Bad Luck and Trouble (Jack Reacher) by Lee Child
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Book Reviews of Bad Luck and Trouble (Jack Reacher)
Book Review: Another Winner!
Summary: 5 Stars
This latest Jack Reacher novel is Lee Child's best ever. I'm looking forward to many more great books from the best of the thriller novelists, and can only hope that Mr. child would write faster!
Donna Cavolt
Book Review: It's ok - not that enjoyable
Summary: 3 Stars
I loved many of Lee Child's previous books, but this one just bored me. The story never took off for me. I was waiting for the "action" but it never came. I would avoid this one, even if you like Lee Child!Book Review: Jack Reacher, the vigilante, and his band
Summary: 4 Stars
Jack Reacher believes in vigilante justice. He is also a drifter who prefers to make no plans and lives from day to day purely on his cash and brawn. He also happens to be the hero of this series of books which is now in its 12th iteration.
In this book we learn more about the Military Police unit that Jack commanded. It was apparently a special investigations unit that was formed under Jack's command and dealt with all the unsavory problems that the military could find no one else to deal with. Unlike most police organizations, this unit did not believe in policies and procedures and took all kinds of liberties with the law to achieve their goals. Definitely a groups of people who believed that the end justified the means!
Now, 15 years after the unit has disbanded. Jack gets a coded message that asks for help. Since the unit was very tightly knit he cannot ignore the request and so he answers the call. The call comes in because one of the unit members is dropped from a helicopter from a height of 3000 feet causing his death. As Jack starts to investigate, he finds that half the unit is already missing (and presumed dead) and the other half slowly comes together.
The investigation of what led to the death of their friend takes the team all across the western United States and involved a top secret organization and all kinds of shenanigans involving missing money and terror organizations. Ultimately the riddles are all solved, the perpertrators are all killed or captured, and the team disbands again to pursue their disparate lives.
What's to like about this book? Well, the action is great fun, well written and executed, and allows the story to go on its merry way in a fun and logical path. What's not to like? The main character is a vigilante! At one point in the story he needs some cash, so he goes and robs a group of people. In tune with the apparent moto that the ultimate end justifies the means, the people he robs are actually drug dealers - so that makes it right? The other negative about this is that the body count is incredibly high for a story that supposedly manages to miss being covered by any news articles - yet involves several government organizations. In other words, it is highly unbelievable. Maybe that lack of credibility is what I found to be so much fun! I could barely put the book down as I always wanted to read "just one more chapter..."!!!
Recommended.
Book Review: Bad luck has a first name and it's J-A-C-K; trouble has a second name and it's R-E-A-C-H-E-R
Summary: 5 Stars
I took this book with me to see the doctor, who asked to look at it. He said, "Hey, isn't this about the big guy who travels around and doesn't live anywhere?" Yes, I said. He said, "I heard somewhere that this character appeals only to men, but since 9/11 women are reading about him." Why is that, I asked. "Because women want to feel someone strong is in charge and can take care of things."
Someone strong in charge, who can take care of things. Yep, that just about sums up Jack Reacher, former leader of a special investigations unit in the army, now retired and drifting. But this is special drifting. Writers have all kinds of ways of telling their truths. Lee Child uses Jack Reacher to bring back the individual heroism of Robin Hood, James Bond, Aragorn, according to the interview on the product page. But I would like to suggest the existential hero, the one who finds meaning in a meaningless world, fraught with danger and death and mayhem, not unlike 9/11. As a free agent with no ties any where, Jack Reacher is available to confront "bad luck and trouble," a euphemistic phrase for "a world of mess and hurt."
The mess and hurt this time involves team members of his old army unit of eight mighty handy, highly trained and intelligent people. One is dead, three are missing. Jack and the other three meet syncronously to ferret out this tangle of deceit involving the four. They had a motto back in the day: You do not mess with the special investigations. And so it goes.
At the bottom of the trouble is a super secret military attack system that would cause extreme chaos in the flight world. The bad guys are Americans who have sold out the military to the highest bidder in an underhanded dirty maneuver for profit and gain. The buyer, of course, is an Islamic fundamentalist with death and misery in his heart.
But the story is not about the Muslim or the inside weapons guys: The story is about Reacher and his "guys." Remember, you do not mess with special investigations. In a crazy world two things are consistent about Reacher: his loyalty and his retribution.
Lee Child's novels are not one action-filled moment after the other. Instead, they are realistic. There is much waiting and investigating before action is inevitable. I find the Reacher series to be a thinking person's action thriller. Reacher may carry a travel toothbrush in his pocket, however his travels are the author's means to reaching a new end...and the next book in a very enjoyable series. And my doctor is right--it's good to know someone strong can take charge, even if it is in fiction.
Book Review: Read Them All, and This Was My Favorite
Summary: 5 Stars
It's odd. First, we have a truly incredible superhero or super antihero, who thinks detailed actions in milliseconds. Then we have a few technical glitches. Jack Reacher, this super-antihero, does everything but leap tall buildings in a single bound, but then there's always that possibility in the nest Jack Reacher novel. And with all that, it was a real page turner, so much so that I finished it on a red-eye while everyone else was fast asleep.
So, if you can suspend a little disbelief (as opposed to a lot of disbelief in the one where Reacher swims underwater 300 yards in full battle gear off the coast of Maine in the winter), this may be the best of Child's novels. It's almost as good as the best Saunders and Sanders books. Four-and-a-half stars.