Blue Moon by Lee Child

 

Appropriate that I post this finally as it has  been moons ago I read this,   in March,2020...but this has been an awful year, besides COVID the plague of US all,  Jerry's cancer diagnosis and being a caretaker since June redirects my efforts.  Diminishing my time from all else...But I do want to send this book on its way to friends so finally posting...Another Reacher thriller.   He is on his way to....on a bus.. when action is about to begin.  “This is a random universe,” Reacher says. “Once in a blue moon things turn out just right.”  This isn’t one of those times.

This excerpt from Good Reads, "Reacher is on a Greyhound bus, minding his own business, with no particular place to go, and all the time in the world to get there. Then he steps off the bus to help an old man who is obviously just a victim waiting to happen..."  and this from another online review which was not as complimentary of this one as others, "Jack Reacher lends a hand to an elderly couple under threat from loan sharks and winds up in the midst of an underworld war in the 24th entry in this series (Past Tense, 2018, etc.).  

After Reacher saves an old man from a mugging, he finds out the man and his wife went into hock to get money for their daughter's lifesaving medical treatment. Meanwhile, in the unnamed city where the novel is set, the Albanian and Ukrainian crime bosses who have divvied up the territory are vying to see who can take over for good before the appointment of a new police commissioner. The sudden appearance of Reacher makes each suspect he's an agent for outside forces and accelerates the body count between them. That this is the best premise for a Reacher novel in some time, ..."  And so it begins.  Another Reacher read that I could not put down until the end. and another alliance with an unlikely person a random waitress in this town.    

 I found some of the dialogue amusing, such as the banter about  nuances of who is a better soldier, tougher, etc Marines or Army pages 164-165, including the ex Marine who tells Reacher, Army=aren't really Marines yet." and Reacher's reply, "Marines=muscles are requested intelligence no expected."  This continues along through the novel,  pages 302 where the Marines rescue Army guys and 313 where"If I wanted easy I'd have joined the Marines."    

Another 5*****