Running Blind (Jack Reacher, No. 4)
by Lee Child
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Book Summary Information
Author: Lee ChildEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-08-28
ISBN: 0515143502
Number of pages: 544
Publisher: Jove
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780515143508
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Running Blind (Jack Reacher, No. 4)
Book Review: Pigs Can't Fly
Summary: 1 Stars
Literary license is the authority readers grant a fiction writer to bend reality into an interesting story. The license is to bend, not to break. Running Blind smashes reality into some twisted mess that is impossible to accept. Impossible unless you have about a hundred pounds of brain damage.
This book flat out violates the Pigs Can't Fly Rule. That is the rule that says that no matter what any fiction writer says, pigs just can't fly. Here are some examples of how this rule is violated in Running Blind (WARNING: the rest of this review contains STORY SPOILERS):
1. The FBI Agents in an elite We Catch Serial Killers Unit are dumber than dirt. They can only see two or three possible solutions to the "who did it" puzzle. The have no ability to consider alternate theories or to ask insightful questions about the evidence. Now I know that not all FBI Agents are going to win the Nobel Prize in Physics, but if they were as dumb as they are portrayed in the book, they would not have enough brain power to find their way to work in the morning.
2. The Serial Killer is an FBI Agent who is a big shot in the We Catch Serial Killers Unit (which should be renamed Serial Killers R Us). As an Agent, she has some phobia about flying on airplanes and refuses to get on one. As The Serial Killer she is flying all over the countryside. Nobody in her elite unit notices that she disappears at critical times, or ever suspects that she might really not have a fear of flying. Lots and lots of dead bodies don't bother her, but United Airlines freaks her out! And nobody wonders why. I told you these FBI Agents were dumber than dirt.
3. The hero of this story is some X Army Major who goes through the entire tale (which takes a while and which requires him to travel all over the place) with just one pair of undershorts. This apparently gives him a connection to the murdered victims because after a while, neither the dead victims or Major Undershorts can smell too good. Further, Major Undershorts cracks a key clue in the case by deep french kissing a hot blonde 6 foot plus FBI babe who usually doesn't wear a bra but who otherwise wears men's clothing so that she will "fit in." No contradiction there. And well, I guess when you think about it, lots of serial killer cases have been solved by having some stained undershorts freak tounge a hot blonde FBI Agent. NOT! Buy the way, Major Undershorts name is Jack Reacher. To many Middle Eastern Terrorists he is known, of course, as Asheets Madrawers.
4. The Serial Killer's method of operation is to hypnotize her victims into, in effect, murdering themselves. There is no use of hypnotic drugs to assist in this effort. The problem with this nonsense is that only a very small percentage of people can deeply hypnotized to the point that they can be forced to take actions against their will, and have hypnotic amnesia. If we could really use hypnosis that easily, nobody would have a problem with losing weight, or with trying to stop smoking. We would just put them in a hypnotic state, and tell them to stop, and they would stop. And since The Serial Killer's motive in the book is financial gain, all she had to do was to open up a Hynosis Clinic that would guarantee its clients that they would stop smoking, stop overeating, stop having a fear of flying, or stop doing whatever it is that they wanted to stop doing and she would make boatloads of money. Boatloads! And without all the muss and fuss of killing all those innocent people.
Of course, if pigs could fly than I could stop traveling on airplanes. But they can't, no matter what some fiction writer says.
Summary of Running Blind (Jack Reacher, No. 4)
Across the country women are being murdered by a killer who leaves no evidence, no fatal wounds, no signs of struggle, and no clues to a motive. They are, truly, perfect crimes. In fact, the only thing that links the victims is the man they all knew: Jack Reacher.
Jack Reacher is back, dragged into what looks like a series of grisly serial murders by a team of FBI profilers who aren't totally sure he's not the killer they're looking for, but believe that even if he isn't, he's smart enough to help them find the real killer. And what they've got on the ex-MP, who's starred in three previous Lee Child thrillers (Tripwire, Die Trying, Killing Floor), is enough to ensure his grudging cooperation: phony charges stemming from Reacher's inadvertent involvement in a protection shakedown and the threat of harm to the woman he loves.
The killer's victims have only one thing in common--all of them brought sexual harassment charges against their military superiors and all resigned from the army after winning their cases. The manner, if not the cause, of their deaths is gruesomely the same: they died in their own bathtubs, covered in gallons of camouflage paint, but they didn't drown and they weren't shot, strangled, poisoned, or attacked. Even the FBI forensic specialists can't figure out why they seem to have gone willingly to their mysterious deaths. Reacher isn't sure whether the killings are an elaborate cover-up for corruption involving stolen military hardware or the work of a maniac who's smart enough to leave absolutely no clues behind. This compelling, iconic antihero dead-ends in a lot of alleys before he finally figures it out, but every one is worth exploring and the suspense doesn't let up for a second. The ending will come as a complete surprise to even the most careful reader, and as Reacher strides off into the sunset, you'll wonder what's in store for him in his next adventure. --Jane Adams
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