Since leaving the army, Jack’s been doing the “Kung Fu” drifter/wanderer act across the U.S. This guy can wetwork with the best of them. ![]() That said, when the moment is right and Jack is required to muster his inner grim reaper against the human stains who have wronged him and his.man is it ever G-fucking- O time. He keeps his feelings in check and doesn’t phase easily, even when scummy douchesacks intentionally strive to work themselves under his skin. ![]() This emotionally restrained tone is employed even when he’s describing scenes of grisly, gore filled carnage of which this book has plenty. In typical hardboiled fashion, Jack’s narration of the book’s events is muted and almost detached. Reacher’s a former military police officer who is cucumber cool and carries himself with a calm, quiet stoicism that reminded me a lot of Shadow from Neil Gaiman’s American Gods(another favorite character of mine). As hardboiled protagonists go, this guy is loaded with awesome and I was well and truly won over by the end of Lee Child's debut novel. In typical hardboiled fa Jack Reacher is a walking, talking, 6’5” prescription-strength laxative guaranteed to cause scumbags to soil their skivvies. Jack Reacher is a walking, talking, 6’5” prescription-strength laxative guaranteed to cause scumbags to soil their skivvies. I bought the whole series for $1 a piece. Since that book was published 36 years before this one it seems a lot less original then I initially thought so I took away that second star. * Update 4/10/16 - I recently read another crime novel that used an identical idea of (view spoiler). Unfortunately, it's the only original thing in this book.* This would have been 1 star, but I gave it an extra star because the main piece of the criminal plot is actually kind of clever and not something I'd read before. This might have been a better book if Reacher was just a revenge driven killing machine mowing through the bad guys without the pretense of playing detective. Yet, when called for, he can make ludicrous leaps of intuition that would make Sherlock Holmes scratch his head at the sheer implausibility of them. Giant clues are put in front of him that anyone who has ever read a book or seen an episode of television since 1962 would instantly recognize, but he misses them. Reacher is the worst fictional detective I've ever read. WTF? I can gloss over unrealistic procedural stuff in the interest of a good story, but since this isn't a good story, the plot loopholes are too horrible to ignore.Īnother problem is that Child couldn't make up his mind if he wanted to write just an action novel or a detective story, and he tried to split the difference. Yet, after he's killed and it's reported, nobody else from the government even shows up to check it out. A murder victim turns out to be a federal agent who is working on a super-secret case that is so important that it literally threatens the United States. I've read far better action scenes from guys like John Sandford who actually write thrillers that have plots that hang together and don't trot out every action movie cliche in the process. I know this is a really popular series these days, but unless it gets a lot better in later books, I just don't get it. Hot girl gets kidnapped by bad guys at some point. Hero shacks up with hottest girl in town within two days of meeting her. Hero finds a few trustworthy allies, but is betrayed at some point. Stereotypical villains including corrupt businessmen and politicians. Hero is quickly given a personal grudge against the villains. Hero has a cool, manly sounding name: Jack Reacher. ![]() Hero finds a few trustworthy allies, but This reads like an '80s action movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.Ī big tough ex-military guy drifts into a small town and is sucked into uncovering a vast criminal conspiracy through completely unbelievable coincidences. Check Hero is quickly given a personal grudge against the villains. A big tough ex-military guy drifts into a small town and is sucked into uncovering a vast criminal conspiracy through completely unbelievable coincidences. ![]() This reads like an '80s action movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.
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