Before Lee Child's Jack Reacher became a wanderer, stumbling into desperate situations and sorting them out with his two fists and sharp brain, he used his skill for the US Army's military police. When he is accused of a series of killings--women who left the army after sexual harassment proceedings found with their hearts stopped in baths full of camouflage paint--he has to use his skills to clear his name, and to do the Army and FBI's work for them. The near-impossible perfection of Reacher's physique and brain are met here by a puzzle that almost meets the same standard of perfection--the reason he is suspected is simply that perfect detectives are handy patsies for perfect murders, and Reacher is, besides, a man whom those in authority find making them itch...

"As a rule, the Bureau and the military don't get along too well."
"Well, there's a big surprise. Who the hell do you guys gel along with."
..."You know how it is. Military hates the Bureau, the Bureau hates CIA, everybody hates everybody else...So we need a go-between."
Reacher shrugged.
"I don't know anybody like that. I've been out too long."

Lee Child's remorselessly perverse ingenuity is working overtime in this, his fourth book, though like most great puzzles or tricks, his secrets depend a little heavily on mere misdirection. A book this driven by the central character's laconic aggression ought not to be quite as smart as this is, or quite as likeable--Lee Child's clever formula is to make that paradox work. --Roz Kaveney

2008-06-20 Love Reacher - too predictable

First of all I would like to say I love the Jack Reacher series. In this book especially I love his pure arrogance, he doesn't care whether he helps the FBI or not (although we all know he does really), we also get an insight into his inner struggle of whether he wants to be a roamer (makes him sound like a zombie!) or to be anchored down. The storyline in this book is actually really intriguing and the dialogue is as fast and snappy as ever, you love knowing that Reacher is always one step ahead. So why the 3 stars? From around the 150 pages mark, I knew then ending - it was just so obvious and couldn't really be anything else. Whilst I usually have a certain satisfaction when I solve the mystery of a book (not very often) - I was praying that I was wrong in this instance. In fact anything that came after that, whilst well written etc etc (and all the other praise I could throw at Lee Child's excellent books) merely confirmed my theory. It was a shame as this was an excellent read just to predictable.