The Sentinel

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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"...Someone’s got to [help him]."

"And that someone’s you?”

"I guess so.”

“Why is that?”

Reacher shrugged again. “I’m the one who’s here.”

WHAT'S THE SENTINEL ABOUT?
After a quick (and only slightly violent) stop in Nashville, Reacher finds himself in a smaller city, Pleasantville. Before he can even get a cup of coffee, Reacher sees a group of people act as if they're about to abduct a man on the street. He stops it from happening and then finds himself arrested.

After he's released, Reacher meets the man he rescued and they start to talk. His name is Rusty and he's the freshly dismissed IT manager for the city. He was fired because the city was hit by a show more ransomware attack, which is crippling the city government and causing problems throughout Pleasantville. With only one or two exceptions, the entire populace hates him because of this, convinced that he had a role in the attack. Rusty's determined to prove he had nothing to do with it, and if the city leaders had just listened to him, it all could be avoided. He just doesn't have it all worked out about how he'll do that.

Reacher, on the other hand, thinks more is going on. The people who tried to abduct Rusty aren't disgruntled citizens, they were professionals. Why would professionals care about this? Reacher determines he has to stick around and get to the bottom of it.

Explosions, gunfire, and fisticuffs ensue as Reacher gets closer and closer to discovering what really went on, and hopefully clearing Rusty's name.

A TREND THAT NEEDS TO END
Reacher's no Luddite, he just doesn't care about technology/computers/the Internet/etc. When he has to, he can use them a little, but relying on them is just not in his makeup.

But last year's Blue Moon, and this year's The Sentinel hinge on cybercrimes (at least after a fashion). Which makes sense, this is what thrillers are about right now. But Reacher doesn't belong in this world. He can get by—especially if he has help—but readers need a break from cybercrimes. We need a book or three of Reacher not needing to depend on someone and their laptop.

THE THING EVERYONE'S TALKING ABOUT
Unless you've been living under a rock (which seems like a smart move in 2020, to be honest), you know that Lee Child has started backing away from writing and is handing over the reins to his brother Andrew. As part of that, the two co-wrote this book, a first for both (I believe).

So automatically you know (or at least you should), this is going to feel different than a typical Reacher novel (although, Lee Child's been good about changing the flavor to one degree or another in each book). And it does—Reacher's a bit talkier than we're used to (although he still says nothing fairly often); the prose isn't as sharp, as punchy; and so on. It's not bad, it's just not Lee Child (which ought to be patently obvious).

While it's not strictly a Lee Child book, with his style, it's still good. The plotting is as good as Child at his prime, the fights are as well choreographed and violent, and Reacher's essence is unchanged. At the end of the day, Lee Child picked his successor (unlike Robert B. Parker, Ian Fleming, etc.), if he's satisfied, I can get used to this new style (while Andrew Child catches his stride)

SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT THE SENTINEL?

Reacher’s general approach to driving was to find someone else to do it. He was capable of operating a vehicle, in a technical sense, The army had provided thorough training. He’d never killed anyone with a car. At least not by accident. He’d never had any collisions, Not unintentional ones. His problem was mainly one of temperament, Good driving called for a balance of action and reaction, speed and restraint, measurement and control. A middle ground, stable and sustained. Reacher on the other hand was built for extremes. His default was to move extremely slow or extremely fast. One moment he could appear languid, lazy, almost comatose. The next he could erupt into a frenzy of action, furious, relentless, for as long as necessary, then relapse into serene stillness until the next threat presented itself.

The Sentinel has all the things you need in a Reacher novel—an individual in need of help, a physical challenge (actually, one of the toughest I can remember for him), a truly evil antagonist (you'll have multiple reasons to root against this guy), and plenty of justice for Reacher to mete out.

Is it Reacher at his best? No. But he hasn't been at his best for a couple of years anyway. Is it Reacher that provides solid adventure? Yup. Even a mediocre Reacher is entertaining (and this isn't at that point), it's going to take Andrew a little bit to fit into his brother's mold (or as close to it as he wants to go), I'm willing to let him figure out how to do that, and will jump back for #26 as soon as I can. show less

I have been a huge fan of the Jack Reacher series for many years. I've read and enjoyed every single one of them. Jack is a character with…well, character. He is really and truly one of the good guys. He always said what needed saying and knew when to just listen. He was steadfast and dependable to a fault. Now we are presented with a somewhat “different animal”. I knew that Lee Child was going to be joining efforts with his brother Andrew Childs (Grant)…a noteworthy author himself …and that the writing was going to be a combined effort by these two good writers. Since I had read and enjoyed Andrew Grant’s books before, I wasn’t too concerned about this change. The book is good but it does have some slight “first time” show more hiccups. Jack isn’t quite his old self. He talks way more than usual…the story contains more description that is really needed to set the scene...Jack gets off fewer of those great one-liners…he isn’t as “surprising” in his actions as he once was, except to the bad guys that still underestimate him… and he’s become more social. A “social” Jack Reacher is a scary thing. Did I dislike the change in the character or the book? Absolutely not!! I will just wait for the two authors to decide if readers will want the old tried and true Jack back or welcome this “new and improved” version. Either way…I hope this series goes on for a long, long time. show less

In this, the twenty-sixth Jack Reacher novel, the author, Lee Child, is joined by a co-writer, his son and published author, Andrew Child. Having read all of the previous Reacher novels and having become ever more bored with the barebones writing of Lee Child, Andrew's contribution breathes new life into the series.

Instead of the nearly monosyllabic Reacher dialogue this reader has grown to expect from the elder Child, the younger Child attaches some meat to the skeletal dialogue that sets the scene and that allows other characters to have unique voices and various interests and meaningful reasons for their behavior that actually make the story interesting.

And this is an interesting and timely story that involves Russian spies, show more neo-Nazis, ransomware, and the security of elections with the process of recycling added for zest.

For better or worse, though, its abundantly clear which chapters are written by Child-the-Elder and which are written by Child-the-Younger. This reader, who is fond of Reacher and his Robinhood persona, hopes that the younger Child will impress on the older one that writing a novel is actually more involved than just slapping down some snappy dialogue as if for a television series. show less

Jack Reacher Aging Out

Is Jack Reacher getting old or is it that the reader has just read the same chasing about and bashing heads once too much? Whichever, Reacher has become a less satisfying retreat from reality with each of his recent outings. Only the most diehard fans will like this one, wherein Reacher lands in a small Tennessee town, where he discovers Russian agents skulking about in an effort to interfere with U.S. elections and neo-Nazis dreaming of those good old Nuremberg rally days.

For this 25th edition of Jack Reacher, Lee Child has brought on his younger novelist brother Andrew Child (née Grant) to lend a hand. As a result, readers will notice a significant change in tone. Under Lee Child alone, especially in the earlier show more novels, Reacher, as well as the descriptions, jumped off the page in staccato fashion, like machine-gun fire. This tone has always, at least for this reader, been an integral part of the Reacher persona. Sad to say, it has been lost, and, thus, the novel loses one of its great appeals. Reacher is an imposing individual physically, but without his snarky, rapid-fire patter, well, he just seems like the same lovable hunk of deadly beef. Further, the machinations here ring all too familiar; that is, lots of dashing here and there to fill out the requisite 350 pages (readers surely have noticed that all Reacher novels run the same length, give or take a page or two). Fortunately, while Reacher exhibits his same brand of self-righteousness and street justice, at least he is not nearly as cruel as he had become in his last couple of outings.

That all said, this Reacher novel remains better than most of this ilk, so even this disappointment will not stop this reader from picking up Reacher 26, with the hope Jack will by then have given the Childs a good talking to and returned to the tried and true 10-word sentence formula. Those new to Reacher are recommended to start at the beginning of the series. show less

Still Reacher, No Drop in Quality
Review of the Random House Audio audiobook (October 2020)

Like many Reacher fans, I was alarmed to read that author Lee Child (pseudonym of James Grant) (1954-) was retiring and passing his franchise over to his younger brother and fellow author Andrew Grant (1968-).

I was relieved to discover that The Sentinel was a solid continuation of the Reacher canon and even had references that hearkened back to the early days which Lee Child had otherwise neglected in the mean time. Examples of this were the references to early American Blues and R'n'B musicians and songs and the 'radio' in Reacher's head which I don't think has been mentioned hardly ever since Killing Floor (Reacher #1 1997).

The Sentinel is in show more textbook Reacher style, the Shane, the Yojimbo, the Man with No Middle Initial comes to a tormented town and cleans out the villains. This time a town is held hostage to a cyber attack that has ransom-wared its computer systems and thus shut down most of its electronics related utilities and locked its digital records. Reacher has hitched a ride into town from Nashville with the insurance agent who is there to negotiate the ransom. He of course finds trouble and a victim to protect almost immediately. You can guess the rest.

Veteran narrator Scott Brick does a solid job in all voices, having taken over the series narration from fellow veteran Dick Hill (also a retiree) a few books ago.

Reacher is in safe hands for the future.

Trivia
The count for the series tag-line "Reacher said nothing" was a solid 12 times, just about in the median range for the series. show less

It has been several books since I read a Jack Reacher novel. For me, they had become entirely too predictable. Reacher drifts into town, finds a more than friendly local cop or waitress, cleans out the problem caused by entrenched locals, and moves out and on down the road. Names and places changed, but the basic premise did not. Just like twelve or more books later, the private detective still goes to the abandoned warehouse at 2 am without a weapon or self-awareness, Reacher had become far too predictable for me.

It also did not help that my reading speed and concentration has dipped markedly for the last three years. Not only have I not been able to resume my own writing, I simply don’t read as fast as I was used to and have a far show more harder time tracking a story from start to finish. Reading well enough to review is an increasingly rare phenomenon. I blame it on the grief though it just as easily could be related to a couple of my disabilities or some new medical freight train headed my way.

All that being said, thanks to Scott’s help, I was able to get my hands on the new novel in eBook form via my local library. I figured I would know soon enough if it was worth taking a look at. Within a few pages, it was clear that The Sentinel: A Novel by Lee Child and his son, Andrew Child, (aka Andrew Grant) was a different Reacher novel.

It was also very good.

One week after Rusty Rutherford was fired from his job, Jack Reacher shows up in the small town roughly seventy-five miles northeast of Nashville, Tennessee. Rusty used to run the IT Department for the town. For all intents and purposes, he was the IT Department. Things have gone disastrously wrong. The town is now under a ransomware attack with critical services no longer working. The local citizenry now hates his guts.

Reacher knows none of this and wants nothing more than a cup of coffee and heads for the nearest coffee place he sees. As it happens, it is the morning haunt of Mr. Rusty Rutherford. Not only did he get a hostile reception in the place, Mr. Rutherford seems to be oblivious to the fact as he moves down the sidewalk that he is headed into an even more hostile reception. Rutherford being surrounded by several people in a carefully orchestrated plan. They are closing in on him. Clearly an abduction is planned as a car has moved into position at the mouth of the nearby alley. They have a good plan and their target is oblivious. It would have worked too if Reacher hadn’t decided to intervene.

He does and that sets off an intense seven days for Rutherford, Reacher, and numerous folks in this tale of espionage, the cold war, modern day computer technology, and a lot more. While Reacher is still Reacher, the tale is complicated and reads very differently from earlier books in the series. It also finds the spark that made the first books in the series so very good.

If you have not been around the series for a while, take a look at The Sentinel: A Novel by Lee and Andrew Child. I suspect you will be pleasantly surprised as it is well worth your time.

The Sentinel: A Novel
Lee Child
Andrew Child
https://www.jackreacher.com/us/home-us/
Delacorte Press (Penguin Random House)
http://www.randomhousebooks.com/books/635231/
October 2020
ASIN# B084FLW5KM
eBook (also available in audio and print formats)
368 Pages

Review copy provided by the Dallas Public Library System.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2020 show less

I’ve finally made it to book #25 in the Jack Reacher series! The Sentinel marks the first book where Lee Child collaborates with his brother, Andrew Child, to take over the writing of the series. I’ve come across various mixed reviews regarding this transition. However, I’m delighted to share that I thoroughly enjoyed Andrew Child’s contribution to the series. In fact, it felt remarkably seamless to me. Reacher remains the same character who finds himself entangled in familiar predicaments while assisting those in need. Additionally, his nomadic lifestyle continues as he drifts from one location to another.

In The Sentinel, Jack Reacher disembarks from the bus in Nashville, Tennessee. His mission is to find music, food, and show more coffee. However, he soon realizes that Nashville isn’t the place for him and is grateful to anyone who offers him a ride. Eventually, he finds himself in the small town of Pleasantville. Still searching for some diner food, Reacher notices Rusty Rutherford about to be ambushed. Fortunately, Reacher intervenes and saves the day. But that’s just the beginning of his adventures.

Rusty Rutherford, an IT Manager recently dismissed from his city job, finds himself in a precarious situation. Accused of causing the town’s computer system to malfunction, he faces public backlash and is determined to clear his name and prove his innocence. Reacher, intrigued by the unfolding events, decides to stay and assist Rusty in his quest for justice.

In typical Jack Reacher fashion, this book is brimming with suspense and action. It features conspiracies, foreign mobs, and spies. I was delighted to see Reacher finally getting to learn and experience technology, even if it was only for a brief moment. His expertise lies in investigative work and taking down criminals.

I borrowed the audiobook, The Sentinel, from my local library using the Libby app. Scott Brick’s narration was truly exceptional!

I have photos and additional information that I'm unable to include here. It can all be found on my blog, in the link below.
A Book And A Dog show less