Better Off Dead by Lee Child and Andrew Child

 

This had been sitting aside on my shelf,  read it a year ago, January 2022!  A joint Jack Reacher by Lee and Andrew Child.  As ever a 5 *****  although this might not be my favorite.  Still a Jack Reacher intrigue, mystery, thriller, no words really describe the breadth of this collaborative effort between Lee and his brother.  

 I regret that I did not keep all my copies  that I read over the years and now have been scouring book sales and thrift stores to replace them.  Unfortunately due to the Prime movies on Amazon the popularity of Reacher has been discovered by many new  readers so the books are always snatched up.  I do not mind another reader finding the books first, but I really despise those resellers who grab the bargains and then list  or resell on Ebay, etc.  Greedy suckers. So I have begun to repurchase new paperbacks on Amazon, copies of what I had before.   But enough of my rant. 

This one is set in Los Gemelos, a ho hum town on the US Mexican border.  Not the place Reacher was planning to stop.  He's on his way to San Francisco, to the ocean. But things happen and as he reaches the outskirts where Reacher is passing through on his way to San Francisco.  Reaching the outskirts he encounters Michaela Fenton, she has some things ion common with him, a military vet, an  FBI looking for her twin brother Michael whom she fears may be dead.  She is almost 6 ft. tall and walks with a limp  due to a prosthetic foot a result of a war injury.  And being Reacher he stays on to assist and soon knows he will have to clean up the town.  

Page 7..."  Because the stranger countered with a kick of his own.  A sneaky one.  Straight and low.  Directly into the guy's shin.  Just as it reached maximum speed.  Bone against toe cap.  The stranger's shoes.  The only thing about him that wasn't scruffy.  Bought in London years ago.  Layer upon layer of leather and polish and glue.  Seasoned by time. Hardened by the elements .  And now solid as steel."    In other novels Jack's shoes have been described and here they are prominent in the opening setting.  

And the conclusion seemed off, as Reacher  watches Dendoneker depart in his Cadillac. But the Cadillac  stops, then rolls forward barely "above  walking pace.  Its horn blared.  It trundled on Stewed slightly to the left.  And ran into a fence post."  

I am  really condensing this review to get this posted here before I put it off longer.