy while listening to some music, he wanders into a bar. Band’s pretty good. Strikes up a conversation and learns that the bar owner has just stiffed them. In his typical low-key way, Jack convinces the owner to pay up, with a couple bonuses thrown in. The owner also agrees not to diss the band’s rep around town. Also gets a cut as the band’s new manager.

Having done some good, he manages to cop a ride with a young insurance adjuster headed west out of Nashville. Destination is a suburb called Pleasantville. Sounds OK, so Jack tags along. Upon arrival, Jack again goes looking for some coffee. Finds a coffee shop and settles in. The customers and staff all seem to be giving this one guy a serious collective cold shoulder. Being a buttinsky, Jack learns that Rusty Rutherford is the town’s IT director and under his watch, everything has gone entirely offline. And Rusty is blamed. And he gets fired. But Pleasantville in his home and he wants to stay and clear his name.

The town is being held up by a ransomware routine that has shut the town down until a ransom is paid. The town has insurance, and the adjuster has just arrived to pay up and get life back to normal. Of course, nothing works out right. Rusty gets jumped and Reacher steps in to convince the thugs to take their issues elsewhere. Another band of punks takes a run this time at Reacher. More bad planning.

In his attempts to protect the Pleasantville data, Rusty and on old friend, ex-FBI cybercrime agent, had developed a bit of software to protect the town against such an attack. Town bean counters weren't interested. It sort of worked, but it couldn’t fully stop the ransomware attack.

Has to be more to this than just this ransomware attack. Turns out Pleasantville is the home of a former Nazi. Add in that the folks muscling Reacher and Rutherford are Russian. Russians with a connection to some of those bots that presumably messed up the most recent election. And whenever the Russians are involved, the FSB can't be far behind. Pleasantville is mixed up with some pretty heavy hitters.

The annual fall release of another Jack Reacher book is an event. Breathless fanboys line up. This year is different. Lee Child is in retirement mode and is turning a multimillion-dollar franchise to his son, Andrew Grant/Andrew Child. Both are credited with writing the book. Grant has a few mysteries published in the UK, but the initial reviews by the obsessed fanboys were not very favorable. Matter of fact, some reviews were downright nasty. I’ll admit, in the beginning I thought the writing style seemed a bit forced. But once the story took off, I couldn’t tell what was written by Dad and what was written by the son. For me, it was a clean handoff. Maybe not as smooth as the Vince Flynn to Kyle Mills move, but certainly not so obvious that I’d stop reading. Reacher wouldn’t like that. 

(if I had to make a complaint, it's with the choice of Pleasantville, TN. Such a town does exist. And it's west of Nashville. But its population is listed as 666 (potentially ominous) and that's a bit small for some of the amenities noted in the book. Primarily, Rutherford's apartment is multistory with its own doorman and underground parking. Pretty uppity for a town of 666. But that's nit picking at its finest). 

ECD

Blue Moon by Lee Child

Jack Reacher #25.

Begins on a bus.

Reacher notices an old guy, mostly asleep, carrying a fat teller's envelope in his jacket pocket. Fat=full of money. Also notices that a skinny low life sees a potential score. Bus stops in a medium sized unnamed city, probably in the midwest. The punk stalks the vic and takes him down. Reacher was following and encourages the chump to seek a score elsewhere. 

The vic is gracious. Invites Reacher to his home for coffee and maybe a bite. The guy and his wife appear one day short of being destitute. Reacher finds out they own money to a loan shark - they've been borrowing money to help pay their adult daughter's medical bills. 

Said daughter worked for a dot.com entrepreneur. A real genius. Lots of startup backing to bring jobs to town. But the genius was skimming off the top, stopped paying the company's health insurance premiums, thus the daughter was caught off guard with a cancer diagnosis. Business is gone. The CEO has disappeared. The hospital wants payment up front. And cancer ain't cheap. Neither are the loan sharks. Reacher's sense of right and wrong sees someone being wronged. 

The town is run by two rival gangs. Ukrainians and Albanians have sort of split the town in half and exist is a shaky truce divided by the main north-south street. Reacher wants to get the debt settled. Problem is he is an unknown. Each side thinks the other is trying to take over. So Reacher just sort of helps things along as only Reacher can. In the background is the failed CEO . . . who just happens to be Ukrainian. Ex-CEO may not be much of a businessman, but he is still a computer genius with skills that some might value.

And that includes a lot of deductive reasoning and a little manipulation, both physical and mental. The physical includes I-lost-count-of-how-many-thugs he maims, tortures, or kills. Remember that Reacher's idea of the best way to enter a building is to knock with a bazooka and then waltz in through the smoking hole.

Problems get solved, bad guys get dead. Reacher ends up back on a bus.

Lee Child has a winning formula and he knows his audience. Reacher is a drifter/Robin Hood who always seems to find someone being wronged and he does whatever is necessary to fix things. And his way of fixing things usually involves hand-to-hand combat, excessive gun play, and the requisite  high body count. I really did try to keep track of the dead, but eventually lost count. I'm guessing 40-50, but could be more.

It's really hard to go wrong with Child. After 25 consecutive hits (all of which have been optioned to Hollywood), it's hard to doubt him. And it makes for some good pre-Christmas reading as Reacher books are released annually in the fall. That makes Child and Reacher uniquely similar. Reliable, predictable, and successful. Reacher fans won't be disappointed.

East Coast Don

Past Tense by Lee Child

Jack Reacher is in Maine headed to California when he decides to visit his father’s birthplace, Laconia, New Hampshire.  After asking around and doing some research at the town hall, Reacher discovers the small village where his father lived is no longer inhabited and the neighbors are hostile.

Meanwhile, a Canadian couple check into a secluded motel nearby and find the motel owners lie to them, then delay their departure.  What devious plans do the owners have for the unsuspecting couple and how will Reacher come to the rescue?

This is the typical Jack Reacher novel: show up, find someone in need, kick some ass, charm the intelligent female, and move on.  It’s always a worthwhile adventure.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance look. 

West Coast Don thinks this book was okay. As Midwest Dave writes, it is  straightforward Child. There are two main plots which develop slowly, but once the plots collide, the action gets more intense. The story is so-so, but if you like Reacher, then you'll find this worthwhile. In this book, Child emphasizes the physical size of Reacher more than I remember him doing, and I wonder if that is a reaction to the use of the diminutive Tom Cruise as the movie version of the protagonist.

The Midnight Line by Lee Child

We all know about Jack Reacher. Ex-MP who wanders the country with just the clothes on his back and a toothbrush in his pocket. Gets on and off the buses as he pleases. Gets off a bus somewhere in Wisconsin to stretch his legs. Glances in the window of a pawnshop and sees a West Point class ring. Not something one would pawn. Pointers went through too much to earn the ring. He’d know.

Goes in, talks with the shop owner. Gets a close look. It’s engraved: S.R.S. 2005. Not right for the ring to be left in a pawnshop so he buys it and decides to return it to the owner. Pawnshop owner (not so willingly) gives up some info on how it came to him. Which (also not so willingly) eventually leads Reacher a scumbag named Arthur Scorpio in Rapid City, SD.

Scorpio is one of those guys with no visible means of support. Owns a laundromat that has few customers, but requires a guard at the front and back doors plus a old boxy Lincoln Town Car driven by more muscle. Occasionally, a guy on a Harley drops in for a few minutes, then leaves. No other notable traffic. Then goes home.

Scorpio is also under the watchful eye of Detective Nakamura, Rapid City PD. His phones are tapped and the police techy squad tries to track his cellphone calls. Plus, a retired FBI agent turned PI has the laundromat under surveillance. Reacher catches Scorpio’s attention and in the ensuing ‘conversation’, Scorpio give up Sy Porterfield of Mules Crossing, Wyoming.

After a few talks with the West Point Superintendent, Reacher learns that S.R.S 2005 is Serena Rose Sanderson, Class of 2005, medically discharged as an infantry Major with five tours of Afghanistan. Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. Status: lost to follow-up. Off the grid.

Reacher hitches a couple rides and finds Mule's Crossing, a wide spot on a highway outside of Laramie. Thing is, so does PI Bramall, he of the expense account, Toyota Land Cruiser, coat and tie. All which sort of stand out in this pick-up and boots corner of Wyoming. But they form a bit of a respectful alliance. Bramall was hired by S.R.S. 2005’s sister. Make that Rose’s identical twin sister, Mackenzie. Both were born and raised in Wyoming, children of a state judge. Mackenzie is a stunning redhead whose image would be more suited for the cover of a magazine instead of on Roses’ military ID and desert camo. Once Bramall and Reacher start reasoning out which stones to kick over, Mackenzie shows up.

According to the local sheriff, Sy Portefield was the victim of a bear attack about 1.5 years ago. Of course, Scorpio was lying. This makeshift investigative team roots around the SE corner of Wyoming. No one shows any recognition of Rose by seeing Mackenzie. That itself is a clue Reacher can’t shake leading to several assumptions, some that play out and others that don’t. Questions still surface about if Rose is alive, if so, where, and most importantly, why did she go to ground.

This is Child’s 21^st Jack Reacher novel. Doesn’t take a genius to figure out that Child has a good thing going and no doubt that he delivers the goods repeatedly. 21 New York Times best sellers. 12 #1s. All have been optioned for movies. Two of which have been made. I’ve read them all and while all are terrific, Child’s readers will have their own rankings. I’d put this in the Top 5 definitely and maybe even the top 2 or 3. Thought this was one of Child’s most realistic situations, investigations, and outcomes. Child is resolute in showing Reacher’s loyalty to his Army roots.

Waited two months for my name to work its way up the library’s list. A two-day read. Worth the wait. Absolutely a winner.

ECD

MatchUp

MatchUp is an anthology of short stories by crime novel writers, most of whom you have probably already read. This one is edited by Lee Child, and it is the next such analogy put out by the International Thriller Writers. The first was called Thriller and was edited by James Patterson in 2006. In 2009, Clive Cussler edited Thriller 2. Sandra Brown did Love is Murder in 2012. And in 2014, Face Off and was edited by David Baldacci. These are all major heavyweights in the crime genre.

The twist to MatchUp is that men and women writers have been paired together. The challenge the authors took on was to combine their own primary protagonists that they’ve already written about and to include them in the same story. Sandra Brown wrote Honor &… with C.J. Box. Kathy Reiches wrote Faking a Murderer with Lee Child. Lisa Jackson wrote Deserves to be Dead with John Sandford. Lisa Scottoline wrote Getaway with Nelson DeMiller. And there’s so much more. If you love short stories and crime novels, this one will get you through those moments when you’re not quite ready to take on a whole novel. You can’t go wrong by keeping this one at your bedside. 

I did a pre-publication review, and the was released just three weeks ago on 6/13/17.

Night School

Night School is the next Jack Reacher novel by Lee Child, and it’s a flashback book to the 1990s when Reacher was 35 years old. A plot is uncovered in Europe to deliver $100,000,000 from a terrorist source to a U.S. soldier who happens to be AWOL. It’s not clear what the money is for or what where the solider has been hiding. Given the size of the transaction, it is assumed a weapon is being smuggled from the U.S. military that is either biological or nuclear. Reacher is assisted by Sergeant Frances Neagley, who he claimed was the best soldier he had ever worked with, not a woman with whom he is romantically involved. Child writes effectively about the sexual tension that still exists between them. Child writes about intrigues involving the terrorists, German police, the various agencies in DC that are involved in the chase, and German organized crime.

I’m not writing much about this book because it really did not capture my interest. It was a Reacher novel, so I slugged through to the end, but it was not up to Reacher standards. ‘nuf said

Make Me by Lee Child

Reacher's not on a bus this time. He's on a train. Headed north for Chicago before it gets cold. Why is he headed for Chicago? No idea. He just is.

A stop in the middle of nowhere on the prairie gets his attention. Mother's Rest. How'd a town get such a name? Being a nosy sort, and with time on his hands, he decides to get off and find out. He's the only one getting off. Lots of grain elevators, stores that support farmers, North-south streets perpendicular to the east-west streets. And a woman coming from behind one of the grain elevators trying to get his attention.

Wrong person. She's looking for Keever, a fellow PI in a loose-knit nationwide firm made up of ex-cops and FBI types. Keever's big. So is Reacher. Honest mistake. Her name is Michelle Chang and her home base is Seattle.

Mistaken identity. Happens. Reacher gets a room and starts to wander around asking how the town got its name, but folks aren't happy. It's a bit odd that Reacher and Chang show up so close in time to Keever being dumped deep into a hog pen. The motel manager, the FedEx guy, an irrigation parts store clerk, the Maloney brothers and others are instructed to keep an eye on Reacher and Chang. They might be working together.

Which Reacher and Chang eventually do. Work together. And through a long series of 'maybe' and 'suppose' and 'could be' and 'what if' scenarios, they work their way to Oklahoma City, LA, San Francisco, and Phoenix before retuning to Mother's Rest to settle up with the locals.

#20 in the Jack Reacher series. All best sellers; 10 reached #1. All optioned to Hollywood. Child is obviously doing something right.

And what's right is that he continues to come up with a storyline better than the previous outing and that makes this one the best ever, at least until #21 comes out next fall. Child reveals just enough to get the reader thinking the plot will take this direction before slamming on the brakes and heading off to something entirely different. And each turn turns darker and darker until Reacher and Chang are facing a band of psychopaths that provide the cruelest and sickest service possible for a very discreet and well-heeled clientele.

It's no wonder that Child is on the top of most guy's power rotation. Me included.

East Coast Don

Persuader by Lee Child

Persuader is number seven in Lee Child’s Jack Reacher thrillers that will soon include twenty in the series.  A persuader is a shotgun… the Mossburg M500 paramilitary style 12 gauge shotgun.  With the right load it can ‘punch a hole in a cinder block wall big enough to crawl through.’  It can cut a human being in half.

Reacher is several years retired from the military when a group of ‘off the grid’ DEA agents enlist his services.  Seems as an MP he had a case where the big one got away and cost him some good people.  Lieutenant Colonel Francis Xavier Quinn was high up in military intelligence and was on the take and Reacher’s investigators almost had him… almost.  The arrest went wrong and Quinn escaped and went underground after brutally killing Reacher’s investigators.  Years later Reacher inadvertently spots Quinn in a public place in Boston.  He reports the sighting to one of his old army contacts and is hooked up with this rogue DEA group.  Quinn, now known as Xavier, has started an import export business in Portland, Maine and is selling guns to the highest bidder… mostly drug dealers and terrorists.  He has teamed with Zachary Beck, a wealthy rug merchant to cover his illegal transactions.  Beck lives in a compound on Maine’s rocky coast with his wife, college age son and several security guards.  The DEA planted a young woman in the compound as domestic help but she was found out and is being held.  They want her back and Reacher has the skills and motivation to be of service… he wants Quinn.

Reacher and the DEA guys, fake the kidnapping of Beck’s son (it had happened before) and Reacher appears to save the kid.  That gets his foot in the door of Beck’s compound.  Through diversionary tactics Reacher eliminates Beck’s security force and soon gains Beck’s trust.  But locating the undercover DEA agent and finding evidence to dismember the gun running operation proves more complex and dangerous than even Reacher expected.  But the danger doesn’t bother Reacher… not when he has a chance at redemption.

Persuader is like so many Jack Reacher novels in that Child builds suspense in one situation after another with no anticlimax.  Testosterone charged Reacher carefully studies each situation then blasts ahead with skill and accuracy to neutralize any adversary.  Then without pause moves on to the next precarious situation.  And as one of Child’s earlier works in the series, we get some insight into Reacher’s character.  ‘I don’t really care about the little guy.’ Reacher says, ‘I just hate the big guy.  I hate big smug people who think they can get away with things.’  Don’t we all?

Echo Burning by Lee Child

Echo Burning is number five in Lee Child’s popular Jack Reacher series.  In this book, Echo, Texas is a sparely populated town and county south of Pecos.  Pecos serves as the governmental administrative center for several counties in West Texas including Echo.

Reacher is hitchhiking in the smothering hot sun in West Texas when a young Hispanic woman in a Cadillac picks him up.  Carmen Greer tells Reacher she is a victim of spousal abuse and is looking for someone to protect her… even if it means killing her husband.  Sloop Greer, Carmen’s husband owns a ranch in Echo, Texas along with his very white mother and brother.  Sloop was convicted of income tax fraud two years earlier and is about to be released from prison.  Carmen is terrified for herself and for her six year old daughter, Ellie. Reacher listens to her story through his MP detective filters and though he questions some of her story, it is 110 degrees outside and the Caddy is air conditioned.  He accompanies Carmen to the Greer ranch and hires on as a wrangler without committing anything to Carmen.  Meanwhile, Sloop’s lawyer and childhood pal is murdered by professional killers.  The first day at the ranch, Reacher teaches Carmen to shoot a pistol, discovers the ranch is under surveillance, and runs off the other two hired hands.

The following day, Sloop is brought home from prison by his other childhood pal and now DA, Hack Walker.  Sloop calls the state police and tells them Reacher is trespassing.  Two Texas Rangers arrive and as they are transporting Reacher to Pecos are called back to the Greer Ranch.  Sloop has been shot in the head… twice… execution style and Carmen is arrested and taken to the Pecos jail.  Carmen has no money of her own so Reacher arranges for a pro bono lawyer named Alice Aaron to represent Carmen.  Ellie is supposedly picked up by Social Services except upon double checking, the agency has no record of Ellie Greer.  Carmen then refuses legal representation and agrees to life in prison.  Reacher smells a rat and decides he must hunt down the professional kill team, the kidnappers and whoever hired them… after all, this is what he knows.

I discovered Lee Child only about five years ago and have read mostly his recent Jack Reacher books.  He quickly established himself into my power rotation.  In many ways, the books in this series are much the same… invincible, righteous hero saves the damsel in distress.  But I never tire of this magnanimous persona that is Jack Reacher… simplistic in creature comforts, physically massive and well trained in hand to hand combat, empathetic to and protective of the defenseless, and fearless and tenacious against any foe.  He is the epitome of the genre we love at MRB.

And ok, the elephant in the room, Tom Cruise just doesn’t fulfill the Jack Reacher aura… it’s like he’s wearing a suit three sizes too big complete with clown shoes.

Personal by Lee Child

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#19 in the continuing saga that is Jack Reacher from an author firmly in the MRB power rotation.

As usual, Jack is on a bus, toothbrush in his pocket and just the clothes on his back. In the greater Seattle area, Reacher picks up an Army Times newspaper. The best info is in the personals. Right there, in bold, in a box, in the middle of the page, “Jack Reacher call Rick Shoemaker.”

Fate may have called him to pick up the paper that day, but loyalty to a friend pushes him to make the call. Within 30 minutes, Reacher is picked up, taken to a local airport, put on a Lear Jet and whisked off to the east. Fort Bragg, NC to be exact. There, he is met by Shoemaker. And by General O’Day, a black ops legend. Plus one Casey Nice, a newbie CIA type assigned to the State Department who keeps an even keel with the help of Zoloft, and Joan Scarangello, another fed who is substantially up the food chain of command. They’ve been waiting for Reacher.

A few days ago, someone took a shot at the President of France. The shooter used a .50 caliber bullet and fired it from about three-quarters of a mile away. Put a dent in the most modern rendition of bulletproof glass, but couldn’t get a second shot off because the French version of the Secret Service had the President smothered under a mound of protective bodies.

Who is on the short list and could’ve made that shot? [no, it wasn’t Bob Lee Swagger] After culling down a list of a few dozen, four names remain; a Russian, an Israeli, a Brit, and an American named John Kott. Of Serbian lineage, raised in Arkansas, Kott was an insanely gifted sniper. But he had a bit of a temper, put a guy down and got 15 years for his efforts. Released some months ago. Reacher was the arresting officer. Caught him once . . . catch him again.

Reacher and Ms. Nice are hustled off to Paris for a look at the shooter’s nest, talk with the French cops and work out a cautious relationship with his counterpart in MI5. The concern is that the shot on the French President was an audition of sorts for a much bigger target, like maybe one or more of the world’s leaders at the upcoming G8 conference in London.

Reacher’s focus in on finding Kott who is most likely been taken in by one of the two major organized crime families in London, both of which don’t look too kindly on this guy nosing into their business (you'll love Little Joey). All the while, Reacher is having flashbacks to another female partner who was killed during the takedown of the perp they were chasing. All he can see is the same thing happening to Casey Nice.

19 Reacher books. All 19 read. No way an author can keep top drawer form over so long a series, but Child certainly manages to keep them all within shouting distance of each other. Despite the consistency of plotting, dialogue, and characters Child is still able to keep the reader riveted to each and every page. There is some comfort is returning to what may not be an old friend, but someone you’d sure like to see take the lead when you are cornered.

And no, I can’t rank these books, so don’t ask. Is this his best? I don’t think so, but I don’t know which I would rank first. I can say with confidence that Reacher fans won’t be disappointed, that is a guarantee. Newcomers? Hold on tight cuz it can be one bumpy ride.

available from Amazon

East Coast Don