Helpful Score: 7
Lee Child has an amazing talent for presenting an incredible story in a series while allowing each book to stand alone. One will not ruin another. This book gave quite a bit of background information on Reacher while spinning a good tale. Reacher seems to always land himself in the middle of some wild, beyond the imagination, yet plausible situations. He handles the situations in a way that can be brutal but always in favor of the "good guys." When a villian gets what is coming to him (and maybe a little extra just because Reacher can), I always think a silent victorious, "YES!" Child gives us all of that while allowing Reacher to have a little romance on the side as well.
Helpful Score: 4
A friend of mine has talked about Lee Child's books quite a bit lately so I thought I'd give one a try. Overall not a bad story. I did have it pretty much figured out from the get go so as I moved through the story, there was not much suspense. However, I did enjoy the path from beginning to end. The middle slowed down and made it hard to pick up for a little bit, but the last third of the book picked up nicely and was very enjoyable. Jack Reacher intrigues me as a character and I'm looking forward to more of his adventures.
Helpful Score: 3
A real page turner. Lee Child is a fantastic writer who careful plot and nonstop action leaves you breathless and wanting more more Jack Reacher novels. Loved this book.
Helpful Score: 3
Although I love mysteries and thrillers, this book was just too graphic in its details of violence. I couldn't finish it so my rating is not entirely fair. Really, it is just me and there are lots of people who would love this.
Helpful Score: 3
This is my first Jack Reacher book and Lee Child novel. I picked up a Lee Child mystery with high hopes based on several reviews...but sad to say, I was a little disappointed. Perhaps it is only this series so I won't give up on other Lee Child books, but as a crime mystery, there were so many implausible scenarios. for example:
1) why does the chief of detectives, finley, allow a vagrant, unknown person (Jack Reacher) involved in the investigation of (spoiler alert!) his own brother? jack reacher wasn't just interested, at times, he was very involved and thought all the theories that it made the chief of detective look pretty stupid (even if finley is supposed to be smart).
2) actions of the antagonist(s) prove they are extremely violent and hold a lot of power in the town of margrave. yet from the actions of jack reacher, finley & roscoe during the investigations, they seem to forget this (in fact, their lack of caution leads one character to her unlikely demise in, yet again, an improbably airport scene). that either makes them idiots, but definitely does not lend credence to jack reacher's military police background, or even finley's 20 yr beat as a boston cop
3) so the "plot" or motives of the antagonists is revealed, it is kind of odd that several clues from years ago were not picked up by the chief of detective, that it had to take jack reacher, a newcomer, about 4 days to figure out.
it was enjoyable, a bit unrealistic. jack reacher is not one of my favorites, if compared to michael connelly's harry bosch.
1) why does the chief of detectives, finley, allow a vagrant, unknown person (Jack Reacher) involved in the investigation of (spoiler alert!) his own brother? jack reacher wasn't just interested, at times, he was very involved and thought all the theories that it made the chief of detective look pretty stupid (even if finley is supposed to be smart).
2) actions of the antagonist(s) prove they are extremely violent and hold a lot of power in the town of margrave. yet from the actions of jack reacher, finley & roscoe during the investigations, they seem to forget this (in fact, their lack of caution leads one character to her unlikely demise in, yet again, an improbably airport scene). that either makes them idiots, but definitely does not lend credence to jack reacher's military police background, or even finley's 20 yr beat as a boston cop
3) so the "plot" or motives of the antagonists is revealed, it is kind of odd that several clues from years ago were not picked up by the chief of detective, that it had to take jack reacher, a newcomer, about 4 days to figure out.
it was enjoyable, a bit unrealistic. jack reacher is not one of my favorites, if compared to michael connelly's harry bosch.
