Nothing to Lose (2008)

In the last Reacher book, "Bad Luck and Trouble", Reacher meets up with the remnants of his old unit. All of them had moved on into careers. Reacher is essentially a glorified hobo who move on from one adventure to the next, without forming any permanent attachments. One of his old comrades asks him what he's running from. As is his wont, "Reacher said nothing".

Now comes "Nothing to Lose". I can only conclude that either Lee Child had an off year and couldn't write a Reacher consistent with his previous appearances, OR Reacher is bottoming out and is in need of an intervention. The Jack Reacher in the previous novels is a taciturn hero. The one in "Nothing to Lose" is belligerent and reckless, and has probably committed some form of manslaughter against innocent people.

Does he uncover a criminal conspiracy? Yes? Does he kick ass and foil it? Yes. But what sets him off on his destructive course is his own ego. He enters Despair, Colorado, a town that is less than welcoming to outsiders, and gets the bum's rush. Reacher doesn't take this disrespect lightly, and resolves to go back to Despair. He convinces himself that something is going on there that is not on the up-and-up.

I don't want to spoil the plot, so I won't go into the things he does that are so out of line. Just bear in mind that I'm starting for fear for his sanity.

Others have criticized this book on the ground that Reacher has all of a sudden become political. I don't think this is true. Ever since the early days he's been distrustful of the government and military brass while maintaining his sympathies to the common grunt. His experiences in "The Enemy" were pretty disillusioning, and I can see the common thread.

Another observation: in my review of "Bad Luck and Trouble", I remarked on how Reacher is always "butting" stacks of paper together. Well, paper-butting fans, I'm sorry to tell you that Reacher doesn't butt any paper in this outing. No. He's started butting rocks together. Maybe in the next book he'll butt scissors together for the trifecta. ( )

I picked up this book because Lee Child is one of my bookstore's consistently steady sellers and I feel obligated to read the biggest authors so I can amp up my suggestive sells. Unfortunately, after reading the other reviews on this site, it appears the general consensus is that the Child novel that I randomly chose from the shelf is among the worst in the series. And boy was it bad. So very, very bad, and all because of the characters. Everyone in the novel was painfully flat, seeming to lack any motivation or internal dimensions or even personalities. The story was set in fictional/metaphorical Colorado towns called Hope and Despair and alas, the ha-ha-clever constant wandering between the two by the characters was apparently used as a substitute for any actual expression of emotions on the part of Reacher & co.

The particular details of the plot were actually fine--mildly intriguing, not dull or incomprehensible. However, the pacing of the story felt worn--even without having read any of the other books in the series I can guess at the formula that probably girders all of the others: taciturn, tough Reacher wanders into small town, sniffs out something fishy, randomly decides to fix it all, and serendipitously attracts a beautiful/fragile woman to sleep with him--I mean aid him in his investigations. Much coffee is guzzled and many barfights with incredulous odds are started and won by Reacher. I'm right, aren't I? If anyone can say different maybe I'll pick up another--like I say, the plot wasn't horrid, and this is supposedly the worst of the lot--but until then, I'll consider my research complete. ( )

Story about two towns - Hope and Despair. Jack Reacher walks through Despair and is picked up for vagrancy and driven over the town line and left in Hope. There he's met by an attractive policewoman with mysterious secrets. There's plenty of strange goings on in Despair and Jack of course has to investigate and sneak into town and beat up half the town.

This book isn't my favorite Jack Reacher book. ( )

The physical distance between the tiny towns of Hope and Despair is a short car ride and a long walk. The metaphorical distance is about what you'd figure. It's really too bad for the town of Despair that they didn't just dump Jack Reacher on the western edge. But they forced him to backtrack, and that just didn't sit well.

Reacher is, as always, a tough guy. He has his usual soon-to-be-terminated relationship with a slender, attractive, female. He beats a bunch of people up. And blows a large, radioactive hole in the middle of what was a very dismal section of Colorado. If you expected anything different, you don't know Reacher very well. ( )

I have become a devoted Lee Child fan. I didn't think this one measured up to others I have read but it was still quite good. ( )