One Shot

I almost didn't find this book because it has been relisted as "Jack Reacher: One Shot", linking it to the movie "Jack Reacher"

Don't let that put you off. The book is better than the movie if only because I didn't have to watch 5'7" Cruise playing 6'5" Jack Reacher.

This book starts a sniper killing people in a public square. The police do a thorough and efficient job and quickly find the killer. An absolute slam dunk. No doubt about it. Which immediately tells anyone who has read the other Reacher books that nothing is as it appears to be.

For once, Reacher is not pulled into the action by a damsel in distress but by a clever plot device that places him in am ambiguous position about wh0's side he's on and which undermines his show more credibility with the police.

Reacher's violent nature and huge size are used against him to force him into hiding. He then has to solve the case and kill the bad guys on his own. Except the plot doesn't quite allow for that so he recruits a temporary "Scoobie Gang" and takes them all with him to get the job done.

There are some good things in the this book: great exposition of the original police investigation, lot's of stuff on how to shoot with a long gun that's actually kept quite interesting, a fight staged like a ballet and a reasonably well-drawn set of characters.

Unfortunately the elaborate plot and the implausible violence of the denouement stretched my suspension of disbelief so far that it snapped and came back and hit me in the face before the end of the book.

"One Shot" is an enjoyable read but far from Lee Child's best. show less

Good mystery-crime novel with lots of fast-paced action with a tease of romance. Fine literature it's not, but action packed, it is. There are several main characters and each has their own characteristics. For example, weaponizing the female reporter was a fun thing. Child always seems to introduce the bad guys early on and we follow their actions throughout the book until they're crushed by Reacher and his posse at the end. Happens every time. It seems that Reacher is endowed with knowledge of all things and from that, picks out the inconsistencies to solve the case. Meanwhile, the reader wonders: "How did he do that?"

The mastery of a good thriller is in the details and Lee Child delivers a fast-paced, twisty thriller where all the minute details fall together perfectly to engage and entertain the reader. I especially loved the many “lessons” in tactical strategy. The final scene delivers a clever twist that gun enthusiasts will enjoy.

This Jack Reacher mystery was definitely as suspenseful and compelling as any of his I've read, but the plot was a hot mess. I'm usually pretty good at suspending disbelief when reading these, but this was really a bridge too far. The bad guys were cartoon characters and their reasoning and motives were ridiculous. The "civilians" including a TV reporter putting themselves into harm's way to confront the bad guys was beyond the pale. And bringing in the Pentagon lady just so she can lie to police and give Jack a quickie and then never mentioning her again? Just a bad plot and some very unbelievable characters.

One shot was originally published in 2005 and unfortunately was turned into a film staring Tom Cruise, and the film was called Jack Reacher. Tom Cruise is a great actor but there is no way on earth that the mighty midget will ever be Reacher. If you have seen the film and not read the book, forget everything you saw on film and enter the book with a clear mind.

One Shot is the nineth book in the Jack Reacher series, and better than the last one. Lee Child knows how to write an engaging thriller with enough hooks to go line fishing. The reader is enveloped in the crime from the opening page, while leaving clues dotted through out the book. Even when you have worked out who the bad guy(s) may be, you still need to read on as the book is so show more gripping.

In a city somewhere in Indiana, as Friday rush hour is about to begin six shots ring out and five people are dead. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason as to the shooting and nobody is owning up to the killings. There was no connection between the victims and the police believed they had their killer.

Throughout the police interview the alleged gunman kept repeating no comment, and you have the wrong man. He eventually asks the police to get him Jack Reacher. Nobody in the police force or locally knows who Jack Reacher is or where to find him. The message gets to Reacher who duly makes his way there.

Reacher imparts what he knows about the prisoner, who is already convinced of his guilt, banged to rights he thought. The Reacher begins to investigate the actual shooting and delves where the police have not. Reacher knows he cannot tell them about the past and that he needs to look at what is in front of him. He does this and he becomes the hunted.

Reacher cracks the many layers of this case which gives the reader a classic thriller. An engrossing read, which kept me hooked. show less

A typical Reacher mystery thriller, though this one focuses more on the mystery aspect and less on action and guns and killing. I enjoyed this much more than Persuader, the characters were done better and the story, in general, is better. In this one Reacher has to solve a case and find the real killer, despite an ironclad case against someone else - someone from Reacher's past.

I enjoyed this book, and thought it might be a little more complex than many of his stories, but still typical Jack Reacher. The only thing that bothers me is the number of times the author says "Reacher said nothing." I get tired of being told that over and over - if he said nothing, then he said nothing, and there's really no need to keep pointing it out. But it seems to be common in many of the books, and perhaps it's the fact that I'm reading audiobook versions, and the narrator has a way or emphasizing this phrase, it seems