Fifth in the Jack Reacher suspense series revolving around an ex-military policeman wandering the country and getting into a bushel of trouble.My TakeI hated this one! That bitch Carmen and her approach with Reacher. It's just wrong! Stupid twit! What is so important that she has to stick around? She's okay with offering her body, with asking someone to kill for her, but she's not okay with having a clean conscience and going on the run? Even to protect herself and her child? The way she keeps pushing Reacher. Why can't she see how wrong this is? She keeps pushing about the beating she'll have to suffer, wanting Reacher to take care of her problem for her. Bitch. I'd like to slug her myself. Take care of your own damn problem. Collect the hospital records. Track the crap they dish out. Gather up some legal ammo of your own!What is it with people? This story is all about racism. About having and keeping. Especially keeping success or a chance of a decent life from others in almost any way you can describe it. WHAT kind of grandmother is Rusty? Calls her granddaughter "it"? Gets rid of her as soon as possible?Jack took too much at face value. he should have been checking "facts" from both sides. It's only that deductive, mathematical mind of his that figures it out.Ugh, that Red House just sounds NASTY. I gotta wonder if the color and its overall covering isn't a metaphor for something. I mean, who does that??Interesting tricks the assassins use to erase their trail and set their traps. Only, none of them know what they're taking on with Reacher and he certainly has his fun poking away.I did love how Reacher backed good ol' Bobby down. Jerk. No good on his own when he doesn't have his ranch hands backing him up...snicker… I loved Ellie! A birght little girl who seized her chance.Oh man, poor Reacher. Carmen's telling the family he knows all about horse and blacksmithing. All Reacher's thinking is that he knows blacksmithing needs an anvil and does something with horseshoes and they smell terrible. I just loved who taught Reacher how to saddle a horse!Tight and detailed analysis of the gunshots that killed the victim.Ooh, Child just leads us by the nose, playing on our expectations. Laying false trails.It's almost scary how easily Reacher slips inside the criminals' heads. Child did a good job of confusing me every which way and I am so looking forward to Reacher's next adventure, Without Fail.The StoryOn the run from a bullying cop, Reacher hops in the first car to offer a ride. And what a ride it turns out to be. Seems the classy little lady needs a shooter for the husband being released from prison. She thought she had more time. Another year. Instead, she has less than a month and she's been interviewing drifters all over Texas. Reacher. Well, he seems perfect. Even with her sob story, Reacher won't do it. He'll come to the ranch. He'll protect her, but he won't kill.Until that decision is taken out of his hands.The CharactersJack Reacher is six-foot-five and two hundred and fifty pounds of muscle. Vigilant. A product of a lifetime spent on military bases, thirteen years of it as a military policeman. To say he has an excellent sense of his surroundings and the human mind is to underplay his abilities. Reacher is on the road again after Jodie left him. She needs a home and normalcy. Everything Reacher is not.Three assassins who have worked long and well together, the woman in charge. Good instincts.Carmen Greer is an abused wife who refuses to leave. She loves her six-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Mary Ellen, and she has plans for Reacher. Sloop Greer, her husband, is the oldest son of a old Echo County family. One that is wealthy enough to be comfortable. Sloop was wonderful before marriage when the family sent him his allowance. Moving home when that allowance was cut off. The moving back was fine, but not with a beaner wife. Bobby is the younger brother and despises Carmen...right along with their bitch of a mother, Rusty. Bobby's hatred certainly doesn't slow him down when it comes to sexual blackmail.Al Eugene is one of Sloop Greer's two best friends as well as his lawyer. He's working on a deal to get him out of jail faster. Hack Walker is the district attorney running for judge. He's the other of Sloop's best friends; a very convincing good guy.Alice Amanda Aaron is an East Coast, gay, Jewish, vegan woman fulfilling her own five-year plan to put in her time as a lawyer helping the poor. When Reacher hires her, Carmen's case is so far down the line that Reacher makes a deal to collect that judgment Lyndon Brewer, a wealthy white man, is refusing to pay. Brewer's maid (and I) certainly enjoyed it!The CoverThe cover is gleaming in its golden yellowness. A band of fading metallic orange supports a deeper golden ring framing a golden farmhouse surrounded by trees. But it's only golden until you read the story.The title is a metaphor as it's not the town of Echo Burning, but the memories of living there.
Reacher metes out justice for abused Latina in great plot!As usual, ex-MP, now civilian, Jack Reacher is drifting about the country when he's picked up by Carmen Greer, a Latina from a wealthy Mexican-American family who marries Sloop Greer, an oil-rich Texan with a horribly racist family. Their little girl, Ellie, herself a brave smart soul, is the slim tie that binds, but almost immediately Carmen winds up being a punching bag for Sloop. After nearly seven years of injuries, several serious enough to require hospitalization (for "falling off a horse"), Carmen rats on Sloop to the IRS and he winds up in the slammer. But days away from release on parole, she realizes the cycle will merely resume, possibly in more deadly ways. She convinces Reacher with her tale of woe to come help her, even though he refuses her request to "execute" the returning Mr. Greer. From there, a complicated plot ensues, made even more complex by a two-man, one-woman team of assassins who first kill some "watchers" (who we thought might be after the little girl themselves), followed in quick succession by the murder of Sloop, ostensibly at the hands of Carmen. Reacher teams up with Alice the attorney to help defend her and decipher the truth, not an easy task. The plot meanders and twists and turns until a rather surprising villain surfaces right near the end and justice is carried out in Old West style. Lee Child's star Reacher continues to be the lovable and oh so resourceful hero of the four earlier books in this growing set of thrillers. While he is smart enough to solve the most enigmatic investigation, he shrinks not a whit from snapping necks or otherwise dispensing his own brand of "vigilance" to the deserving bad guys and their helpers. That he resists sleeping with Carmen is both admirable and uncharacteristic, leaving us to wonder if he'll maybe take up with her if she ever gets free. Meanwhile, the marvelously suspenseful plot keeps us turning those pages quickly, something we've seen in all the Reacher stories. Child even weaves some interesting thoughts about discrimination into the tale -- Carmen remarks once that she's never even seen Mexico, yet she is treated cruelly as nothing but a "wetback" by most all the story's characters. Why some reviewers felt this novel was a bit off puzzles us -- while we admit to being huge Reacher/Child fans, we felt this story was right up there with the rest, and heartily recommend it!
What do You think about Echo Burning (2002)?
Hot, sweltering Texas, with tempers to match. Rating this whodunit thriller is tough: First half, boring as watching stunted grass shrivel in the scorching West Texas sun ~worthy of one measly star~ Second half, the pace picks up slowly, then accelerates to page-flipping intrigue, as crap starts hitting all the overworked A/C units/fans ~ suddenly five star worthy!~ Four stars is a nice compromise. Glad I hung in there thru the dusty dullness... because Lee Child is a darned good author, and usually delivers fine suspense, with Jack Reacher kickin' butt big time. (Sure, some of the plot tends to test one's credulity, but hey, it is fiction!) Finally, Reacher kicks the action into high gear, applying his inimitable reasoning processes, backed by commando-style muscle. Sort of a one-man vigilante team; sometimes necessary when the local Law is sidewinder-crooked. Lots of bad guys to cheer being done in, plus a few good ones to cheer on. Great mix of interesting characters.
—Carol
Jack Reacher is always in the wrong place at the wrong time. While that is a bit unbelieveable - the rest of this novel is slamming!!! Reacher hitches a ride in Texas with a lady who claims her husband is beating her.. She eventually asks Reacher to kill her husband who is coming home from prison to start up in a couple of days. Reacher offers her a different type of help, but soon is embroiled in a murder mystery full of those wonderful Lee Child twists and turns leading up to an action-packed climax that leaves the reader nearly breathless. Okay, the last few pages wrap up did seem a bit contrived... but I am absolutely loving this series... and I am working diligently to get my hands on all of them.
—David
Lee Child has once again given a book so many twists and turns, I couldn't put it down until ALL the clues were present. Well, even the best clue wasn't revealed until the last 50 or so pages! A woman pick up Reacher when he is escaping out a bathroom window. Oh good grief. I'm picturing my hero running away from the cops. The woman is desperate. Needs Reacher's help to kill her husband. Whoa, even I was yelling "Reacher, don't do it! Something is OFF about this woman and her story". What baffles me is what the heck was Reacher thinking when Carmen lost all credibility toward 2/3 of the book, and STILL believed her. What was it! I did have a sneaky hunch about the border control. It had to fit in there somewhere, I just didn't know how. It is a terrible feeling when a woman says "my husband beats me" and then no one believes her. All is lost and you're stuck in a gruesome situation with no end in site. I know that feeling! Carmen takes Reacher home to be hired as a ranch hand, oh boy. I had to laugh. Reacher?!? I ranch hand, no experience with horses what so ever. Okay dude, how are you going to pull it off? I got my answer right away, a little girl who is smart as a whip and very helpful. I saw a different side of Reacher in this book. A child! I'm glad Reacher stuck around. Enough said.
—Freda Malone
