Editorial Reviews:
Synopsis
pFrom a helicopter high above the California desert, a man is sent free-falling into the night . . . and Jack Reacher is plunged into the heart of a conspiracy that is killing old friends.br br Reacher has no phone, no address, no ties. But a woman from his former military unit has found him using a signal only the eight members of their elite team would know. Then she tells him about the brutal death of one of their own. Soon they learn of the sudden disappearance of two other comrades. But Reacher won’t give up—because in a world of bad luck and trouble, when someone targets Jack Reacher and his team, they’d better be ready for what comes right back at them./p
Amazon.com Review
Ex-military cop Jack Reacher is the perfect antihero--tough as nails, but with a brain and a conscience to match. He's able to see what most miss and is willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done. Each book in Lee Child's smart, addictive series (iThe New York Times/i has referred to it as "pure escapist gold") follows the wandering warrior on a new adventure, making it easy to start with any book, including his latest gem, iBad Luck and Trouble/i. However, be forewarned...once you meet Jack Reacher, you'll be hooked, so be prepared to stock up on the series. i--Daphne Durham/ibrbr p clear="all" hr noshade="noshade" size="1" class="bucketDivider" /b class="h1"Who Is Jack Reacher? A Video from Lee Child/bbrbr table align=center cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" tr td align="center" img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/G/01/books/promos/aplus/lee.child.video.jpg" border=0 align=top br span class="small"bWatch the videob/span /td /tr /table p clear="all" hr noshade="noshade" size="1" class="bucketDivider" /b class="h1"A Note from Lee Child/bbrbrimg src="http://images.amazon.com/images/G/01/books/promos/a-plus/lee.child.jpg" hspace="4" vspace="4" border="0" align="left" Two years ago I was on a book tour, promoting that year's new Jack Reacher novel, iOne Shot/i. One particular night, the event was held in a small town outside of Chicago. The date was June 21st. As I was giving my talk and answering questions and signing books, that date was nagging away at the back of my mind. I knew it had some significance. I started panicking--had I forgotten my anniversary? No, that's in August. My wife's birthday? No, that's in January. My own birthday? No, that's in October.brbr Then suddenly I remembered--it was ten years to the day since I had been fired from my previous job. That was why and how I had become a writer. That night in Illinois was a ten-year anniversary of a different sort, somewhat bittersweet.brbr And ten is a nice round number. So I started thinking about my old colleagues. My workmates, my buddies. We had been through a lot together. I started to wonder where they all were now. What were they doing? Were they doing well, or struggling? Were they happy? What did they look like now? Pretty soon I was into full-on nostalgia mode. Ten-year anniversaries can do that to a person. I think we all share those kind of feelings, about high school, or college, or old jobs we've quit, or old towns we've moved away from.brbr So I decided to make this year's Jack Reacher book about a reunion. I decided to throw him back among a bunch of old colleagues that he hadn't seen for ten years, people that he loved fiercely and respected deeply. Regular Reacher readers will know that he's a pretty self-confident guy, but I wanted him to wobble just a little this time, to compare his choices with theirs, to measure himself against them.brbr The renewed get-together isn't Reacher's own choice, though. And it's not a standard-issue reunion, either. Something very bad has happened, and one of his old team-members from the army contacts him, by an ingenious method (it's hard to track Reacher down). She gives him the bad news, and asks him to do something about it. He says, "Of course I'll do something about it."brbr "No," his friend says. "I mean, I want you to put the old unit back together."brbr It's an irresistible invitation. Wouldn't we all like to do that, sometimes? i--Lee Child/ibrbr hr noshade="noshade" size="1" class="bucketDivider" /b class="h1"Secrets of the Series: A QA with Lee Child/bbrbr bQ:/b Why do you think readers keep coming back to your novels?br bA:/b Two words: Jack Reacher. Reacher is a drifter and a loner with a strong sense of justice. He shows up, he acts, he moves on. He's the type of hero who has a long literary history. Robin Hood, the Lone Ranger, Aragorn from iThe Lord of the Rings/i, Jack Reacher--they're all part of the same heroic family. Reacher just ratchets it up a notch. Maybe more than a notch. Why is he so appealing? Most often people say to me it's his sense of justice; he will do the right thing. Even though there is no reward in it for him, even though there is often a high cost to be paid by him, he will always try to do the right thing and people find that reassuring in today’s world when not too many people are doing the right thing.brbr bQ:/b Jack Reacher gets compared to James Bond, Jack Bauer and Jason Bourne, each of whom now has a "face." In a movie, which actor do you think could fill Reacher's shoes?br bA:/b That's the toughest question. The thing about Reacher is he's huge; he’s 6'5" tall and about 250 pounds. There aren’t any actors that size--actors tend to be small. So we aren't going to find a physical facsimile for Reacher because there aren't any. We have to find someone who is capable of looking big on the screen. Many people have said to me a young Clint Eastwood would have been perfect--we need someone like that who has the vibe of a big intimidating man. Hopefully there will be somebody available like that. It's also a question of finding somebody ready to sign up for more than one movie. They want to make a franchise, minimum of three, and that makes it a little bit harder. brbr bQ:/b What research is involved in writing one of your stories? br bA:/b My research is all kind of backwards. I don't go to the public library for three months and take notes in advance; instead my best research is by remembering and adapting. I read, travel, and talk to people just for the fun of it, filing away these interesting little snippets to the back of my mind and eventually they float to the surface and get used. The problem is, I approach writing the book with the same excitement and impatience that I hope the reader is going to feel about reading it. But even so, I need a certain measure of technical intrigue in the story. There is specific research I have to do as I go along, anything that's a small detail; a car, a gun, a type of bullet. I will check that out at the time. But, that's what I call the detail--the broad stuff is the stuff I already know. brbr hr noshade="noshade" size="1" class="bucketDivider" / span class="h1"strongMeet Jack Reacher/strong/span table border="0" cellpadding="2" width="90%" cellspacing="2"tr class="tiny" align="center" valign="top" td img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0515123447.01-A1L7PF5CNT23PC.TZZZZZZZ.jpg" border="0"brIThe Killing Floor/I/tdtd img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0515125024.01.TZZZZZZZ.jpg" border="0"brIDie Trying/I/tdtd img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0515128635.01-A1DI3XXAD7CH18.TZZZZZZZ.jpg" border="0"brITripwire/I/tdtd img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0515130974.01.TZZZZZZZ.jpg" border="0"brIRunning Blind/I/tdtd img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0515133310.01.TZZZZZZZ.jpg" border="0"brIEcho Burning/I/td/tr/table brbr table border="0" cellpadding="2" width="95%" cellspacing="2"tr class="tiny" align="center" valign="top" td img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0515135283.01.TZZZZZZZ.jpg" border="0"brIWithout Fail/I/tdtd img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0440241006.01.TZZZZZZZ.jpg" border="0"brIPersuader/I/tdtd img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0440241014.01.TZZZZZZZ.jpg" border="0"brIThe Enemy/I/tdtd img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0440241022.01.TZZZZZZZ.jpg" border="0"brIOne Shot/I/tdtd img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0385336691.01.TZZZZZZZ.jpg" border="0"brIThe Hard Way/I/td/tr /tablebr hr /="/" noshade="noshade" class="bucketDivider" size="1" p clear="all"
