No Plan B: A Jack Reacher Novel

It was hard to remember what was going on if you didn't read it everyday. Very exciting though. Typical Reacher.

I’m not going to say that the multiple story lines are boring, but none are as compelling as those found in the earlier books. Reacher himself is a bit less of himself than usual. Not only is there a reduction in the trivia and arcane information that he is prone to give us, he is also a little too efficient in following the trail he’s become curious about. He also has minimal contact with both police or bad guys. The book passed the time reasonably well but unlike many of the other books I doubt that I’ll get around to reading this one again.

I love the way Lee and Andrew Child grab my imagination and don't stop until the last page. The twists and turns kept me reading. Reacher is a great character. Can't wait till the next book come out.

Too many pages of Jed's story and too many pages of Emerson's story. Yes, they needed to be included but I ended up bypassing many unnecessary pages of these guys to get back to the story of Reacher. This novel was much longer than other Reacher books and it didn't hold my interest as other Reacher novels have done. It seems that the last few Reacher books have been a bit different that earlier in the series. I'll take a break of this author for a while.

I have read 26 Reacher novels and this the best one! Bringing in so many different situations into one finale was exciting. The ending was a complete surprise.

The new Jack Reacher novel has a more complicated (and, in a way, less complicated) set of plot arcs. Jack is in a small town in Colorado where he witnesses a woman being thrown under a bus, literally. He sees documents in her purse that pertain to an event at a prison in Mississippi several days hence. Meanwhile, a young man in Los Angeles is leaving his foster home to travel to that prison in Mississippi, while back in the Midwest an angry, grieving father is wreacking vengeance on a chain of individuals he holds responsible for the death of his son. We figure that all of these events are related, but we don’t know how or why. Since the baddies back at the prison are aware that Jack and a Colorado woman are heading their way the multi-faceted plot comes down to two simple questions: will the baddies stop Jack (of course not) and what is going on at that for-profit prison? Since we know that something illegal is going on we can guess at the possibilities. The characters are all what E.M. Forster called “flat” rather than “rounded” and the conclusion is forgone, so the principal joy in reading is to watch Jack kick behinds and take names (and figure out situations faster than we, or the other characters, can). Hence the bottom line: a standard JR outing, done with skill, that sustains interest. In other words: an airplane read. Is the whole series growing a little stale? Perhaps. The word on the street is that Jim Grant’s brother Andrew (compelled to change his name to the pseudonymous ‘Child’) is now writing the books while Jim/Lee concentrates on the solid new TV series. Does it really make much difference if that is the case? Not really. The only question that I find haunting is why in the wide, wide world of sports is Jim’s face so distorted on the book jacket? 4 stars. And since the books are now all pretty much the same, it doesn’t matter whether you read them in order or not. You can also wait and buy inexpensive used copies from Amazon’s bookselling partners.

Another excellent Reacher book. HOWEVER—gi should be capitalized and ‘twigged’ is British slang not American. Otherwise a work well done!!!!

Edited to 5 stars to reflect the repricing of this and all older Reacher novels to reasonable prices. My comments regarding the editors still stand, but the reduced price makes this book a good value for $8.99 USD. It may not seem fair, but purchase price must be considered when reviewing books. Value for money is a thing. This book was priced at $14.99, a ridiculous price really when you consider that no paper, no ink, no trucks to ship, no store fronts to heat were involved in its delivery to me. The price is a pure reflection of the greed of the publishing industry and their hatred for digital books. But wait, surely we have to pay the publishers to edit the book? Well, maybe, but in this case they certainly did not edit this book for sale to Americans (Brits, Ozzies and Kiwis please feel to disregard my review). As an example, at one point Reacher eats in an American steakhouse that "resembles a cattle station". Note to Delacorte Press, American cattle are raised on ranches and and the houses thereon are usually described as ranch houses. Cattle stations may occur in Australia, but not the USA where this story is set. Similarly, on page 157 (according to my Kindle) there is something called "contractors' hoardings". Whatever the hell that may be, I've never heard of one here in the states. On page 250 we have "Perspex" which is probably the product known in the states as plexiglass. On page 286 one encounters "spanners" which is Britspeak for wrench but in the states refers to a very specific and fairly rare type of hand tool. At $9.95 this might be fairly priced, but the lapses into Britspeak, understandable given the authors but which should have been caught by competent editing, make this book feel, at times, like some of the self-published stuff available here on Amazon. Shame on you Delacorte Press.

Great read, Reacher at his best.

Andrew Childが共著者になった3作目．ストーリーのスピード感が増した気がする．なかなか良い感じ．

The worst Jack Reacher I've ever read. Bland and boring, lacking structure. Useless 2nd characters, what's the use of that teenager when Jack discovers the important clue without that teenager's help. Too angry to develop.

its a great read

Complex plot twists and the usual mix of interesting characters will keep you engaged from first to last page. Highly entertaining as always