Review: 2 Jack Reacher Novels by Lee Child

This past week I read Character Assassination by Leigh Morgan, about Tom Cruise being cast as Jack Reacher.

I am forced to agree with Leigh about the unsuitability of Tom Cruise to play Lee Child's iconic hero Jack Reacher.

Thinking about Jack Reacher is probably what led me to reading 2 Jack Reacher novels back to back. In case you don't read thrillers and don't know what I'm talking about, Lee Child is the author of these suspense novels starring the 6'5", blond, blue-eyed ex-military policeman Jack Reacher. See that's the problem millions of fans have with Tom Cruise playing Reacher. He doesn't come close to fitting the physical description.

However, no casting director in Hollywood asked fans who they'd like to see as Reacher – Liam Neeson definitely comes to mind. Movies are cast according to box office receipts. I'm sure that Cruise will do an adequate acting job, but die-hard Reacher fans will find the physical discrepancies jarring.

So I started the week with Jack Reacher: One Shot. When the book opens, you think you know all about what has happened and why. As you read, you're wondering, since this is the first 10% of the book, how the story is going to fill the rest of the book when you already know what happened, how, and why. Don't despair. Lee Child is masterful in building a story to a climax that surprises yet at the same time seems very logical. I suspected the outcome, but maybe that's because I'm a writer and I read with more of an analytical brain than the average reader.

You won't be disappointed with One Shot, and you'll appreciate the urban survival tactics Reacher employs. It's like a primer on how to be invisible in a city.

61 Hours: A Jack Reacher Novel won't disappoint either.Since a cold front just hit Texas, this book provided an appropriately cold setting, making me appreciate the mild Texas cold weather when contrasted with the South Dakota setting of 61 Hours.

I lived in South Dakota for a year so I can appreciate the hero's distaste for the frigid temperatures, the driving snow, and the dangerous ice. Of course, when I was in South Dakota, I didn't have to worry about a bunch of near-rabid assassins which is what Reacher is faced with in this novel. In this book, Reacher seems more emotionally vulnerable than in other books. But, that vulnerability doesn't affect his ability to kick ass.

Takeaway Truth

If you like action thrillers with a larger-than-life hero who is at once intelligent, likable, and unstoppable, pick up a Lee Child novel.