The Hard Way (Jack Reacher, No. 10
by Lee Child
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Book Reviews of The Hard Way (Jack Reacher, No. 10
Book Review: No mystery, no characters, just a relentless plot
Summary: 2 Stars
I started "The Hard Way" with hopes that the book would usher me into a new series I'd like. The book starts out well, but soon falters. There are numerous problems with the book, mostly pertaining to the author's apparent limitations.
First, everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY, speaks in the same manner. It doesn't matter if they're young, old, male, female, American, British, military, or civilian, they all speak in the same way, with the same tired cliche vocabularies, staccato sentence fragments, and machismo. It really becomes annoying.
Second, the "mystery" is pretty obvious. I had it figured out about 1/4 of the way into the book -- not the plot, but the basic outline of who was doing what.
Third, the obsessive attention to detail really gets boring. Does every facet on the cut-glass chandelier in the high-ceilinged, oak-paneled, maroon-carpeted lobby that smells of cigars and cosmetic counters as the filtered sunlight fades through the glass doorways, one revolving bracketed by a standard push door on either side -- does all this need to be described every time something appears? I found myself quickly searching for dialog so I could stop reading about every crack in the sidewalk.
Finally, the finale is just a little silly. The amazing deception Reacher enacts at the end has plenty of holes in it, and these are apparent as you read it (as if they wouldn't hear a 6'3" 250# guy running full-speed when their senses are piqued and they're under attack).
All in all, a disappointment. Starts out great, soon falters, and then drifts into a monotony of dialog and detail and weak plotting. Too bad.
Book Review: YET ANOTHER DAZZLING INSTALLMENT OF HARDBOILED ACTION
Summary: 5 Stars
Looking at the clustering of reviews with 5 and 1 stars, I'd say Lee Child continues to deliver. A man at the top of his craft. The Enemy had drawn me to the witty devil-may-care ex-marine Jack Reacher, One Shot was his best escapade so far, and The Hard Way simply continues to hone his inimitable style.
The plot is smart and the logic immaculate. Child sweats the little details. The common suspense device of unraveling facts later is not his thing. Instead, a la Agatha Christie of yore, we get all the trivialities as the plot unfolds, which makes it twice as exhilarating when they become relevant to Reacher. The writing is taut as ever. That's welcome in any novel but in a thriller it makes for thumping pace.
There's certainly a thing for ammunition here, because Reacher is a connoisseur of the best gadgetry. Unlike many thrillers where the plot surfaces somewhere through the middle and the rest is just jumping through the hoops to make things happen, his stories pulse down to the last wire. We think, wonder and venture with him. And it's all very plausible, relevant. For instance, America's recently instituted "forward operating bases" play a non-trivial part in the script. These novels are as informative as they're action packed.
If you want top-class, nail-biting, keep-awake-at-night entertainment, this will fit the bill just fine. A highly satisfying read before you move on to Bad Luck and Trouble.
Book Review: One of the Best Characters Written
Summary: 5 Stars
Millionaire/mercenary Edward Lane hires Jack Reacher to find his wife, Kate, and stepdaughter, Jade. Both were kidnapped on a shopping trip and Lane is willing to pay whatever it takes to get them back. Patti Joseph has been surveilling Lane and his group of killers since the kidnapping and subsequent death of her sister, Anne, several years earlier. Anne was Lane's former wife and Patti suspects he used her kidnapping as a cover-up for her murder. She puts Reacher in touch with former FBI agent, now private investigator Lauren Pauling. Like Patti, Lauren is haunted by the death of Anne Lane, and she and Reacher team up to try to find out what really happened then and now.
Their investigation leads them to a civil war in Africa, where Lane abandoned two of his men, both of whom Patti suspects actually killed her sister at Lane's behest. From there, it turns to England, where Reacher uncovers a brutal truth that places his and Lauren's lives in mortal danger.
Jack Reacher is one of the coolest characters written. A former Army MP and loner by nature, he travels the world with only the clothes on his back and a toothbrush tucked in his pocket. He seems to drift in and out of people's lives like a fine mist, leaving behind mayhem at the very least and murder at most, but always justice. Child's style is gritty and bare-bones and compelling. He finely attunes this thrilling read with action-packed suspense, a workable mix of amiable and malevolent characters, and the ultimate draw: good versus evil. One of the best books yet in the Reacher series. This reader looks forward to many more.
Book Review: Jack and the mercenaries
Summary: 4 Stars
The old joke about the TV series Murder, She Wrote, was that the small town that heroine Jessica Fletcher lived in had an exceptionally high murder rate. What was it about her that seemed to result in murders occurring in her vicinity? Obviously, it was just necessary to move the plot forward. Similarly, what is it about Jack Reacher that he can just happen upon crimes? In many books in the Reacher series, he just happens to be in the right place at the right time.
Such is the case in The Hard Way. Since Reacher happened to be drinking coffee at the same place two days in a row, he was able to witness a man get into a car and be around later to tell others about it when they check up on it. It turns out the man who got in the car was a kidnapper who took the wife and child of Edward Lane.
Lane is a wealthy man, having picked up lots of money by running a small private military organization. These ex-soldier-turned-mercenaries are good in a fight but not so adept at investigation, so Lane hires Reacher to get his wife and daughter back. Reacher is able to piece some things together reasonably quickly, including a few side bits of information, such as the fact that Lane is a pretty unpleasant person.
While Lee Child has written another fun suspense novel, The Hard Way also is not as clever as it could be. I was able to figure out many of the twists well before their reveals and I doubt I'm alone; the result is that it makes the usually astute Reacher seem somewhat dense at times. Nonetheless, this will be a worthwhile read for fans of the series.
Book Review: Great thriller, with good detective work as well
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the first Lee Child novel about Jack Reacher that I have read, and I really enjoyed it. Unlike other novels I have read lately, this was a real page-turner and I had a hard time putting it down.
The hero of the book is the loner Jack Reacher, ex US Army CID (Criminal Investigation Command). At the start of the book, he happens to have observed a man crossing the street and getting in to a car. This turns out to be a kidnapper picking up the ransom payment, and Jack Reacher gets involved in the case.
The story is pretty action-packed, and more and more is revealed about the kidnapping. There is (of course) more to the kidnapping than first meets the eye, and I particularly liked how Jack Reacher on many occasions was using clues that had been presented to the reader to get closer to the solution. In this way, this book was similar to a typical crime novel, where clever reasoning and keen observations lead the investigator further.
At the same time, there was enough action and suspense to qualify this as a real thriller. The final shoot-out is particularly pulse-raising, but there were several other good passages in the book that keeps you at the edge of your seat. The cast of characters is good to, with a valiant hero and suitably nasty bad guys.
If you are looking for a good, fast, action-packed thriller, I can recommend this one. I will definitely read more of Lee Child's Jack Reacher novels.