Worth Dying For

September 6, 2010
In Child's exciting 15th thriller featuring one-man army Jack Reacher (after 61 Hours), Reacher happens into a situation tailor-made for his blend of morality and against-the-odds heroics. While passing through an isolated Nebraska town, the ex-military cop persuades the alcoholic local doctor to treat Eleanor Duncan, who's married to the abusive Seth, for a "nosebleed." Reacher later breaking Seth's nose prompts members of the Duncan clan, who are involved in an illegal trafficking scheme, to seek revenge. Reacher, who easily disposes of two hit men sent to get him, winds up trying to solve a decades-old case concerning a missing eight-year-old girl. While Child convincingly depicts his hero's superhuman abilities, he throws in a few lucky breaks to enable the outnumbered Reacher to survive. Crisp, efficient prose and well-rounded characterizations (at least of the guys in the white hats) raise this beyond other attempts to translate the pulse-pounding feel of the Die Hard films into prose.

October 1, 2010

Whatever business Jack Reacher has in Virginia will have to wait till the world's most distractible soldier of fortune cleans up the mess he's stumbled into amid the cornfields of the Midwest.

After hitchhiking as far as Nebraska, Reacher minds his own business precisely long enough for the sozzled doctor sharing a hotel bar with him to get a call from a patient with a nosebleed. Forget about ignoring her, Reacher tells the startled medico. If she's had nosebleeds recently, she may well be taking aspirin that's thinned her blood and made it likely that she'll keep on bleeding. Better to have Reacher drive him to Eleanor Duncan's house so that he can see whether her husband's been beating her. In the end, Eleanor's nosebleed turns out to be inconsequential—it's not even Seth Duncan who's beaten her this time—but his perverse, aggressive, utterly characteristic stint as the good Samaritan pulls Reacher into the orbit of Seth's father Jacob and Seth's uncles Jasper and Jonas. Because they're a tight-knit family, they don't plan to take Reacher's interference lying down. And because they're engaged in criminal enterprise, their clients, already putting pressure on them for a mysteriously delayed delivery coming down from Canada, plan to go after this interloper themselves. In a flash, the ex-Army cop is the subject of a manhunt by the Duncans' thugs, their Italian client's thugs, the Italian's Lebanese client's thugs and the Lebanese's Iranian clients' thugs. With so many strong-arm types flooding the prairie, there are plenty of opportunities for violence, treachery and double-crossing—think of a Nebraska remake of A Fistful of Dollars with an international cast—and Child (61 Hours, 2010, etc.) doesn't miss a single one. By the time he's finally shaken the dust from his feet, Reacher will have plumbed the depths of a monstrous unsolved crime, cleaned up the county and killed a lot of mostly nameless guys who really deserved it.

It's hard to imagine a single white-collar wage slave who won't thrill to this latest Robin Hood fantasy of righteous vengeance.

(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

October 1, 2010

Having survived the near-cataclysmic ending to 61 Hours, Jack Reacher is on the prowl again. It's only a few days later, still bitterly cold, and Reacher is in Nebraska, where he finds a community ruled by a family of crooks. The Duncan clan specializes in beatings, murder, child molestation, and smuggling. They are also protected by a bunch of ex-linemen from the University of Nebraska, who are large, strong, and not very smart. However evil and sadistic the Duncans are, they are small fish in the world of smuggling and fearful that their sleazy empire will collapse. Thus, when a totally annoyed Reacher starts to dismember both it and the goons, the Duncans become increasingly desperate, calling for outside help from the Mafia and sordid Middle Eastern partners. With Reacher outnumbered about 20 to one, the odds just don't seem fair--to the bad guys, that is. VERDICT Reacher's growing number of fans will enjoy this one. Unless, of course, they went to the University of Nebraska. Highly recommended. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 5/1/10.]--Robert Conroy, Warren, MI

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2010
When we last encountered Jack Reacher, he was getting blown up in South Dakota. Now hes in Nebraska, nursing his injuries and trying to make his way to Virginia. But Middle America isnt treating Reacher well at all. The virtual ghost town where he finds himself in Nebraska is run by three severely bent brothers who are holding the farmers in the area hostage, demanding exorbitant prices to have their crops shipped. But the brothers are hauling something beside corn, and Reacher decides to find out what. To do so, however, hell need to deal with the brothers henchmen and with two sets of even more lethal thugs in the employ of smugglers farther up the brothers supply line. The Magnificent Seven plot will be familiar to Reacher fansheartless bad guys who abuse good-hearted little people get their comeuppancebut this time there is an almost by-the-numbers feel to the melee; its almost as if Reacher is target shooting at the county fair. And yet, there is still that emotional surge that comes with watching our guy cut a swathe through the opposition. Wed just like to see him challenged a little bit more. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: No, this isn't the best-selling Child's finest effort, but it won't stop Reacher fans from reading it in record numbers. The national marketing campaign, including a Reacher birthday party on 10/29 and a mobile text campaign, won't hurt a bit.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)