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Book Review of Better Off Dead (Jack Reacher, Bk 26)

Better Off Dead (Jack Reacher, Bk 26)
perryfran avatar reviewed on + 1180 more book reviews


I've been a Reacher fan ever since reading KILLING FLOOR several years ago. Since then, I have read all of the Reacher novels but after reading BLUE MOON a couple of years ago, I really felt the series was dead. And when I heard Lee Child was handing off the writing to his brother, Andrew, I pretty much decided not to continue reading these. But then, the new TV series on Amazon came along which I really enjoyed so I decided to read the first book written with Andrew, THE SENTINEL, and I did enjoy that one. But this next one in the series was only so-so at best and at some points was outright boring! How could that be for a Reacher novel? The novel started out good with Reacher meeting a woman named Michaela Fenton on the outskirts of an Arizona border town who appeared to have crashed into a tree in her jeep. But she was actually awaiting some dangerous people who may have information that would lead to her brother who had been missing. Her brother apparently was mixed up with a very nasty group who may be building bombs for terrorists. But is her brother alive or dead? Of course Reacher gets involved in helping her which leads to some dire consequences as usual.

But was this a usual Reacher novel? It contained the typical short sentences and descriptions. But these seemed to go on endlessly with Reacher talking in the first person describing endless rooms and buildings...most of which was very hard to follow. Then the plot about the terrorist and what was really happening just seemed overblown and tedious. I would not rate this as the worst in the series (that still belongs to BLUE MOON in my opinion) but it was close to the bottom. Now I'm not sure if I'll bother with the next novel when it is published later this year. I'll be more interested in seeing season two of the TV series!