Eleventh in the Jack Reacher suspense series. This one takes place in L.A.My TakeOh. This is such a sad one. So many losses.I found it interesting that Child is allowing Jack to age and start to question what he's doing. This makes it so real. I've been wondering if/when Jack might start to wonder what's happening in and with his life and I love that Child is taking it so slow.It's funny, too, how out of touch he is with modern technology, especially his use of a cell phone. Not knowing about flash drives. He's got the math down. He's a bit of a savant with numbers. He knows people. How they think, how they act. It's fascinating to read how he and Neagley try to figure out what Franz's password is for his computer. No real surprise when they do determine it. He has the respect of his peers. My first reaction is always to cooperate with the police. Good thing that's not how Reacher and his team think.Too funny. Karla and Reacher's big secret that everyone knows.Lord, they are a brutal bunch who aren't afraid to take matters into their own hands. Cops everywhere would envy them this freedom! Although it's a bit frightening to think of less upright people doing the same things.There are a number of reason I love this series. Reacher's sense of fair play and his willingness to ensure it. His intelligence with numbers and figuring events and people's directions. The loyalty he feels and that others feel for him. I do enjoy his lifestyle. It wouldn't be for me, but it certainly makes it easy for Child to "play" anywhere. I love how he figures out the impossible.The StoryThat ATM card ends up being useful when it conveys a secret code that only a fellow MP could understand. It's a 10-30 and Jack is quick to sort through the possibilities. He meets up with Neagley in L.A.—both of them having figured out exactly where to find each other. Where they worry about why they haven't heard from the other six. Why Franz didn't contact at least Neagley. If he contacted all the others.They haven't much to start with, but Reacher's way of getting inside someone's head stands them in good stead. It's how he taught Neagley, how he taught the others, and they were the best. If they were the best, how did the bad guys get the jump on them?The CharactersJack Reacher is almost broke, just a few hundred dollars left in his bank account. With the aftereffects of 9/11, he's had to start carrying identification AND an ATM card. I do love his method for creating his PIN. Frances L. Neagley is his former sergeant. She's now a partner in a big firm in Chicago and desperate to get in touch with Jack. They last partnered up in Without Fail four years ago.The nine of them had been part of a special investigations unit in the military. One that Reacher had created. Their motto was You do not mess with the special investigators. Calvin Franz is the reason they're gathering. To find his murderers. Angela Franz is his widow and they have a young son, Charlie. The others from the old unit are Tony Swan who is assistant director of corporate security for a defense firm, Jorge Sanchez (Milena is his girlfriend) and Manuel Orozco (married with three kids) work security in Las Vegas, David O'Donnell is a private detective in D.C., and Karla Dixon does forensic accounting investigation in New York. Stan Lowrey died years ago in Montana.Thomas Brant is one of the men watching Neagley. Curtis Mauney is his boss with the LA County Sheriff's Department. Azhari Mahmoud is the pivot. Diana Bond works for a jerk of a senator who is on the House Defense Committee. New Age Defense SystemsMargaret Berenson is in charge of Human Resources while Edward Dean is the current quality control manager. Allen Lamaison is the head of security; Swan, Lennox, Parker, and Saropian work for him.The CoverThe cover is a quarter of a red-on-red target transposed on top of a textured cement wall. with the title in an embossed silver and the author's name in an embossed white.The title doesn't come close to events. Jack experiences a lot more than just Bad Luck and Trouble.
This was my first Jack Reacher book. The series had caught my eye a couple of times before, but I had never managed to read one until now. I don't think it helped that days before reading this book, I ran across a conversation about how horrible these books were. Now, I get that they're airport fiction, and I generally don't mind that. Really, airport or beach fiction is fine and a lot of the authors I like would be classified as that.However, I guess because I was on the lookout for errors, I noticed a lot more than I normally would? The plot is okay. I do think I will read more in the series, because I liked it enough to have at least a slight curiosity in what happens to the characters (or what brought them to this point). But, that said, it was the word choice and I don't want to say style, but in a way it was. I just... there were a lot of sentences were I thought words (or the sentences themselves) were redundant. I found myself asking why a lot of time -- why I just had to know X, why X was being brought up again and again, etc. I mean, I get that Reacher likes numbers. I get that Dixon does too. And I understand that in a way, number games were pretty important to the plot. But...not every number has to be in a number game. And I don't need to be constantly reminded of it. Also, I felt the end didn't really resolve the book. I was kind of numb, in a way. My thought was literally "that's it?" Not because it was so amazing and I wanted to read more, but that I just didn't get why it ended there.Look, the book had several short comings. And maybe I was a bit more critical than I normally would be. But I am going to read more in the series, so it's not a total loss. It could just be that this plot didn't stick with me well, and that another plot would be more interesting. *shrugs*
What do You think about Bad Luck And Trouble (2007)?
I've read the books in the Reacher series up to this one. Occasionally Reacher would kill another character, but in this book, he kills 4 people in a row in a pretty horrible way. As long as he has worked it out that its okay then its okay. I don't know if I can keep reading this series. Smug in his attitudes, full of self importance and superiority, and unforgiving. He's a vigilante, a tough guy, without much of a conscience, a sociopath. Aren't prisons filled with people like this? I did enjoy the narration. Dick Hill is great. It's the character of Reacher I have a hard time with. He's so outside of anything human. I also don't like how Child continues to make fun of conservatives, Christians, and certain groups of Americans. He inserts his liberal ideas like PETA. I don't know. Just leaves a sour taste in my mouth.
—Gage Pope
Jesse HolianMrs. EbarviaHonors World Lit.November 27, 2007Bad Luck and Trouble Book ReviewtBad Luck and Trouble by Lee Child was the novel I read. This book is the 11th book, the newest one, in a series about a man named Jack Reacher. Some of the other books in this series are The Enemy, The Hard Way, and One Shot. Lee Child has also written many short stories including “Bloodlines”, “The Chopin Manuscript”, and “Death do us Part”. The newest piece of literature written by Lee Child is Bad Luck and Trouble, the novel I read. Jack Reacher is the main character, followed by seven of his army friends. The book begins with one of Reacher’s buddies getting pushed out of a helicopter. He falls three thousand feet to his death. Reacher and three buddies of his from the army band together in search of the killer or killers, but also in search of the other three buddies who didn’t respond. Reacher and his friends work together by the motto, “No one messes with the Special Investigators.” Reacher and his seven army buddies were the Special Investigators.tThere are many interesting things about Bad Luck and Trouble. Lee Child doesn’t use long, complicated sentences. He uses short, to the point sentences that are descriptive and meaningful. Every sentence in this novel is important. Each sentence also uses great descriptive adjectives to tell you about every place, person, and thing in the novel. The plot in the story is very lively and vigorous, making you turn the page. Each chapter ends with a cliff hanger and picks up a couple chapters later. Putting this book down is impossible.tI think Lee Child did an amazing job writing this book. There is not one weakness in this novel that I can find. The book is well written, descriptive, meaningful, exhilarating, and very enjoyable to read. Lee Child is a great author and I hope he carries on the series.tOverall, Lee Child did an outstanding job in this novel. I don’t think there was one mistake between the front and back cover. This novel was extremely enjoyable to read. Anyone who loves mysteries and thrillers that are invigorating, exciting, and fast-paced would enjoy this novel.
—Jesse
Good late night change of pace after reading Austen's archaic prose earlier in evening. According to the massive ad campaign for his newest book, Child seems to be the latest boss of the hard-boiled crime scene, complete with damaged, loner anti-hero hero as protag. Only 30 pgs into it, but so far, so good. The prose is pretty blunt and spare -- more Hammett than Chandler -- but effective.I stopped reading a few weeks ago,after a 100+ pgs, and haven't felt compelled to return to it. Characters seemed to spend way more time thinking about what's gone wrong and what to do next, without really accomplishing much and not revealing much about themselves. To put it simply, the story got dull -- not a good sign for a mystery. I've probably abandoned it for good.
—Tom
