The Enemy by Lee Child

 

Read between October and November,  could not wait to finish it, but things kept interfering.. First published in hardback in 2004, I read the paperback, 464 pages.  A very outstanding Jack Reacher novel, maybe one of the best, difficult to tell because I like them all.  I thought a lot of late friend Nevin who introduced me to this series  with  Running Blind in 2018.  It was the first one I read and also is published  as The Visitor.  But The Enemy has extensive narrative and descriptions about the Army, political in fighting between divisions particularly Armored and Infantry, much description about Army protocols and traditions.  It begins as Reacher in on duty in his new post at Ft. Bird, North Carolina where he was suddenly, reassigned from Panama to his  surprise.  At the same time several other similar ranking MP's are simultaneously reassigned. and his  commanding officer, Colonel Leon  Garber, ,as well.  A reduction in the military force that will of course affect the Army sets the political infighting ablaze.  As it begins Reacher is called about a dead two star  General Kramer  found dead in a motel   It will turn out Reacher is being set up, but by who and why.  The replacement commander is a longtime bureaucrat and Joe warns Jack about him.  A striving young lieutenant Summer is assigned to work with him and becomes his right hand helper and cohort.  

Page 3,  " The army is a big institution, a little bigger than Detroit, a little smaller than Dallas and just as unsentimental as either place.  Current active strength is 930,000 men and women and they are as representative of the general American population as you can get."  . 

Back Cover  The Enemy

Reacher is contacted by his brother Joe and learns their mother, a widow, who lives in Paris is dying so they make plans to visit.  She does die in this novel and they learn something about her past and activity in WWII in the resistance as a very young girl that they never knew.  It is another interesting tale within a tale, woven  into the main story with expertise by the author..  Page 97,  conversation between their mother the the Reacher brothers,  "Won't you miss us , Mom?"  "Wrong question, she said, I'll be dead.  I won't be missing anything.  It's you that will be missing me.  Like I miss your father.  Like I miss him.  Like I miss my father and mother and grandparents.  It is a part of life, missing the dead."   

Maybe because of where I am in my personal grieving of the passing of Jerry last year but the writing in this novel struck me with the philosophy about  accepting death.  It is something we do as survivors.  Page 363, " Life was unfolding the same way it always had for everyone.  Sooner or later you ended up an orphan.  There was no escaping it.  It had happened that way for a thousand generations.  No point in getting all upset about it."  

Pages 311- 315 about future wars/conflicts and theory, history.  "You know who has done the most for the country?  Who?  Not Armored,  Not the infantry..  The theater is all about the Army Corps of Engineers.  Sherman tanks way back weighed 38 tons and were 9 feet wide.  Now we're all the way down to the MIAI Abrams, which weighs 70 tons and is 11 feet wide.  Every step of the way for 40 years the Corps of Engineers has had work to do.  They've widened roads, hundreds of miles of them, all over ?West Germany.  They've strengthened bridges.  Hell they've built roads and bridges.  Dozens of them.  You want a stream of 70 ton tanks rolling east to battle, you better make damn sure the roads and bridges can take it." 

It takes Reacher going AWOL with Summers, defying orders, forging travel voucher to fly to Germany and back and to CA and back to solve the  crime of who plotted and who killed the General, his wife, his lovers...There is a strange twist with the sexual relationships as  Reacher learns the General was gay.  They must find proof and solve the mystery to clear themselves.  Reacher ends up being demoted from Major to Captain at his own choice, when investigated by JAG over all another surprise for me at the ending of the novel.  This is easily a 5*****.

Back cover

    

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Personal by Lee Child

Published 2014, acquired at a book sale 2018, read July 2019, 353 pages, and another Jack Reacher hit novel!  This novel finds  Jack pulled back from retirement by the State Department for the CIA, and off to London.  A sniper has missed a shot at the French President in Paris from 3/4 of a mile.  The suspected expert sniper is John Kott, an American gone to the dark side. Although a loner and preferring to work that way, Reacher is teamed with Casey Nice, a female rookie analyst on the international investigation.  

It begins, Chapter 1, " Eight days ago my life was an up and down affair.  Some of it good.  Some of it not so good.  Most of it uneventful.  Long slow periods of nothing much, with occasional bursts of something.  Like the army itself.  Which is how they found me.  You can leave the army but the army doesn't leave you.  Not always.  Not completely."  and the third paragraph, "The Army Times is a strange old paper.  It started up before World War Two and is still going strong, every week, full of yesterday's news and sundry how to articles, like the headline staring up at me right then:  New Rules!  Changes for Badges and Insignia?!  Plus Four More Uniform Changes on the Way!  Legend has it the news is yesterday's because it's copied secondhand from AP summaries, but if you read the words sideways you sometimes hear a real sardonic tone between the lines.  ..."  it begins with some interesting trivia, historical perspective.  Always something to learn in these Reacher novels.  Another example on Page 67,   "Pi times the radius squared.  I said. Very nearly 2 square miles."  "Average population density in major Western city centers?" Which was neither math nor arithmetic but general knowledge.  I said, "Forty thousand people per square mile?".."You're behind the times.  Closer to 50,000 now, plus or minus.  Parts of London and Paris are already 70,000.  ....."  I wonder how much it has increased today, 2019 as city centers swell to over capacity.  

This sniper could be one of 3 internationally known and stopping him from wreaking  evil at the the upcoming summit of world leaders has engaged not only the US, but British and Russian experts.  Another great read, page turner.        As every other  this was a 5 *****

 I  have only one more Reacher book on my shelf to read from the book sale bonanza I found last year, so far 11 read and not all in chronological order of publish, so I will soon be ordering more on Amazon, I have kept track of the  Reacher novels I have read.  The chronology of publication is #1 Killing Floor 1997, #2 Die Trying 1998, , #4 Running Blind 2000, #9 One Shot 2005, #13 Gone Tomorrow 2009, #14 61 Hours 2010, #15 Worth Dying For 2010, #16 The Affair 2011, #17 A Wanted Man 2012, #14 Personal  2014, #22 The Midnight Line 2017.