Lee Child
I've been averaging a book a day for the past couple of weeks. They've covered a wide variety of topics, from mystery writing to non-fiction writing to software testing to playwriting to...well, just a lot of things. I've also been working my way nonsequentially through Lee Child's mystery/thriller series featuring former MP Jack Reacher.
And no, MP in this case doesn't stand for "Member of Parliament."
If you like tough-guy books with fantastic plots, then you must read these books. I don't even know which one came first, and it really doesn't matter. Once you read one and grasp the basic concept of Reacher, then you're good to go. In faaaaact...
Reacher is a former military policeman, RIFfed and adrift. He has no ties, as the sole remaining member of his family, and has never known anything but the military life; the son of a Marine, he spent his childhood moving from place to place. He decides to wander the country, going wherever he feels like, whenever he feels like, and he always manages to find trouble.
The plots of the books themselves stretch over a rather large range. In one, Reacher is asked by the Secret Service to penetrate their security surrounding the Vice President. In another, a woman he hitches a ride with convinces him to help her get out of a jam involving her husband. Perhaps my favorite is the one where he goes undercover for the Feds to find someone he thought was dead.
The books are all really tightly written, and I appreciate the fact that Child manages to avoid a lot of things that you think you can see coming a mile away--like betrayals and reversals and deaths that never come. I spent most of one of the books getting more and more upset because I just knew that a very likable character was going to get killed, prompting bloody revenge. Never happened.
And no, MP in this case doesn't stand for "Member of Parliament."
If you like tough-guy books with fantastic plots, then you must read these books. I don't even know which one came first, and it really doesn't matter. Once you read one and grasp the basic concept of Reacher, then you're good to go. In faaaaact...
Reacher is a former military policeman, RIFfed and adrift. He has no ties, as the sole remaining member of his family, and has never known anything but the military life; the son of a Marine, he spent his childhood moving from place to place. He decides to wander the country, going wherever he feels like, whenever he feels like, and he always manages to find trouble.
The plots of the books themselves stretch over a rather large range. In one, Reacher is asked by the Secret Service to penetrate their security surrounding the Vice President. In another, a woman he hitches a ride with convinces him to help her get out of a jam involving her husband. Perhaps my favorite is the one where he goes undercover for the Feds to find someone he thought was dead.
The books are all really tightly written, and I appreciate the fact that Child manages to avoid a lot of things that you think you can see coming a mile away--like betrayals and reversals and deaths that never come. I spent most of one of the books getting more and more upset because I just knew that a very likable character was going to get killed, prompting bloody revenge. Never happened.
posted by Robert at
11:40 PM
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