All the seven book I have read by Lee Child have featured a drifting Reacher - a Reacher with no home, no family, no ties. But the Jack Reacher we meet in this book is a younger Reacher. He has family, he has a home of sorts, he certainly has ties, for this book is set in 1990, Jack is in the Military Police - the Berlin Wall is coming down, and soon there will be major changes in the Army.
But on New Year's Day 1990, Jack is duty officer on a base in North Carolina when he takes a call reporting a dead soldier in a Motel - his decision is to let the local cops handle it, but the soldier turns out to be a two-star General. So Reacher goes to inform the General's wife that her husband has died of a heart-attack - what he finds is another corpse. Reacher isn't too keen on coincidence. So what's going on?
We learn so much more of Reacher in this book.; we meet his mother and his brother - and by bringing them into the story we understand more of his complex character. I also learnt a great deal about the Army. Quite fascinating.
As with all the previous books the story moves along at a terrific pace. Just when I thought I had cracked it, there is a twist that wreaked my theories and I was back to the drawing board. A tremendously gripping thriller.
Of course making it absolutely perfect is Jeff Harding, who is Reacher. His
range of voices continues to amaze me. Unlike so many male readers, Jeff has
a wonderful female range of voices which are totally convincing. His portrayal
of Reacher’s mother was just simply marvellous - I was in tears - not good when
you are driving. This has a five star rating; and I don't give higher than that.
. --------
Lizzie Hayes
Other books in this series are The Killing Floor, Die Trying, Tripwire, The
Visitor/Running Blind (US), Echo Burning and Without Fail