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*****.

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Paradise Valley by C J Box

 

I read this in July 2021, when I was introduced to this author at a book sale.  Paradise Valley was published July 2017 and introduces another character to the author's repertoire, Investigator Cassie Dewell formerly with the  Bakken County, North Dakota sheriff's department.   Cassie has been pursuing a serial killer known as the Lizard King who kills along highways and truck stops where runaways are most likely to vanish.  But for years all has been quiet and then a new murder.  Cassie loses her job but will not give up looking for the Lizard King.  She has befriended a troubled youth, Kyle Westergaard, who disappears.  His grandmother begs Cassie to find him and being now unemployed Cassie agrees to search for Kyle.  She is alone and in pursuit. 

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 Cassie doesn't have an over fondness for attorneys,  pages 217-218,  "...most attorneys were under the general impression that they were the smartest people in the room and therefore they were always in control of it.  They liked processes to be complicated and stacked in their favor and they didn't enjoy uncertainty or chaos.  Nothing made a prosecutor or defense attorney more uncomfortable than the unknown."  

The writing is good, clear and clean.  The plot was intriguing and kept my interest, there were 340 pages in this hardback edition.  This is an author I will read more of at times.  I give this book 4 ****

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The Fallen by David Baldacci

I read this back in July but as with other books have not been posting lately.  However time to get these books moved along to local sale, so here goes.  Anothe winner from Baldacci.  This one is in the Memory Man series which I have not read in order but no matter.  Published 2018, 417 pages. 

Amos Decker is Baldacci's fictional  character, FBI agent with extra ordinary memory due to a football injury.  This occurs in a rust belt small western PA fictitious town, but one that is typical of the rust belt of the area.  From Book Good reads:    ."Amos Decker and his journalist friend Alex Jamison are visiting the home of Alex's sister in Barronville, a small town in western Pennsylvania that has been hit hard economically. When Decker is out on the rear deck of the house talking with Alex's niece, a precocious eight-year-old, he notices flickering lights and then a spark of flame in the window of the house across the way. When he goes to investigate he finds two dead bodies inside and it's not clear how either man died. But this is only the tip of the iceberg. There's something going on in Barronville that might be the canary in the coal mine for the rest of the country.     Faced with a stonewalling local police force, and roadblocks put up by unseen forces, Decker and Jamison must pull out all the stops to solve the case. And even Decker's infallible memory may not be enough to save them. "

Besides being an excellent thriller/mystery/ read there is a great amount of description of the nationwide drug/opiod crisis.  One example,  page 268-269..."Right, back in the 80's we had the crack crisis.  The government's position was just say no and if you didn't you went to prison.  Sop we locked u[p million, mostly men from inner cities.  Then came the 90's and Big Pharma decided that Americans weren't taking enough painkillers.  They sort of made paid the fifth vital sign.  Spent billions on ads, payoffs to the doctors, used legist looking organizations and think tanks to make it all seem aboveboard.  No possibility of addiction, no long term negatives was the mantra everyone was spouting.  Turns out all of that was based on faulty research or no research at all.  It's ironic but a l;ot of opioids were initially given out to combat lower back pain.     What's ironic.. Because opioid's actually are pretty ineffectual with chronic lower back pain........"  

5 stars no doubt*****

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Her Mother's Hope by Francine Rivers

Francine Rivers is a very decent intriguing, Christian author.  Her books are usually sagas and I always enjoy them.  This one published in 2010 caught my attention at the local book sale, I had not read it and it did not disappoint me. There are 496 pages which includes the author's notes at the back explaining how she came to write this book.

  It occurs between  early 1900's and 1950's and is about the relationships between mothers and daughter and how intentions are not always perceived as they are meant.  I really related to this book.  It begins with Marta Schneider a young Swiss immigrant who dreams of owning her own boarding house until marriage and motherhood change  her plans.  She vows to raise strong children but her very tough love at times is misunderstood by Hildemara Rose her oldest daughter.  The family  moves east to Northern California so that also resonated with me being very familiar with the places after spending  over 40 years of my life there.  .

I was amazed to read the  author's notes, narrative of several pages at the end of the book describing how she decided to write this saga, which is the first of a two book series. I will have to get the second  book, Her Daughter's Dream.  Below is the first and last of these pages.

I passed this book along to a friend so best to get this post up although perhaps incomplete.  I could relate to the difficulty between mother and daughter somewhat reflecting on my own relationship with my Mom.  Different scenario, but similar theme.  Recommend this fully,  4 stars.****

Out of Range by CJ Box

Paperback published 2005, 351 pages.  This is a new to me author but one I will be reading more of, especially his game warden Joe Pickett, featured in this novel.  Well written and good solid mystery with twists.   It opens as Joe Picket, game warden for the Saddlestring region is settled with his wife Marybeth and teenage daughter, Sheridan.  They are attending the wedding of Joe's mother in law, Missy a 69 year old who trades husbands periodically and who is marrying a big shot rancher, Bud Longbrake.  The wedding is attended by all politicos of who's who.  Joe learns that his friend, Will Jensen, warden of the Jackson/Tetons area is dead.  Reportedly by suicide.  Joe is tasked with leaving Saddlestring for Jackson to fill in.  He has a sense that this was no suicide and will track the killer and expose the ever crooked links in the agencies.  

The opening sentence, "Before going outside to his pickup for his gun, the Wyoming game warden cooked and ate four and a half pounds of meat."  Wow, who eats that much meat, I thought.  

From the author's website:

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"Jackson, Wyoming, is a far cry from Joe's hometown of Saddlestring—it's the epicenter for many environmental extremists and an elite playground for the rich and powerful—and Joe quickly finds himself in over his head. Yet despite the pressures of his new job, he can't get his friend's suicide out of his mind. By all accounts, Will had changed in the last few months, becoming violent and unpredictable. The closer Joe comes to the truth about Will's death, the more his own life spirals out of control-and he realizes that if he's not careful, he may end up as Jackson's next victim."

Page 5, "Forlorn was a word he had come to like, in recent months. It was a word that sounded like what it described." This is descriptive of some of Will's final thoughts.  has more than enough to do as elk season is about to begin and a busy time for the warden, checking hunters licenses, guides, etc.  But he has to leave for Jackson and give his duties over to another. 

A 4 **** read, good writing, moves along, lots of characters and many sub plots happening., 

Author  CJ Box

Team of Vipers by Cliff Simms

I'd had this book sitting to be read for over a year, not sure how I got it  possibly from making a political contribution back when Trump was in the White House.  One thing and another and I did not read it until a month ago.  Now instead of current events it is like reading history.  This is a first edition, published in January  2019 by St Martin's Press.  It is 344 pages and ends with  " We walked off down the hallway back toward the West Wing and he tied a bow on his line of thought.  "2020 will be fun, that I can tell you--a lot of fun, ".he said, "The kneelers!  Just watch"    Just watch.  I will. And so will you.  Because the fact of the matter is, when it comes to Trump, we just can't look away." 

 A perfect summary to a well written episode of the author's experiences while serving in the Trump Whitehouse. The author "soon found himself pulled into the President's inner circle as a confidant, an errand boy, an adviser, a punching bag, and a friend.  Sometimes all in the same conversation."  The complexity of the situation. Sims is an outsider too and this may be why the powers ultimately came after him..

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 The title suits the workings,  instead of a Team of Rivals ala Abraham Lincoln Trump had vipers.  Whether or not he knew it , who knows.  Was it deliberate?  Who knows these questions are not answered in this book.  Neither is the book accusatory toward Trump or any individual in particular. The chapter, A Tale of Two Generals contrasts the soon to ousted Steve Bannon with gives a different perspective  about General Kelly. pg. 209, "..the President said, "Steve is a good guy but I told them to straighten it out or I will.    From that point forward, it felt like his days were numbered.  To me.  To the President.  To every single person in the West Wing.  To everyone it seemed but Steve Bannon. Once Trump replaced Priebus with Kelly and gave him the authority to put the entire staff under his thumb, I figured Bannon was indeed finished.  Kelly was bent on installing a more defined staff hierarchy, with himself at the top, and it was hard to imagine Bannon subordinating himself to another staffer, even a four-star Marine general."   I had long admired Kelly whom I thought had done a great job of chief of staff trying to bring chaos to the West Wing organization to herd cats.  Yet his personality and style was not exactly as I had imagined.   Page 211, "Kelly, whom aides had already taken to calling "The Chief" another respectful nod that Priebus never received motioned subtly for everyone to sit down.  He didn't make small talk.  "How many of you here have prior government experience?" he

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asked straight away.  Out of the forty people in the room only one or two hands shot up....."Let me give you some advice, ok? You're going to be dealing with the press.  Tell the truth.  That's important,  I know what you all do.  You know , other generals would get mad at me sometimes because I got such good press.  But that's because I knew how to talk to the press.  I knew how to work with them and they didn't."  ".After he'd left, several press aides, spoked that the new Chief had already exposed himself as a leaker by talking about what great press he used to get.  The only people who attract positive stories in this town, they noted are the ones who reporters can't take shots at because they're scared to lose them as a source."   Wow that is the first clue that not all was spotless and faithfulness in the General.     

 it was not a tell all nor we

re there many  new things now  reading it looking back, but I did gain some different perspective on some of the personalities of that saga.  I was unfamiliar with this author but he did a very decent job writing what could have been a "poor me, look what happened" instead he owns up to his own naivete, mistakes and acknowledges that despite it all, he learned a lot.  His tenure on the Trump team could have left him seething but he does not develop that attitude.  He returns to his civilian life wiser.

In the introduction Simms  mentions that Trump's greatest fear is obscurity.  But he goes on  about Election night, pg. Xiv," .. and he didn't care who was listening.  Trump talked like other people breathed. It was like a form of exercise to him--an endless exertion of words, phrases, asides and observations."...." ..he just is who he is."  and that sets the tone.  I have believed that about Trump always, he is who he is so I was intrigued to read it, a validation of my thoughts. There is enough information that causes me to speculate about the loyalty of  KellyAnne Conway  toward the end of her time.  Page 257, the author reflects on the time and that while he was not always proud of everything the President had done or tweeted or the way the author himself  had behaved at times, he was proud of what had been accomplished.  . "Kellyanne's line from the darkest moments of the campaign, "There's a difference ...between what offends you and what affects you." 

I also liked that this book is well organized with 15 distinct chapters, with titles that reflect the subject matter of that chapter and an Epilogue, "Outside the Bubble." This technique seems rare today. and shows that the author did not just thoughtlessly ramble along.  Page 7, "This was my first direct exposure to Trump's ability to distill an argument down into a bite sized nugget packed with symbolism, even if it wasn't entirely aligned with the facts.  It was a speaking style built for the age of social media and 24/7 cable news."  

I have always felt bad about Jeff Sessions, the former Attorney General who was devoted to Trump.  Yet when he recused himself Trump was done with him and  Sessions never retaliated.  The relationship of the author with Sessions, both are from Alabama, validates what an outstanding character Sessions is.    I thoroughly enjoyed this book,  give it  just about 5 *****.  It is well organized, well written, and a keeper on my shelf of political reads. I took pages of notes while reading this.