A Wanted Man
By Lee Child
Delacorte Press
$28.00 hardcover, 405 pages, 978-0-385-34433-3 (2012)
This novel begins with Jack Reacher in Nebraska hitchhiking his way to Chicago. He’s picked up by two men and a woman. At first glance, they appear to Reacher to be middle ranking executives on some type of a team building exercise. What he doesn’t know is that the town he’s hitching from just had a man executed in an old pumping station. The man’s killers have vanished and the FBI soon takes over the investigation of the case. As Reacher and his companions leave town, a desperate search for the killers is begun – though Reacher knows nothing about it.
But he will. Because he quickly figures out that the people that gave him a ride are not who he first thought they were. Something is wrong, very wrong. And as usual, Reacher is right in the middle of it. So although he wants to get to Chicago, he’s neck deep in a conspiracy that requires his skills to unravel the mystery.
And make no mistake about it – Reacher has the same types of skills that Liam Neeson talks about in the movie Taken: “What I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you.”
Reacher goes into action in the second half of the book. As usual, he figures out what is going on way before the reader does. It’s here that the book picks up steam and the reader is treated to vintage Reacher – taking out bad guys left and right while skillfully working toward his goal.
After he wins her trust, he teams up with FBI agent Julia Sorenson. Together they figure out what is going on and join forces to stop it. For those readers who think the first half of the book is going nowhere, hang in there. The second half shines; it will have you flipping through the pages to get to the ending. Reacher has his own moral code and often doesn’t hesitate to take justice into his own hands.
And as the bad guys soon learn to their detriment, Reacher has developed a particular set of skills.
By it on Amazon here.
