β Scribed by Lee Child
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
The final sentence of Child's ninth suspenser (after The Enemy)β"Then he could buy a pair of shoes and be just about anywhere before the sun went down"βis quintessential Jack Reacher, the rugged ex-army cop who practically defines the word "loner" and kicks ass with the best of 'em. In the book's gripping opening, five people are killed when a shooter opens fire in a small unnamed Indiana city. But when ex-infantry specialist James Barr is apprehended, he refuses to talk, saying only, "Get Jack Reacher for me." But Reacher's already en route; having seen a news story on the shooting, he heads to the scene with disturbing news of his own: "[Barr's] done this before. And once was enough." Nothing is what it seems in the riveting puzzle, as vivid set pieces and rapid-fire dialogue culminate in a slam-bang showdown in the villains' lair. (And what villains: a quintet of Russian Γ©migrΓ©s, the stuff of everybody's worst nightmares, led by a wily 80-year-old who makes Freddy Krueger look like Little Lord Fauntleroy.) As usual, Child makes the most of Reacher's dry wit, cut-to-the-chase psychology and stubborn taciturnityβin short, this is a vintage double play for author and leading man.
Copyright Β© Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Child's new novel begins when a sniper methodically kills five office workers with six quick shots and then disappears. But in a Child thriller the expectations aroused by one page are sure to be dashed on the next; unravelling and re-tangling violent narratives is the writer's specialty. This is the ninth of his books to feature the drifter-investigator Jack Reacherβa hybrid of John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee and Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammerβand it certainly ranks in the first tier of the series. There is considerable mayhem, lovingly described ("A long time ago the bones in his spine had been methodically cracked with an engineer's ball-peen hammer"), and there's a good cast, including suspicious law-enforcement personnel and an elderly Russian who is missing most of his fingers. Before it's all, vividly, over, one feels confident that Reacherβsmart, rootless, and braveβwill not only get his man but make him suffer.
Copyright Β© 2005 The New Yorker
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SUMMARY: Six shots. Five dead. One heartland city thrown into a state of terror. But within hours the cops have it solved: a slam-dunk case. Except for one thing. The accused man says: You got the wrong guy. Then he says: Get Reacher for me. And sure enough, exmilitary investigator Jack Reacher is
SUMMARY: Six shots. Five dead. One heartland city thrown into a state of terror. But within hours the cops have it solved: a slam-dunk case. Except for one thing. The accused man says: You got the wrong guy. Then he says: Get Reacher for me. And sure enough, exmilitary investigator Jack Reacher is c
SUMMARY: Six shots. Five dead. One heartland city thrown into a state of terror. But within hours the cops have it solved: a slam-dunk case. Except for one thing. The accused man says: You got the wrong guy. Then he says: Get Reacher for me. And sure enough, exmilitary investigator Jack Reacher is
Ex-military investigator Jack Reacher is called in by James Barr, the man accused of a lethal sniper attack on a heartland city that leaves five people dead, and teams up with a young defense attorney to find an unseen enemy who is manipulating events behind the scenes. Six shots. Five dead. One hea
SUMMARY: Six shots. Five dead. One heartland city thrown into a state of terror. But within hours the cops have it solved: a slam-dunk case. Except for one thing. The accused man says: You got the wrong guy. Then he says: Get Reacher for me. And sure enough, exmilitary investigator Jack Reacher is c
**Film edition of One Shot, Lee Child's 9th Reacher thriller, to tie in with the release of the movie,Jack Reacher, starring Tom Cruise, on Boxing Day 2012.** **** **Six shots. Five dead.** **** ****A heartland city thrown into terror. But within hours the cops have it solved. A slam-dunk case.