This was as good as ever.
Also the turning point for me where I began to be tired by Reacher's old chestnut "have a roll in the hay with some woman for no reason because neither of them seem to care one way or the other." ( )

Entertaining!! Love Jack Reacher, who has become a meme of himself by this point. ( )

This is a perfectly adequate Jack Reacher story. It has a mystery. Or two. Jack kicks ass. Several times. He escapes from jail and goes on the run and is apparently in danger. The situations are tense and the writing keeps us turning pages. As a bonus, Reacher has a female companion who is basically his equal. She has his old job. His old office. And she's just as competent.

On the downside, the pace is a bit leisurely and the threat is never extreme. They have cell phones. They have lawyers doing research for them. They make a deal with the MP sent to get them. Once they've broken the fingers and arms of the goons sent to get them, the story is basically over. The end is just cleaning up. It's a bit of a letdown.

At least I've read the book before the movie comes out. ( )

Picks up where "A Wanted Man" leaves off. Yes, throughout the earlier novel, Jack Reacher is trying to hitch a ride to Virginia, but never gets further than Iowa. In this book he makes it, and he gets into hotter water than he was in in the Midwest, if that is possible. As in "Deep Down," we get a glimpse of Reacher's old life in the military, but this time it's not a recounting of those days but a misguided attempt on Reacher's part to go home. "Never Go Back" is Reacher's version of "You Can't Go Home Again," sort of.

Cleverly written as always. You never know where Child and Reacher are going until they get there. For example, why does Reacher become so interested in whether or not Major Susan Turner's new JAG lawyer is white and male? Is it some kind of out-of-character racism/sexism on Reacher's part? Nope. But I'm not going to spoil it for you here.

What does Reacher mean when he talks about alternative ATMs? Why does he expect to find them near Union Station in D.C. or in the middle of wild and wonderful West Virginia? Intriguing questions to which Child has answers.

My favorite development here is that even though Reacher has become a drifter with no responsibilities, once he finds himself as the ranking officer and there is no one else to make life-and-death command decisions, Reacher makes those decisions; it's as if he never left his old high-pressure job.

An issue that Child explores more than usual is that of whether Reacher is an uncivilized savage. Major Turner at first asks whether Reacher is "feral." Eventually, however, she notices two things about Reacher that she finds redeeming: 1) He has a strong sense of right and wrong, and 2) he cares about the innocent. Indeed, almost uncharacteristically, Reacher himself doesn't kill anybody in the course of this novel--albeit, he does torture a few bad guys. Ironically, it is the relatively fastidious Turner who ends up shooting a man to death. She tries to talk to Reacher about it, but he declines to do more than listen. "You don't do counseling?" she says in mock surprise. He doesn't, he says; so Turner allows that it is a good thing she is tough and able to handle these things on her own.

Another novelty of this story is that Reacher is told early on that he has a daughter that he didn't know about. At first skeptical, when he eventually meets the teen, he comes to like the idea of being a daddy, even though he won't admit it to anyone. Conclusion: Reacher has to work at not seeming as civilized as he actually is. ( )

This installment of the Jack Reacher series didn’t quite do it for me. I liked it okay, simply because I love Reacher. The plot was lacking suspense and moments of intense energy. ( )