MostlyFiction Book Reviews » Lee Child We Love to Read! Wed, 14 May 2014 13:06:32 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.3 THE AFFAIR by Lee Child /2011/the-affair-by-lee-child/ /2011/the-affair-by-lee-child/#comments Sun, 23 Oct 2011 01:35:45 +0000 /?p=21771 Book Quote:

“I understand you’re doubly arrogant. First you thought I wouldn’t figure out your genius scheme, and then when I did, you thought you could deal with me all by yourself. No help, no backup, no arrest teams. Just you and me, here and now. I have to ask, how dumb are you?”

Book Review:

Review by Eleanor Bukowsky (OCT 22, 2011)

What’s a writer to do when his action hero ages? One option is to go back in time.

In The Affair, Lee Child flashes back to 1997, when Major Jack Reacher (his thirty-six year old protagonist and first-person narrator) was an army MP. Leon Garber, Reacher’s commanding officer, sends Jack to Carter Crossing, Mississippi, to monitor a potentially explosive situation. The body of Janice May Chapman, twenty-seven, has been found with her throat cut. Since the army has a base in the area, there is reason to suspect that a rogue soldier may have committed this and other grisly crimes. Although Reacher is a highly skilled and meticulous investigator, Garber makes it clear that under no circumstances should he conduct his own inquiries. A fellow MP named Duncan Munroe will be on hand to ask the tough questions. Of course, it is laughable to expect Reacher to sit on the sidelines while Munroe does the heavy lifting. 

We have long admired Reacher for his intelligence, toughness, passion for justice, and ability to scrutinize the evidence for subtle clues that the average cop would miss. In addition, he is independent and rarely accepts anyone’s word at face value. As ever, Jack is low-maintenance, carrying no excess emotional or physical baggage. Since he has a clock in his head, what use would he have for a watch? As the weeks pass, Reacher realizes that the Chapman case has significant political and legal ramifications; he will have to watch his back carefully if he is to emerge unscathed.

Lee Child has great fun placing Jack in challenging situations that force him to use his brain power and formidable fighting skills to defeat his opponents. All work and no play, however, makes Jack a frustrated soldier. Therefore, he is delighted to learn that the town’s sheriff, Elizabeth Deveraux, a former Marine, is gorgeous and available. The two gradually get to know one another a little better. Unfortunately, complications ensue that may put a damper on their promising relationship.

Child colorfully depicts life in a rural southern enclave, with its cholesterol-laden food (cheeseburgers, fries, and pies are consumed in alarming amounts), irritating busybodies, and obnoxious louts. The author’s terse, no-nonsense prose style keeps the story moving briskly. As usual, Reacher does not rely solely on his formidable fighting skills. He taps into his network of army buddies to unearth vital information and uses old-fashioned legwork and sharp analysis to unravel a mystery that he was never meant to solve. Child keeps us turning pages with scenes of violent confrontations, a torrid romance, a juicy murder probe, and an intriguing back story that helps explains why Reacher left the army so suddenly and became a solitary wanderer.

AMAZON READER RATING: stars-4-0from 492 readers
PUBLISHER: Delacorte Press; First Edition (September 27, 2011)
REVIEWER: Eleanor Bukowsky
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE: Lee Child (and Jack Reacher!)
EXTRAS: Excerpt
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]]> /2011/the-affair-by-lee-child/feed/ 0 WORTH DYING FOR by Lee Child /2010/worth-dying-for-by-lee-child/ /2010/worth-dying-for-by-lee-child/#comments Sun, 24 Oct 2010 18:38:43 +0000 /?p=13133 Book Quote:

“Reacher was spending no time on regret or recrimination. No time at all. The time for ruing mistakes and learning from them came later. As always he was focused in the present and the immediate future. People who wasted time and energy cursing recent errors were certain losers.”

Book Review:

Review by Eleanor Bukowsky  (OCT 24, 2010)

Those who enjoyed Lee Child’s 61 Hours were prepared for a breathtaking follow-up. How sad that Worth Dying For is a throwback to a more one-dimensional Jack Reacher, a far less interesting protagonist than the one in 61 Hours. In the previous installment, it was thrilling to see a new version of Reacher—a man with flaws who made mistakes and was not able to win every battle. He also revealed a bit more of his background during telephone conversations with a woman named Susan whom he never meets. Since 61 Hours ended in a cliffhanger, many of us expected that Child would pick up where he left off, perhaps heading in even more new directions.

Unfortunately, that does not happen. Almost all of the threads left dangling at the end of 61 Hours are referred to only in passing. This time around, an injured but still functional Reacher finds himself in a motel in Nebraska. He overhears a drunken physician blowing off a patient named Eleanor Duncan, who has a severe nosebleed. Relying on his sixth sense and experience as a military policeman, Reacher infers that Mrs. Duncan is a victim of domestic violence. Since the doctor is too inebriated to drive, Jack insists on chauffeuring him to the Duncan residence. This turns out to be a huge mistake, since Eleanor Duncan’s husband is a brute whose repulsive family runs the town as if it were their personal fiefdom. When someone has the temerity to cross the Duncans, a team of goons—hulking but not terribly bright former football players—rough them up. The malevolent Duncans have the citizenry in an economic stranglehold, and they have succeeded in covering up their sordid and illegal activities for decades.

Most readers will find the plot rather predictable. Reacher, operating more or less on autopilot, takes on the Duncans, the football players, and three pairs of thugs (two Lebanese, two Iranians, and two Italians, a veritable United Nations without the peacekeeping force). Jack uses semi-mystical powers to predict what his opponents will do and then tries to outmaneuver them. There is enough violence in these pages to satisfy even the most bloodthirsty thriller fan. In fact, there are so many scenes of torture and mayhem that the gore quickly loses its shock value. There is no character development, the dialogue is stilted, the staccato prose quickly becomes tedious, and the story breaks no new ground in a genre that is already filled with tough guys who act as judge, jury, and executioner. If you liked Death Wish with Charles Bronson (a cult classic about an urban vigilante) then you will probably love Worth Dying For. One only hopes that Child takes a breather and puts a great deal more thought into his next installment.

AMAZON READER RATING: stars-4-0from 579 readers
PUBLISHER: Delacorte Press; First Edition edition (October 19, 2010)
REVIEWER: Eleanor Bukowsky
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE: Lee Child (and Jack Reacher!)
EXTRAS: Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: Read our review of:

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]]> /2010/worth-dying-for-by-lee-child/feed/ 0 61 HOURS by Lee Child /2010/61-hours-by-lee-child/ /2010/61-hours-by-lee-child/#comments Wed, 19 May 2010 00:54:28 +0000 /?p=9538 Book Quote:

“I was born as scared as anyone. Maybe more so. I lay awake crying with the best of them. But I got tired of it. I trained myself out of it. An act of will. I rerouted fear into aggression.”

Book Review:

Review by Eleanor Bukowsky (MAY 18, 2010)

61 Hours alludes to a countdown that may presumably end in disaster. As the latest Lee Child thriller opens, a crooked lawyer conducts some shady business at a prison and then skids on the frozen roads of South Dakota, causing a bus carrying a driver, twenty seniors, and our hero, Jack Reacher, to crash into a ditch. Reacher, who is six foot five and physically fit, lends much-needed assistance to the bus driver and passengers, who are stranded near a town called Bolton. The local police send a rescue squad to bring in the victims before they freeze to death in the bitter cold.

As fans of this popular series know, Reacher is an ex-army man who travels around the country with no suitcase. He presents an imposing physical presence and his brainpower is as impressive as his stature. Wherever Jack goes, he gets involved in some sort of mayhem and this time is no exception. Because he has seen so much tragedy over the years, he has become a cynic and a pessimist. “Hope for the best, plan for the worst” is one of his mottoes.

Reacher soon becomes acquainted with an elderly woman named Janet Salter, who is the sole witness to a key drug transaction. Her testimony could help put away the leader of a large meth ring. Unfortunately, the bad guys know where she lives and have a strong motive to silence her. Salter, who is a classy, courageous, tough, quick-witted, and unpretentious lady, senses that Reacher is a kindred soul and the two quickly bond. Although Janet already has police protection, the setup is far from ideal. Reacher decides that she needs someone smart, strong, and resourceful to keep her safe—someone who can think out of the box and has the imagination and savvy to outwit and outfight most criminals. He appoints himself to the task. In addition, he provides miscellaneous advice and assistance to local law enforcement officials.

Unfortunately for Janet and Reacher, they are in more trouble than they realize. A sadistic criminal mastermind living in Mexico is planning a major operation, and he is pulling the strings in Bolton. In addition, Reacher is up against possible police corruption, a mystery concerning an old military installation, and a series of severe snowstorms and bitterly cold temperatures that make moving around difficult and dangerous. Events will eventually come to a critical mass when the mastermind and his henchmen converge on Bolton.

Throughout, Reacher remains fairly taciturn, although he does let his hair down a bit with Janet. He also confides a few secrets to the woman who has his old command, the CO of the elite 110th Special Unit based in Rock Creek, Virginia. She is a valuable liaison who provides Jack with critical information that will help him figure out what he is up against. In return, he helps her close a difficult case of her own. Child’s no-nonsense prose style, lavish use of rapid-fire dialogue, and suspenseful plot will keep readers invested in the book’s outcome. There are thrills aplenty here, violent confrontations, and an explosive and electrifying conclusion, during which Reacher is forced to make some tough and morally dubious decisions. The ambiguous finale may not please everyone; however, the author shows courage and originality in wrapping things up unconventionally. My one quibble is that the identity of one of the bad guys is telegraphed too early. Still, this humdinger of a thriller will brings chills to Reacher fans, even those who do not reside in a state where the mercury can dip to thirty degrees below zero.

AMAZON READER RATING: stars-3-5from 686 readers
PUBLISHER: Delacorte Press; First Edition/First Printing edition (May 18, 2010)
REVIEWER: Eleanor Bukowsky
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE: Lee Child (and Jack Reacher!)
EXTRAS: Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: Read our review of:

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]]> /2010/61-hours-by-lee-child/feed/ 0 GONE TOMORROW by Lee Child /2009/gone-tomorrow-by-lee-child/ /2009/gone-tomorrow-by-lee-child/#comments Fri, 05 Jun 2009 23:17:02 +0000 /?p=2190 Book Quote:

“Suicide bombers are easy to spot. They give out all kinds of tell-tale signs. Mostly because they’re nervous. By definition they’re all first-timers.”

Book Review:

Reviewed by Eleanor Bukowsky (JUN 5, 2009)

Jack Reacher is in the Big Apple in Lee Child’s Gone Tomorrow. He is just passing through, minding his own business, but as usual, trouble follows Reacher wherever he goes. This time, he is heading uptown on the number six train at two o’clock in the morning when he spots a woman who is displaying many of the behavioral indicators of a suicide bomber. Reacher approaches her and tries to talk her down, but he unwittingly ends up making a bad situation worse. This incident will have wide-ranging ramifications and will eventually involve an ambitious member of Congress, the New York City Police Department, the FBI, and the Department of Defense. Our hero, naturally, becomes a target, and he will need to make good use of his superior brainpower and awesome fighting ability to outsmart and overpower those who want him dead.

Child, who is British, long ago earned a cult following. His books are now a must read for those who enjoy escapist action-adventure novels. Reacher is the prototype of the taciturn loner who cares little about material possessions, but like a lawman in the old West, travels from town to town to clean up the messes created by more fallible human beings. Jack is sharp and observant; he scrutinizes people’s dress, body language, and speech for subtle clues that less alert people often miss. Although he is no longer a youngster, Reacher can still handle a weapon with ease and more than holds his own in hand-to-hand combat.

The plot of Gone Tomorrow involves a pair of bloodthirsty villains who enter the United States under false pretenses. Jack finds himself in their crosshairs; at the same time, he is caught in the middle of nasty turf wars between competing law enforcement agencies. Although he could have walked away from this mess, Reacher decides to get involved for reasons of his own, and the result is a grueling and bruising encounter with some extremely malicious adversaries.

This is a fast-paced and entertaining novel with intriguing tidbits about renting a hotel room on the cheap, various ways to elude your pursuers in subway tunnels, and how to use duct tape to save your life. Child has fun leading us and his protagonist down the garden path with a host of red herrings and false information. This book has its share of violent confrontations, a dollop of romance, and enough excitement to keep Child’s fans eagerly turning pages, wondering how their favorite macho man will get himself out of yet another impossible situation.

AMAZON READER RATING: stars-4-0from 509 readers
PUBLISHER: Delacorte Press (May 19, 2009)
REVIEWER: Eleanor Bukowsky
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE: Lee Child
EXTRAS: Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: Read our review of:

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