In this, his second outing, ex-Army Major Jack Reacher is minding his own business, walking past a dry cleaning shop in Chicago, when an attractive young woman emerges from the shop with nine bags of expensive clothes, a bad knee, and a crutch. She drops the crutch and Reacher jumps to her assistance. In the same moment, two armed kidnappers materialize and order Reacher and the woman into a waiting car.As any crime fiction reader understands by now, Reacher could take these two thugs with no problem whatsoever. Unfortunately, there are a number of innocent bystanders who might be hurt if the kidnappers manage to get off any shots. Reacher makes this calculation and then follows the woman into the car and is taken along for the ride.It turns out to be a very long ride in an Econoline van, all the way from Chicago to northwestern Montana, where a nutty but well-armed militia group is preparing to declare its independence from the United States. The kidnapped woman, Holly Johnson, is an FBI Special Agent. She is also the daughter of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the militia's psychopathic but charismatic leader intends to use her as a high profile hostage.Under normal circumstances, Holly would be well-equipped to handle herself. She is one of the strongest female characters to appear in this series. But with her bum knee, which she injured in a soccer game, she could use a little help. Reacher, of course, is there to provide it, and he and Holly together will have to struggle mightily both to defend Holly's virtue and to prevent the militiamen from accomplishing thier objectives.This is a fun read, and fans of the series certainly won't want to miss it. I'm giving it three stars rather than four because it requires more than just the usual suspension of disbelief. In the cold light of day, the whole plot is pretty implausible. Also, it's clear that Lee Child did a lot of research for this book regarding the weaponry involved. And having done the research, he was apparently determined to use it all. There are a number of points in the book where the action slams to a halt while Child describes in exquisite detail the weapon in question. We then take several paragraphs to watch the powder ignite and the bullet slowly make its way through the barrel of the gun, out into the light of day and arc its way toward the target.The first time this happens, it's kind of interesting and it does help to build the suspense. After that, you just want him to get on with it. Still, that's a relatively minor complaint, and inevitably, every series must have its weaker entries. To say that most of the Reacher novels are better than this one is not to suggest in any way that it's a bad book, but clearly at this point, Child was still working his way into what would become an excellent series.
Why isn't he dead? That is what I kept thinking.High stakes thriller. Things that kept bothering me, though:The "damsel in distress" was capable, but crippled by a sports injury This is lame, pardon the pun. Three things grow from this and none of them are good. 1)She appears to be helpless and reliant on the men in her life (love triangle, btw) 2)Her apparent strengths are muted, therefore outside of one heroic moment that confuses the heck out of me, she failed to show her charisma, training and skills 3)Her role is reduced to waiting for someone to "save" herThe long descriptions of the simple mechanism of firing a sniper rifle was offset by the brevity of much of the other description. It felt unbalanced and odd. Incomplete sentences are used for effect, however, long, run-on sentences flourish when Child wants to discuss how a gun works. Honestly, I have read Stephen Hunter and even to some extent Tom Clancy and they both do a better job. Several dialogue cues were attributed to the wrong person.Several dialogue nuances irritated me. Some of these may be attributed to dialect, but three different people with differing backgrounds and generations used the same expression: "Hell you doing?" This was repeated at least 6 times. Two times by Holly, once by Reacher, once by Beau, and once by one of Beau's lackeys. I think McGrath repeated once as well. Should it not be, "What the hell are you doing?" Many of the plot elements were obvious and contrived. The second time Reacher tried to escape and got caught, he should have been shot on the spot. That he survived long enough to once again overpower them, and kill without being shot himself pushed the boundaries of my imagination.The lack of insight the main characters had regarding the mole was astounding. I thought it was easy to figure out. If you have learned that you have a mole, all trust and reliance on your colleagues would go right out the window. I had it figured out as soon as the information was leaked. Actually, I saw it coming when Child foreshadowed it early on: THREE TIMES!I don't want to be too harsh. The writing is not horrible. It is a cut above Patterson but much inferior to Cussler, Elmore Leonard, Stephen Hunter, John Le Carre, and Robert Ludlum. I will read a couple more and them I want to try another popular thriller writer, Vince Flynn. I have heard a lot of great things about him.
What do You think about Die Trying (2008)?
This was a fantastic book but I must be honest to a certain extent. I'll do my best to describe this without spoiling it. So at the halfway point if not a little be passed it I would have bet a million that it would end up a Waco/standoff/cult like 2nd half. 1. I was wrong. 2. I thought it might have been jazzed up by having you know who go Rambo, not needed and not the case 3. I was way wrong. At about the 60% complete range it started to get predictable, I was a solid 3 star's at that point as well. After finishing this book I don't even remember the halfway point. So much happened in the 2nd half of this novel that by the time of the ending and seeing how they "confirm" the automobile (lol I said I would try to not give anything away) I had completely forgot about it. I think this was a great thriller and as someone that reloads/casts bullets etc. I appreciated the authenticity of the firearms and said lingo (that's why I'm a huge Stephen Hunter fan btw). I wouldn't go as far to say that this is a favorite because it's leveled off and any book I deem a favorite of mine means that from page 1 to the end I was no less a 5. I mean even books that are not so good until the end can still leave you intrigued throughout, I seriously thought I had this book pegged at the halfway point. I will also say that I've never been so glad to be proven wrong. If you enjoyed the first, ignore the book description it does describe anything, read this. Also, finish the entire thing as well ;). format- audiobook
—Wesley
The Reacher books overuse the words "right" and "ok." Seriously, it is extremely annoying. Go get the notebook ok? He looks like he's mad right? Every other piece of dialogue has the words "right" or "ok." Other than that, these books are decent. Typical action based shoot em up style books. Reacher is a badass and doesn't follow whatever rules or laws you have in place to govern your society. He's a loner, and doesn't like to be in any place for more than a few days. As far as I could tell from book one, he doesn't like relationships, yet he falls pretty hard in this one. I don't know what it is about mysteries and thrillers with male leads that the author determines it's essential for the main character to have a new woman every story, but it happens, and it is happening in this series as well so far. Die Trying is about a group of militants in Montana that decide to hold an FBI agent hostage. That's pretty much it. It's extended over 400 pages with some extra filler added to the mix, but that's about as complex as it gets. There aren't any surprises here, and I didn't particularly feel the tension, but it was good enough to finish, and wasn't terrible.That was a good review, right?I don't know, maybe you should stick to your day job, OK?Right.
—Ithlilian
While I still really liked the book, it did seem pretty long. Some of the descriptions of guns and trajectory and calculation were a bit long. Not quite as good as the first book, but still entertaining. Totally related to his first, terrifying crawl under the mountain where he thought he was stuck. I liked all the conspiracy theories. Cars do have tracking devices - onSTAR. I read that soldiers were getting implanted tracking chips so if a plane went down, they could be found. Then talk of putting it in old people so if they were hurt, response time could be quick. Next will be children so if they're kidnapped we can find them. We already do it to our pets. They make it sound so reasonable, and for our safety! We all know we can be tracked by our phone. I always think of Princess Amadala in the senate hearing. She questions, "How is our liberty taken from us? With thunderous applause." This is not a quote, just a recollection.I did pay attention to his description: 6'5"' blue eyes, thinning fair hair. STILL not Tom Cruz.
—Michelle
