Guys love Jack Reacher, the recurring protagonist in a series of thrillers by Lee Child. He’s an ex-military policeman, big, strong, attractive to and successful with women, and nobody can knock this guy down. He observes the tiniest details about people and places, has an unerring internal clock and distance calculator, and a near photographic memory. Otherwise, he’s just like you and me.

Reacher, not working since his military days, decides to cross the country diagonally from Calais, Maine, to San Diego, California. On the way, he stops in the little town of Hope, Colorado. He finds that the next town over is called Despair, and is unable to resist seeing it as well. But the townspeople aren’t so welcoming. He is picked up by the police for “vagrancy” and driven back to the line marking Hope Township. There, he is met by a Hope policewoman, Vaughan, who drives him back into town.

Reacher doesn’t like to be told what to do, and decides to go back to Despair and find out why they’re running visitors out of town. He keeps trying, and keeps getting attacked. Nothing stops Reacher though. In a bar where it is six big guys against just him (or, as Reacher analyzes it, “twelve hundred pounds against two-fifty”), he easily repels all six, then finishes his beer.

Repeated incursions into the town with the help of Vaughan (who can’t resist him, needless to add), reveal a religious cult, a military conspiracy, and an environmental disaster. All routine diversions for Reacher, who takes care of all of it, including the lonely Vaughan, before leaving town once again.

Evaluation: The story isn’t all a video-game-as-a-book. The author injects poignant observations about casualties in Iraq, perceptive comments about foreign policy, and trenchant observations about crowd psychology. Still, it’s basically a book you read when you want to take a break from more rigorous reading. I find the Lee Child novels diverting, and the men I know who read them get positively giddy over the character of Jack Reacher. This one isn’t the best I’ve read, but it will do just fine for an airplane book.

Series Note: Although this is a series, these books stand quite well on their own. ( )

I found this very formulaic: Reacher wanders into town, finds something fishy, beats up bullies, gets involved with a woman, solves mystery, wanders off. I still couldn't put it down, though. A good read, just I was hoping for better from Child.
I also thought that Reacher's sudden vehement political views were both out-of-character, and unlikely for someone with his background. Apparently, Child had to vent his own views through his character. Next time, Lee, invent a character who could realistically be expected to have your views, instead of putting them in Reacher's mouth. ( )

This author’s books always seem to dominate the crime shelves whenever I go into a bookshop, and I’ve been a little dismissive of this author in the past; considering his books a little too thriller’ish for my tastes. A bit of a sweeping conclusion to draw on my behalf without ever having read any of his books. I was prompted to try this author, by a book podcast which reviewed his latest book and it sounded intriguing so I thought I’d give previous book a go. I’m glad I did. The central character is Jack Reacher, a former military cop who now travels through America giving aid to a cause he believes in. Although the concept does follow the lines of a thriller, Reacher is such a no nonsense guy, that I got pulled into the book just by his attitude of having total belief in himself. As well drawn as the character is, and this is an ongoing series so the author has had time to flesh him out, it’s the dialogue which just pulses off the page. Sharp, snappy. And at times very amusing. There’s no use of ‘he said/she said’, just great flowing dialogue. My only slightly complaint, is Reacher is a guy who can measure distances mentally, can weigh up a person when he walks into a room (he even has an eternal clock) and sometimes that level of technical information, for me bogged the story down at times. Personally I’d’ve liked to have seen the story edited a little tighter, but that’s just my personal preference. In the end, this is still a series I want to track down and immerse myself in. ( )

This is an excellent thriller about religious nuts, the Iraq War and corporate profits. Child is excellent at creating a sense of place, creating interesting characters and probing into the American mind. The protagonist is a loner who can observe society from a distance and act accordingly. It is modestly paced and takes time to present and observe the importance of small details in daily life and how they relate to culture, social policy, religion and human relations.

NOTHING TO LOSE is the 12th book featuring Jack Reacher, an ex-military man who left the army in 1997. He is alone as both his parents and his brother are dead, and he travels light. At the start of the book, he is staying in a small town called Hope, 20km away from another small town called Despair, both in Colorado. Before he leaves, he decides to visit Despair, but no-one will serve him in the main town diner, and then the cops turn up to ask him to leave town. He resists, is locked up and then forced to leave town on the basis that he is a vagrant. Ejected, he runs into Vaughan, a female cop on duty in her patrol car, and they strike up an uneasy friendship. Reacher is tenacious. He is determined to find out why he was turned away from Despair without a clear reason. He keeps going back to Despair to try to find out what the town is trying to hide. His friendship with Vaughan develops and she gets caught up in Reacher's investigation. Several things are going on in Despair, and in particular there is something very suspicious going on at the recycling plant, which recycles army vehicles and spent munitions. Reacher eventually teases out the truth, from a mix of experience and intuition, and sorts things out more or less singlehandedly, before heading out of town.
Reacher is not the sort of hero who is likely to settle down, put down roots and start a family, or worry about people's feelings as a consequence of his actions. He buys new clothes when his old ones get dirty, and throws the dirty clothes away. He is insular, determined, and single-minded, and has a lot of experience that helps him to predict how people will behave and win fights even when it is 6 against 1. He doesn't like being told what to do, and doggedly keeps on returning to Despair to find out why they were reluctant to even let him stay for a cup of coffee.
The book is competently written, but rather predictable. It is a good read, but not one of the better Reacher stories. ( )