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Book Review of The Affair (Jack Reacher, Bk 16)

The Affair (Jack Reacher, Bk 16)
reviewed on + 107 more book reviews


I've read all the Jack Reacher books through this one, and enjoyed them all, but this one is my favorite. I always had questions about how Reacher ended up out of the Army after seventeen years without any kind of pension; that just doesn't happen to commissioned officers; being retired military myself, I was pretty sure of that.

This book answers a lot of those questions by going back in time to the affair which ended Reacher's military service. One of his other books ("The Enemy") was also a flashback, but not as far back as this one. Till "The Affair" it was my favorite.

Child's books are always fun to read, but not great literature - one reading is usually enough. I was travelling last month and stayed overnight with my brother; I had lent him my copy of "The Affair", which he returned. As luck would have it, I left what I was currently reading in the car and was too tired to go downstairs and out into the garage to get it, so I started re-reading "The Affair". Enjoyed it just as much the second time through.

As a bonus, a short story about Reacher's childhood is included in this volume - also enjoyable, if not deathless prose.