Jack Reacher finds himself involved in a very mysterious kidnapping case – simply by being the only witness of the money exchange between victim representatives and the kidnappers.
But victim is not exactly what may be called an average family man – he is an owner of small private military contractor company.
Reacher will soon find out this is not a simple case but the one he’ll have to solve the … hard way.

Great action and Reacher is as good as it gets :)
Recommended. ( )

After a mediocre beginning, this book picks up steam and turns into an impossible to put down thriller. I definitely want to read more of the Jack Reacher series. ( )

Enjoyable thriller, but with some truly grisly moments, that not all will enjoy. Reacher's character wasn't as great or interesting as other reviews had made him out to be. ( )

(First published at Blogcritics http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/...)

Jack Reacher, Lee Child's serial hero, savouring an espresso in a cafe in New York, sees a man drive a car away. When he goes back to the same cafe the next day, he is approached and questioned, and allows himself to be drawn into the affairs of a gang of mercenary warriors. The car had been loaded with a $1 million ransom and driven away by the kidnappers who had taken the mercenary chief's trophy wife. By the time it's over, after several sharp plot twists, he's in a gunfight and burying bodies with a backhoe.

Child is a skilled writer, without literary pretensions. His novels are all plot and pace, appealing to fans of suspense and action thrillers, military fiction and tough-guy detective fiction. Jack Reacher used to be an officer in the US Army Military Police, who lives on the road, with the clothes on his back, the money in his pocket, his strength, and his wits. He vaguely resembles John D. MacDonald's legendary Travis McGee, who lived on a houseboat, but Reacher is rootless.

He is more like a character from a spaghetti western, an ominous drifter who breaks the law, but honours a higher law. In real life, the detachment is usually found only in monks, and the violence in serial killers. A man with Reacher's code of honour can't exist outside of a social setting. A man who cares for others will have a different kind of life. This kind of novel appeals more to fantasies of power and freedom than to social values, although there is a chivalrous ethic at work.

It's a nicely crafted entertainment. ( )

Jack Reacher, book 10

Jack Reacher known as the best man-hunter in the world ends up helping Edward Lane, a well-paid mercenary, whose wife and stepdaughter have been kidnapped. Initially Reacher volunteers to help, as the case develops, things prove not to be what they seem. Alarm bells ring when he discovers Lane's previous wife was kidnapped and also during a mission two members of his crew were left behind in a foreign country...what is Lane hiding, what type of character is he?, can he be trusted? Reacher is determined to find the truth, come hell or high water....

This gripping novel captures your attention immediately with a well paced and easy plot; containing a fair share of suspense, action, surprises and romance. The prose is clear and concise all through, no place for ambiguity. The leading character is well drawn; Jack Reacher is a maverick, kind of 21st century cowboy, good hearted globe trotter having another absorbing adventure involving many equally interesting secondary characters.

I started at this point in the series and I feel the story stood on its own and not based on any previous characters and episodes as in some other series. This thriller gives you a definite adrenaline rush, captivating till the end. ( )