Gone Tomorrow by Lee Chld

 Published in 2009 the 13th of the Reacher books, but I had not read it.  To prepare for Amazon's next Reacher release I decided I had better do so. 388 pages and as always excellent.  This one begins with Reacher riding the subway in New York and reflecting on the Israeli developed list of  12 key characteristics of suicide bombers.   Except Reacher can ignore one which deals with males shaving their beards to fit in and having paler skin where the beard had shaded the face from the sun. 

 Reacher is focusing on a woman passenger. It is two in the morning, September and hotter than normal but the woman is wearing a down jacket.    She stares back at him and as he approaches and tells her he is a cop and can help her, she fidgets.  They talk briefly with Reacher asking her  to show him one of her hands,  she does and then she pulls a gun out of her bag, aims at him right at his guy, but doesn't fire, he talks calmly, thinks she is about to release the gun but instead  she aims vertically and blows her head off.  

This review from Wikip[edia                                        " ;  NYPD is eager to close the file without investigating the tragedy, but Reacher wants to know what happened that night and, more importantly, why the woman, Pentagon staffer Susan Mark, left DC and killed herself on that subway car. He is repeatedly and emphatically warned off the case, but his guilt over possibly triggering the poor woman's suicide drives him on.

With the help of NYPD detective Theresa Lee and Susan's brother, Jacob "Jake", Reacher discovers several different players who seem to be involved in whatever drove her over the edge. There is a Washington politician, John Sansom, whose name is dropped by thugs trying to scare Reacher off the case. Finally, there are unidentified federal agents on the scene to keep Reacher away from the case and make sure that any threats to national security, potentially Reacher included, are neutralized.

Reacher learns from Jacob that Susan had a son, Peter Molina, who may be missing; Peter is a star football player for USC who fell off the radar at the same time his mother killed herself. Reacher investigates Sansom, learning that the Congressman received several medals for clandestine missions in the 1980s. After a trip to meet with the Sansoms at a fundraising event in his district, Reacher identifies a tail waiting for him back in New York. Reacher is able to disable the man and take his phone, which leads Reacher to Lila Hoth and her mother Svetlana. Lila claims to be the widow of a Russian oligarch and tells Reacher that Susan was her friend and helping them investigate the circumstances around the deaths of Svetlana's husband, Grigori, and her brother during the Soviet-Afghan War. The Hoths tell Reacher that Sansom was responsible for the two deaths. Grigori Hoth was a Soviet sniper in the Afghan war. The Hoths claim that American special forces operating illegally in Afghanistan ambushed Grigori and took his sniper rifle, leaving him defenseless against the Mujahedeen fighters who tortured Grigori to death while Svetlana had to listen to his screams just outside the Soviet base.

Reacher partially believes Lila, but doubts Lila is Svetlana's daughter. Lila is lithe and stunningly gorgeous while Svetlana is plain and stocky. They do not seem to share any physical traits or mannerisms. He suspects Lila may be a journalist using Svetlana as a source for a story. While returning to the Hoths' hotel for a follow-up meeting, Reacher is abducted by the federal agents that had previously warned him off the case. He is put in a cage along with Lee and Jake for asking too many questions about the Susan Mark case. Reacher is able to attack the three agents when they take him out of the cage for interrogation and he incapacitates them. He then breaks Lee and Jake out of their cages.

As Reacher continues his investigation, he discovers that the Hoths are not what they claimed. They are actually Al Qaeda terrorists. Svetlana was the Mujahedeen fighter who tortured Grigori Hoth. Lila is her pupil. The pair had already murdered people, including Peter. Lila sends Reacher a video of Peter's gruesome death and promises to torture him in the same way. Reacher vows to kill Lila and Svetlana.

Reacher determines that Susan was told that her son was going to be killed if Susan did not provide the Hoths with information about Sansom's activities in Afghanistan. It turns out that Sansom had a photo taken of him with Osama Bin Laden as part of the efforts of the US to help the Mujahedeen fight the Soviets. That photo could now end Sansom's career. It appears that the photo could also for some reason embarrass Al Qaeda, as the Hoths seem intent on making the photo disappear as well. Susan loaded the information on a memory card and deleted the original file from the Pentagon computers. She was on her way to NYC with the card but she was stuck in traffic and missed her midnight deadline. The uncompromising Hoths sent her a video of her son's torture. In disgust and despair, Susan threw the card and her phone out of the car window. She then decided to go to Lila's building and kill her to avenge Peter. However, Reacher stopped her before she could carry out her revenge. "

Cover flaps    

Pages 2 and 3    

The woman posing as a journalist is Lila Hoth and her mother Svetlana Hoth.  But turns out Svetlana was Red Army trained  a political commissar.  Senator John Sansom is a politician, and an ex Delta force special ops.  The women turn out to be Afghan, Mulhadeen.   

Another  5 *****. 

In Too Deep by Lee and Andrew Child

 I read this from March thru April 4.  The newest Reacher novel, though it was not my favorite.  Published in 2024, 324 pages.  Still it is a Reacher novel and I have an addiction to reading all of the Reachers.  The novel opens with Reacher captive and not remembering what happened.  He had hitched a ride and there was an accident, the driver of the car was dead.  Reacher teams up with Jenny Knight, a suspended agent/cop whose father was killed by Zach Kane, the man they are looking for., Meantime other characters with Kane are about to pull their own shenanigan's, Vidic who rescued Reacher from the auto accident and his girlfriend Paris who has talent for cracking codes and invading spaces online.    

A few quotes are in keeping with the Reacher character, but the one abouts airports made me smile, I truly agree with it, although it has now been years since I have been in an airport.  Page 270, "Reacher had forgotten how much he disliked airports.  There were people everywhere milling around, stopping for no reason, dawdling aimlessly, dragging unwieldy suitcases.  He suspected that if hell exists, it resembles an eternal trek through the departure hall ."     My PS-- today add the  never ending TSA checkpoints, yuck.  The once great way to travel is tiresome, too many people, too many cheap tickets.  

Pg 270 ends with interesting revelations about the fear of the unknown and comparison of use of Nukes to other methods of death/war.."He had no reason to believe he was wrong.  But no evidence that he was right.  That seemed appropriate, in a way.  Nuclear weapons always seem to conjure fear and paranoia in people.  The rational part of Reacher's brain found that hard to understand.  Only two had ever been used in anger.  Fewer people had been killed by both of them combined than had died in many bombings during World War II.  .Or had starved and frozen in Leningrad.  Or had been murdered after the siege of Nanjing.  Or starved in Stalin's famines.  He figured the reaction came from the unknown.  The danger of dying, years later of some hideous disease you had no idea that you were incubating."    Pg 271, " Reacher didn't share that fear, but he  did feel some unease.  For him, it came down to the risk of human error.  And the consequences."  

And page 272, fully aligned with the Reacher characteristic of minimalism,  as he and Knight   approached the area where passengers picked up their baggage.  He questioned  how people could pick up the wrong luggage,  "Surely people know what  their luggage looks like."  Knight said," It happens all the time.  A lot of bags look similar.  Some are identical.  That's why some people attach colored straps or bright ribbons.  To make their things easier to identify.  Plus people could be tired after a long flight.  Or stupid.  Or careless."   Reacher shrugged.  It seemed to him like another reason to avoid getting bogged down by possessions."  

There is a twist by Vidic and Paris towards the end just as it appeared all was resolved.  So 4**** for this one

 

Tripwire by Lee Child

Published in June 199,but I just acquired this at a book sale and read it in September 2024.  This is a phenomenal early Jack Reacher tale, paperback, 401 pages. Reacher is fit, he's been working digging  he feels in the best shape of his life, pg 10, "Like a condom crammed with walnuts." He has been working digging swimming pools in Key West by day and as a bouncer at night at Costello's bar.  Only that night some strangers come trying to get entrance and Costello is found beaten to a pulp with alll 10 of his fingertips sliced off.  Meantime another investigator is trying to find Reacher at the request of a Mrs Jacobs.  She turns out to be Jodie, Leon Garber's daughter and needs to find him because Leon has left his house to him. Jodie and Reacher had mutual crushes on each other way back, but Reacher ignored that urge, she was too young for him and Leon's delighter.  She is now divorced and a successful  attorney. 

This has twists and turns as every Reacher novel.  The parallel story of grieving elderly parents for their presumed dead Army soldier only son, Hook Hobie.  He was a devoted son but the army will not recognize him as a hero,.  Didn't he die in Vietnam in the crash of the helicopter?  This parallel mystery will present the most vicious enemy Reacher has encountered.  Hook Hobie ii a vicious rfinancial lender and now has Lester Holt captive, he plans to collect his debt which Holt cannot pay.  Soon his wife will be captured with him as Hobie schemes to acquire all their assets.  Can this really be their son ignoring his parents completely and how will Reacher get involved in this?. 

Back Cover of Tripwire

 I was puzzled, would Reacher keep Garber's house and settle down?  Doubted it because there have been several more Reacher novels following this.  

This is another 5 ***** read.  I'm glad I finally found and read it.  It goes on my shelf now with all the othe Reacher books.  

Persuader by Lee Child

 

Published in 2017 but  I only read  it February, 2024, after I  purchased new through Amazon to prepare for the Amazon Prime Reacher Season 3.    The opening Chapter 1 is very different  with  Reacher in the wrong place at the right time and saving a rich college kid from abduction.  Although it is not apparent  opening that Reacher is part of this scenario and accidentally kills a cop while fleeing the scene.  It took me about 16 pages into the book to realize that was Reacher though I could not imagine him killing a cop.  He gives in to the pleas of the young man who  has persuaded him to drive him home to his family in Maine.  The boy, Richard Beck  is the son of a wealthy rug importer and had been abducted before for ransom.  

Page 26, Chapter 2 is background where Reacher tells he's been in for 11 days, in Boston, on his way to a bar when he sees a man whom he knows he killed a decade ago.  He calls on former Military Police to trace the license plate of the car he saw the man get into.  A warrant officer, Powell,  who knows only of Reacher who'd been out of the Army for 6 years now, takes the call.  But instead of a return call  the next morning,  two federal DEA investigators knock at his motel room door,   Steven Eliot and Susan Duffy.  

They have lost another DEA investigator,  who was undercover 

getting information on Zachary Beck, a rug importer in Maine who is working with a notorious Los Angeles drug dealer.  Duffy explains that their  operation is off the books because the investigator was also off the books.  There were mistakes made getting photos previously of the connection between Beck and the drug dealer.  And so Reacher agrees to help them.  

A brief history of drugs in the Army is on pg. 32, "  Were there drugs in the Army?" Eliot asked.    I smiled.  "Armies love drugs" I said.  "Morphine, Benzedrine.  The German Army invented Ecstasy.  It was an appetite suppressant.  CIA invented LSD, tested it on the US Army.  Armies march on their veins."   "Recreational?"  "Average age of a recruit is eighteen.  What do you think?"  

As in every one of the Reacher novels there is always interesting tidbit information like that on drugs .Pg 143, mentions how steel shanks in the sole of men's' dress shoes gives flexibility and strength.  And that metal detectors are designed to ignore shoes.  And on pg 144 some  mention about Maglite flashlights. This interested me because we had an old one that  corroded from inside by an old battery and I had to toss it.  I always thought I could have used it as a weapon if I had to.  We'd brought it from CA with us when we moved.  "The flashlight was a big black Maglite, the length of a nightstick.  Six D cells inside.  We used to use them in the army.  They were guaranteed unbreakable but we found that depended on what you hit with them and how hard,"  But enough of the miscellany. 

Another excellent read that has me anxiously awaiting the Amazon movie.  Another 5*****.  All 465 pages.  At the end is an intro and  the first chapters of Midnight Line.  

Secret by Lee Childs and 2 bios, Musk and Kushner Catch up postings

 As year ends and time runs out I have books that I have read and not entered here, including one of my favorites, a Jack Reacher novel by "Childs.  Since  this blog is for just me, I often neglect.  My  reading has slowed as t his year I have been engaged in other online studies such as t he Catechism in a Year that divert my time.  So to get these three onto my bookshelf, here we go:

 Stated reading on my birthday Nov 13,  finished Nov    28.    Didn't read every night as I used to.  Of course another winner,  I always await new Reacher novels and am collecting the old ones now.   Sadly years back I cleared my shelf of paperbacks and the Reacher novels included. Then the Amazon series awakened renewed interest and as I began to rebuild my collection, they are harder to find now at book sales.  

   Pg 80-82 typical Reacher react ion by water boarding a jerk who threatens to kill him. "You think?" 

As before another 5 *****   

Excellent bio by Walter Isaacson, all 615 pages.  Very interesting character, not always on the side of angels but who is?  Musk makes the news and headlines consistently so it was a timely read.  More later if /when I have time.  I would like to have someone to discuss this book with but that doesn't seem to be possible.  .  5 *****

ON 1/1/2024 I saw this review in the Daily Signal and copy it here:    " What comes shining through in this book is that Elon Musk—this generation’s premier inventor, entrepreneur, sage, and futurist—is America’s 20th century Ben Franklin. That’s ironic and appropriate, in that Walter Isaacson, the top biographer of this era, has written tomes on both of these geniuses. Here we have yet another iconic spectacularly successful immigrant—from South Africa—who sees the world 50 years ahead of anyone else. He has spawned at least a dozen companies, including Space X and Tesla. The most stunning part of his story is that he had abusive parents, is bipolar, and is on the autism spectrum, but that seems to have inspired his brilliance and risk-taking. Every aspiring entrepreneur should read his story—beautifully and often humorously written—in this authorized biography.

—Steve Moore, distinguished fellow in economics"

Wow read this back in August 2022 but never posted here.  Interesting,  Lots of detail,  took 4 months to read   Now with the Israeli war and so many other issues caused by Biden debacle and the nitwits that went for him, I wonder what Kushner think   469 Pages.  Well done.  5 ***** 

No Plan B by Lee Child and Andrew Child

 

 

Purchased  ahead by pre ordering on   Amazon  for  October 2022 release and read it in March-April 2023.

Because all previous photos deleted adding this but may not do much more, disgusted with Blogger.

Another great Reacher tale.  Keeping all these now on my shelf and looking still for ones I read and donated.  

5 *****  Info here from Front flap and page 1.  Will see how long these photos last.  

Front cover flap inside

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.  

  

Bad Luck and Trouble by Lee Child

I read this May 2022, one that I'd not posted yet.  It will be the next movie on Amazon Prime in the Jack Reacher Series.  Published 2014, paperback has 477 pages and a Preview of Night School at the end.  It is another Jack Reacher at his best and involves the pulling back together the Old Army Unit who had each been hand picked back then by Reacher.  Someone is murdering the  members.  Reacher and the team will find and destroy that person(s).  

Chapter 1  begins with the description of Calvin Franz, the first victim although not identified as part of the team at first.  He was tortured, two broken legs, tossed from a helicopter.  On pages 23-24 Neagley informs Reacher about Calvin.  

Reacher has had to change some things from earlier novels.  Now instead of traveling only with this tooth brush he has  passport and ATM card.  It is different now post 9/11/2001. 

 Page 6 describes: how Reacher has had to change tactics and add this gear:

Page 16 recalls how Neagley had come up with the catchphrase, "You do not mess with the special investigators"  It had been repeated endlessly as a  promise and a warning.  Now someone clearly was trying.  

 Pages 202-203 describe something about the soldier's mindset about death..."  "It was given that soldiers contemplate death.  They live with it.  They accept it.  They expect it.  Some of them even want it.  But deep down they want it to be fair.  Me against him.  May the best man win.  They want it to be noble.  Win or lose, they want it to arrive with significance.      A soldier dead with his arms tied behind him was the worst kind of outrage.  It was about helplessness and submission and abuse.  It was about powerlessness."  

This is another bang up Reacher thriller.  5 ***** x 3.

Make Me by Lee Child

 

 Published in 2016, I started to read this on New Years day this year, but just now posting the review., months later,  April 24.    With the amazing success of the new Reacher movies on Amazon Prime I have been kicking myself for not keeping all the other editions which I have read and many of which were first edition hard covers.  So  finally I will keep the few that are remaining.  These books have become impossible to find at book sales locally too.  This was a used  one, paperback, 494 pages, it has been on my self to read for  about a year. On page 1, included below, there is a mention of use of drones.  Since the initial publication, in 2015 hardback, I did not think drones were as familiar back then, but maybe that is just me or not recalling correctly.  

Page 1  

 By page 3 we know it is nearly the end of summer and Reacher has just gotten off a train in front of grain elevators.  He is the only passenger to get off in this agricultural bump in the road, Mother's Rest.  When he saw it on a map he thought the name was interesting for a railroad stop and  wondered what had happened  likely long ago to give it this name.  He is intrigued by a worried woman., Michelle Chang,  a former FBI, now a private investigator looking   for  her missing partner. 

. Reacher has no particular place to go, and all the time in the world to get there, and there’s something about Chang . . . so he teams up with her and starts to ask around. He thinks: How bad can this thing be? But before long he’s plunged into a desperate race through LA, Chicago, Phoenix, and San Francisco, and through the hidden parts of the internet, up against thugs and assassins every step of the way—right back to where he started, in Mother’s Rest, where he must confront the worst nightmare he could imagine.    Walking away would have been easier. But as always, Reacher’s rule is: If you want me to stop, you’re going to have to make me. 

Back Cover

    This novel is filled with many Reacherisms, sayings one that I           particularly noticed here repeatedly was "Hope for the best,  plan for the     worst."

  As every other Reacher novel this was a 5 **** read.  At the back of the      novel is a short story featuring Reacher and Neagley, "Small Wars." 

The Hard Way by Lee Child

 

Read in November 2021 but just now posting,  another of my favorite Jack Reacher novels; this was published in 2016, 477 pages.  It is the 10th novel about exArmy major, Jack Reacher now on his own and on the move, always.  This novel has multiple reference  about military attributes, skills that become ingrained in  military service, anecdotes and what makes a soldier a survivor. 

  It  opens with Reacher getting coffee, he  consumes vast amounts of this as any follower of these books knows.  On page 1, "Jack Reacher ordered espresso, double, no peel, no cube, foam cup, no china and before it arrived at his table he saw a man's life change forever.  Not that the waiter was slow.  Just that the move was slick.  So slick, Reacher had no idea what he was watching.  It was just an urban scene, repeated everywhere in the  world, a billion times a day. A guy unlocked a car and got in and drove away.  That was all.     But that was enough. "   So begins this saga about Edward Lane who pays $1 million ransom to get Kate, his wife,  back.  Lane runs an illegal mercenary, soldiers for hire operation.  But as happens in the twists involving Reacher not all is what it seems and then even then not what is said. But Reacher will be" On the trail of vicious kidnappers, Reacher learns the chilling secrets of his employer’s past . . . and of a horrific drama in the heart of a nasty little war. He knows that Edward Lane is hiding something. Something dirty. Something big. But Reacher also knows this: He’s already in way too deep to stop now. And if he has to do it the hard way, he will."  

Hard Way Page 1

Page 3, " The guy was medium height, not young, not old, too solid to be called wiry, too slight to be called heavy.  ...His mouth didn't move much as he talked.  But his eyes did.  The flicked left and right tirelessly.  ..Reacher had seen the same look in elite infantry veterans who had survived long jungle tours."    Pg 4, " You notice things...I notice things...We're two of a kind.  We're peas in a pod."   

Page 168, "Where would a military mind want to be?, she asked.   Reacher recited, 'A Soldier knows that a satisfactory observation point provides an unobstructed view to the front and adequate security to the flanks and the rear.  He knows it provides protection from the elements and concealment of the observers.  He knows it offers a reasonable likelihood of undisturbed occupation for the full duration of the operation."

Page 212 reveals Reacher preference for specific shoes and describes them. "His shoes were benchmade by a company called Cheaney from Northhampton in England.  Smarter buys than Church's which were basically the same shoes but with a premium tag for the name.  The style that Reacher had chosen was called Tenterden, which was a brown semi brogue made of heavy pebbled leather.  Size 12.  The soioles were heavy composite items brought in from a company called Dainite.  Reacher hated leather soles.  They wore out too fast and stayed wet too long after rain.  Dainites were better.  Their heels were a five layer stuck an inch and a quarter thick.  The Cheaney leather welt, the Dainite welt, two slabs of hard Cheaney leather and a thick Dainite cap.  Each shoe on its own weighed more than two pounds.  "...Page 213..." He put his weight on his back foot and stared at the door and bounced like a high jumper going for a record.  Then he launched.  One pace, two.  He smashed his right heel into the door just above  the knob and wood splintered and dust filled the air and the door smashed open and he continued running without breaking stride. "

Another 5 *****

Without Fail by Lee Child

This is the sixth book in the Reacher series, published in 2002 but one I just read.  In the 549 pages of this paperback, Reacher has been contacted by a female Secret Service Agent to find holes in her system and fast because a covert group has the vice president in their sights for assassination.  

On page 1 it begins, " They found out about him in July and stayed angry all through August.  They tried to kill him in September.  It was way too soon.  They weren't ready.  The attempt was a failure.  It could have been a disaster, but it was actually a miracle.  Because nobody noticed.   They used their usual method to get past security and set up a hundred feet from where he was speaking.  They used a silencer and missed him by an inch.  The bullet must have passed right over his head.  Maybe even through his hair because he immediately raised his hand and patted it back into place as if a gust of wind had disturbed it.  They saw it over and over again, afterward, on television.  He raised his hand and patter his hair.  He did nothing else.  He just kept on with his speech, unaware because by definition a silenced bullet is too fast to see and too quiet to hear.  So it missed him and flew on. "   

Pages 388-389 describes how Reacher solves, thinks using minutiae.  

Pages 388-389

This is another 5 *****

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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Echo Burning by Lee Child

Finished this a week ago, published 2001, 582 pages, paperback,  book sale special another wonderful Jack Reacher novel.  This one has Reacher in Texas not knowing where he is going when he gets a ride from Carmen Greer who is heading back home to Pecos, actually Echo.  So since he's not ever been there he rides along, besides rides were not as easy to catch, more hesitancy about hitchhikers.  It seems Carmen, of Mexican descent,  is an abused wife whose husband is in an established family.  Some of her story turns out to be not so true such as her background and other discrepancies.  There is certain discrimination against the Mexicans in this Texas backwater town.  But Reacher is intrigued and will stick around to sort out the truth and help her as he can.   As suspected nothing is as it seems and there are twists all through the novel. 

Carmen is not all truthful about herself but she does have a young daughter, Ellie,  whom she cannot leave and so she is stuck in with the Greer family and her husband, Sloop, until  she takes a shot and kills Sloop.  Or does she.  The brother, Bobby is Reacher's prime suspect target but it will turn out to be not so.  Ultimately, Sloop is dead, Carmen is in jail and yet Reacher stays on to help.  He finds Alice, a young do gooder legal aid type Family services  attorney to help Carmen who has no financial resources and can expect zilch from the Greer family.  . But Carmen is refusing help.  This will all challenge Reacher and  cause him to look deeper..  Oh and there is a professional hit team involved.  Some of the description of the deceptive professionals is more excellent writing by Lee Child. 

Reacher is quoting Ben Franklin, so he claims when he says things like,  on page 502, "3 can keep a secret iof  2 are dead"  Not so sure Franklin ever said that.  Might be Reacher character stretching things a bit.  

This is clearly another 5 ***** novel. 

Back cover

Page 1 

Page 12 is describing the professional hit team in one setting, notice the reference "they looked like the branch office of a photocopier company on its way to a sales convention."   

 I continue to be a huge fan of this character, Jack Reacher and the author Lee Child.  Fortunately I still have several others of the older books to read. 

The Sentinel by Lee Child and Andrew Child

Another catch up post on books I have read,  this one  between March 23 and April 1, 2021.  Again about my favorite character action novel, Jack Reacher .  However this one Lee Child has teamed up with Andrew Child as authors.  Unusual as Lee has written  24 Reacher thrillers solo.  The book is another outstanding Reacher tale, 351 pages hardback.

  A cyber attack on the municipality of Pleasantville, TN has Rusty Rutherford, the IT manager who has been fired  and blamed for the cyber attack not believing this really happened.  Enter Reacher who prevents an ambush of Rusty.  So Reacher suspects something is wrong  and sure enough, hapless Rusty needs all the help Reacher can give and then some.  A very timely novel with the cyber attacks that have happened attributed to Russia.  

Inside cover flap

Page 58 Possibilities and amusing

 

Page 90  Reacher traits and driving top paragraph

Authors Back Flap and cover

Night School by Lee Child

 

In March-April I read Night School, published 2016 purchased at local Library book sale and my favorite author character.  Soon I will have read everyone of these mystery, suspense, action novels that all center on Jack Reacher./  From time to time I pause from reading these and try something different but for pur entertainment I always prefer these.  I am excited to learn that Amazon is  underway with a contract to make the Reacher novels into Amazon movies   and with an actor who more physically resembles the character Reacher than Tom Cruise who was in the only other  movie made some time ago.  This one is  369 pages.  And as with allthe others I have read another 5 *****.  

There are some great descriptions throughout this book.  Typical of the good writing.   For example, page 242,.." ..Wolfgang Schlump on a stool at the bar. Not an impressive specimen.  Dark hair, dark eyes, lean dark face, built like a shivering dog.  But useful.  About to be more useful." 

Cover Flap

In Night School Reacher is still in the Army which differs from the previous where he was out and on his own.  Several old Army rules are pointed out that become ingrained in Reacher and will show up in other novels,  "eat when you can."  Reacher recruits the best soldier he knows to help him in his task to find the American who has been leaking and now demanding  a hundred million dollars from Jihadists in Germany.  The soldier is Sgt. Frances Neagley, perhaps she will be in other novels.  Page 30, " She was in woodland pattern battledress uniform, the sleeves neatly rolled, her forearms on the table.  She had dark hair, cut short and dark eyes and a tan.  Her skin looked soft but he was sure it wasn't.  He had seen her in action.  She was fast and exceptionally strong.  She would feel hard and solid underneath.  But he didn't know.  He had never touched her.  Never even shaken her hand..".  

Page 1  

Reacher gets chewed out by his boss for this mission, Sinclair who knows she needs his skills and tolerates him but tries to set him straight.  "So you broke the law but only because you thought you had a good reason.  You and everyone else.  There are lots of good reasons.  Too many good reasons.  Which is why we have a special structure to decide between them. when they compare one against the other.  That structure is called the National Security Council.  We weigh things up and we judge priorities.  You just blew a year's hard work, major.  You should resign.  Before the after action report comes out.  You'll get a better deal that way........." 

 

 Reacher will have his own hunches and tactics and cause grief for Sinclain and others but  through the twists he is victorious.  

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***** 

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.