Die Trying

Reacher is growing on me. I like the guy. His adventures are a stretch, but hugely entertaining. Like one of those big, action adventure box-office smashes that makes no sense, but has great special effects and one-liners.

Once again, complete and utter happenstance puts Reacher in the thick of things. Signals are misread, motives assumed, mistakes made and he’s in for the long haul. His innate and dominant sense of right and wrong keeps him involved when he had opportunity to leave; he’s a hero and he can’t walk away from someone in distress. Plus we learn a bit more about his past and what we learn makes us like him more. I love Child’s decision to not give us the whole story, but instead to draw it out with small nuggets of show more info in each book. It keeps the readers engaged and interested in his character. Other authors would do well to learn this (I’m looking at you Jeff Lindsay).

This time we’ve got a bunch of amped-up segregationists hid out in (surprise!) Montana with lots of guns, money and crazy talk. They’re nuts, but well organized and deadly serious. It’s almost too delicious watching and waiting for Reacher to bring it all down and kick some serious ass. That being said, I do wish one particular bad guy got more of a drawn out awakening of his failure before he met his final end. Child pulled the punch when it came to it and it was my only disappointment in an otherwise excellent Reacher adventure. show less

"Die Trying" was good, but not great. I think the pacing slowed down too much about midway through. Detailed descriptions of one of the main locations got in the way of the main action.

Jack Reacher accidentally runs into an FBI agent who's at that very moment been targeted for abduction. Both endure a long ride west in a box truck, not knowing where they're going or what's happening. Turns out, a militia bent on creating a new nation and collapsing the US is responsible.

I think 100 or so fewer pages could have done wonders for the tension in the book.

I was convinced to try Lee Child by my mother-in-law, and I'm very greatful to her for the recommendation. Jack Reacher is an ace hero, even though this is Child's second Reacher novel I didn't feel I'd lost anything in not having read the first one. I get the feeling that we will never know enough about Reacher for him to ever have much of a back story. It is obvious after the first chapter or two that this was written prior to 9/11. It feels almost strange reading a thriller set in the US that makes no mention at all of the twin towers or Islamic terrorism, there almost feels like there is an innocence or naivety about the writing. This novel features right-wing American extremist and their attempt to create their own independent show more state while simultaneously committing a terrorist atrocity. They hadn't reckoned on a certain Jack Reacher getting in their way - he seems to have skills and infallibilty bordering on superheroism. I hope it doesn't becomer unbelievable as I progress through the series, as I surely shall. show less

This wasn't the page-turner that I am used to when picking up a Jack Reacher book. And for whatever reason I thought some of the endless analysis was over-done. Reacher is always doing a myriad of calculations in a millionth of a second, but every bullet out of every gun broken out in every type of physical environment started to wear on me. And solutions conveniently falling into place in exactly the right sequence at exactly the right time didn't help me with this one.

This WAS written in the late '90s (1998), but I had to laugh that Lee Child's thought to incorporate SDI, Ronald Reagan's equally laughable "Star Wars" program into the story. [Also, funny but not so funny that the fascists that made up the program more than 40 years show more ago, still throw out the same kind of BS daily, and it is gobbled up by the same conspiracy theorists of old, or at least their sons and daughters, grandsons and granddaughters.] show less

1.5 / 5 Rounded up.

I really enjoyed 'Killing Floor', the first Jack Reacher, but this one really left me, at best, unimpressed. I can only think that after the success of the first book, the author was rushed to replicate his hit. I'm almost certain that other books later in the series are better, though I haven't read them yet.

Overall, this novel came across as implausible and strained. And Reacher felt arrogant and unmeasured, taking foolish risks and making unrealistic intuitive leaps. There are some bright spots in the book, but overall it just felt very flat.

*** avast, me hearties, spoilers below ***

* Reacher is swept up in a kidnapping scheme and kidnapped! I'm okay with this, I can roll with unlikely. But then these killers who show more murdered a dentist by *burning him alive* in the trunk of his car? Yeah. They just take Reacher along, regardless of how much of a pain this is for them. They would have just shot him. But of course that would certainly be inconvenient for a Jack Reacher novel if Reacher is shot in the head in the third chapter.

* It's just foolish how many silly risks Reacher takes. I consider him to be a measured, thoughtful person, but in this book, he ain't that. He shoots behind a door where he thinks a turncoat agent is, and turns out to be right! Shocker. All the other character are impressed by his though processes! And early in the novel, he antagonizes the murderous thugs who kidnapped him. Yeah, that will work out well...but amazingly, again, they don't just shoot him. Again, the reason the risk works out is because it's annoying if the main character dies twenty pages into your book.

* The intuitive leaps that turn out to be correct are preposterous. Such as which direction the truck bomb went, where the turncoat spy will be standing, that the enemy gunmen will be gullible enough to believe lasers will take him out if he follows Reacher...I mean, the unbelievable list just goes on and on. show less

Once again, Jack Reacher is in the wrong place at the wrong time. In an effort to help a disabled woman wrangle her week's worth of dry cleaning Reacher is held at gun point and kidnapped along with the woman on crutches. Only she is no ordinary woman. She is Holly Johnson, daughter to the chairman of the joint chief of staff, only the highest ranking military post in the United States. Now it's a race against...what? No one has taken credit for the kidnapping. There hasn't been a ransom note. No demands for her safe return whatsoever. Why was Holly taken?
I enjoyed Child's "peep show" storytelling. He would show a glimpse of what the bad guys were up to (obviously always no good) for only a few pages and then return to Holly's FBI show more rescuers and their efforts to figure out where she had gone.
Additionally, Child's knowledge of guns and their inner workings seemed didactic at times, but in truth it was fascinating. I reread the description of exactly what happens scientifically when a gun is fired several times. show less

Considering Reacher is a mountain of a man whose physique and general demeanor are sufficient to repel any wrongdoer from start it is rather funny (and unbelievably stupid) that the main antagonists in the novel decide to take him up on a ride because he is witness to kidnapping.

I did not know this was second in the series but it shows - Reacher is more one-man army here than in follow up novels (I know, I know but believe me in this novel he is unstoppable).
With all of the above we do come across scenes where Reacher panics but his cool demeanor helps him fight the fear and gain upper hand in conflict.

This might put down some of the readers but I truly enjoyed it. It is standard lone-rider story with Reacher dealing deadly justice to show more psychotic militia in the wilderness of the USA while being considered to be one of the assailants by the law enforcement (which brings me back to the first statement of this review - man is walking weapon and everybody sees this except kidnappers... hilarious).

Good action thriller. Recommended. show less