4 Diane Capri: Jack in Box, Get Back Jack, Jack and Joe, Deep Cover Jack

I discovered this series and author this year and read the first one in May, Don't Know Jack.  

Back cover, Jack in a Box

 Posting the 4 more Diane Capri Jack books I have read this year.  Just finished Deep Cover Jack last night which will conclude my reading this series.  The stories are just not holding my interest as FBI agents Kim Otto and Carlos Gaspar continue on their strange off the books assignment from Charles Cooper to find Jack Reacher.  The stories are ok but require me recalling the  specific characters and situations from previous Reacher novels that are intertwined in these books.  The writing is good but for some reason I am just not gripped.  The last one  took me several months as I kept setting it aside and reading something else.  I was not intrigued enough to read it all through.  Had to make myself finish it.  I have copied the front and back covers here of each.   Jack in a Box is a short story, not a novel, only 56 pages, I read it in June.  Otto's mother, Sen Li, is Vietnamese and her father, Captain Luther Otto a West Point graduate of . German ancestry. 

Pg 12 repeats advice from Sun Li, that  becomes Kim's mantra,   used in the first book and will throughout the series   "when there's only 1 choice, it's the right choice." Otto like Jack Reacher is a black coffee addict.  

I read Get Back Jack in July.

Back Cover Jack and Joe

Get Back Jack Back cover

It reflects back to the Reacher novel, 

Bad Luck and Trouble, and brings in

 Frances Neagley to help get

 hostages back from  a cartel.  

348 pages. 

The third one is Jack and Joe, read in August and as the title suggests involves something about Reacher's brother Joe, a treasury  agent, deceased. 237 pages. 

Page 5, Chapter One on an Airbus flight, Otto never really overcomes a nervousness about flying. "  The Airbus's wings rocked and we hit the ground with a hard thud and couple bounces, but we made it. And I believed the danger

had passed.  But you never see the disaster that gets you."  

The 4th and last novel 275 pages is  "Deep Cover Jack." It brings in Susan Duffy as Gaspar and Otto are tasked to Cape Abbott, Maine.  That was the setting in a Reacher novel for contraband smuggling by a rug merchant.  Duffy now at ATF and on shaky career terms, is intent to keep on the case and her friend Teresa Justice who  has gone missing inside the house.  Teresa believed there was human trafficking going on.  Branch now works for private security and formerly was in ATF with Duffy. Finally in this novel, Kim is beginning to get  distrustful of Charles Cooper after warnings from others,.  Pg 265, " "Villanueva scowled, knowing full well by now who'd been on that line, Charles Cooper.  He muttered, " I wouldn't trust that viper if he was the man bringing my last meal on death row."  "Amen to that" Branch and Duffy said simultaneously.  Gaspar said nothing but Kim could hear his "I told you so" ringing in her ears anyway.  He'd never trusted the Boss.  But she had, in the beginning.  "  

  And for reference here on 2 pages is Lee Child's endorsement of the Diane Capri Hunt for Reacher Series.  

Don't Know Jack by Diane Capri

 I started reading this new to me author and series in May although this  first novel was published in 2012.  A new author to me and one I will continue to read.  I was attracted by the mention of Jack Reacher my favorite character by Lee Child who endorses Diane Capri's work and mentions how he especially admires one of the main characters, Kim Otto.  There are many books already in this series and as of today, September 26 I have read  only 4, all purchased new on Amazon.  I plan to review the others here soon and will be buying more although I took a spending break currently.  Below I have copied the list of all in this series, a few  such as Jack In A Box which I have also read are short stories  (novellas).  I was unaware of that when I purchased it but now that I know about these I will likely download those to my kindle instead of purchasing a hardcopy.    The author has other series too that sound like books I would like to read, so many books, so little time!  She also has a site to sell these directly.  

One nice feature was the list of primary characters at the beginning.  I really appreciate that and  she may be the only one I've read lately who does so.,  Kim Otto and Carlos Gasper are the two FBI detectives assigned to find Jack Reacher, previously unknown to them, this secret project by Charles Cooper.  There is something so secretive agouti their mission that even they are kept in the dark and told there will be no admittance of any FBI involvement should they stumble.  Otto and Gasper are totally different personalities, previously unknown to each other   and are picked by Cooper so undisclosed reasons.  .Pg. 14., "The FBI operated in tyhe glare of every possible spotlight.  Keeping something under the radar added layers of complication.  Under the radar meant no official recognition,.  No help, either. Off the books.  She didn't have to hide but she'd need to be careful what she revealed and to whom.  Agents died during operations under the radar."  

And so their partnership begins with Otto as lead agent.  She is ambitious.  Gasper is a survivor and a family man and wants to maintain his job for another 20 years.  Different life experiences too.  

From the author's website:  "It’s been a while since we first met Lee Child’s Jack Reacher in Killing Floor. Fifteen years and sixteen novels later, Reacher still lives off the grid, until trouble finds him, and then he does whatever it takes, much to the delight of readers and the dismay of villains. Now someone big is looking for him. Who? And why? Hunting Jack Reacher is a dangerous business, as FBI Special Agents Kim Otto and Carlos Gaspar are about to find out. Otto and Gaspar are by-the-book hunters who know when to break the rules; they’ve been told Reacher is a stone cold killer. Reacher is a wanted man, but is he their friend or their enemy? Otto and Gaspar don’t know what they don’t know about Jack. Only the secrets hidden in Margrave, Georgia will tell them."  

I so enjoyed this first novel that when I finished it on June 2,  I wrote this note to myself:  "OMG more twists than a coiled snake.  Who was/is the villain, thought perhaps even Cooper, but no???"       The writing is good, clear and the twists are well tangled.  I give it 5 *****

Back Cover of  Don't Know Jack