Bad Luck and Trouble (Jack Reacher) by Lee Child
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Book Reviews of Bad Luck and Trouble (Jack Reacher)
Book Review: A Great Read!
Summary: 5 Stars
Once again, Lee Child has produced an excellent Jack Reacher novel. I couldn't put it down, and I couldn't resist writing a few lines to give it the five stars it deserves. If you like thrillers with an edgy, intelligent, and rugged lead character, then Reacher is your man. Enjoy! Book Review: The best Reacher yet
Summary: 5 Stars
I love all of Lee Child's work, but this was my favorite to date. His writing is sharp, punchy, and surprisingly witty, even in some of the story's darkest moments. Great characters in a compelling page turner that I had trouble setting down. More than ever, I wanted to join Reacher's team. Highly recommended.Book Review: You lost me
Summary: 3 Stars
The main characters were facinating. Too many to keep straight and connected through the story. My interest ebbed and waned so there were times i had to try to force my attention back to what was going on. I enjoyed the dry humor and the readers style. I bought it to follow the Jack Reacher character but he was a totally different person. Book Review: Incredible writing but full of technical errors
Summary: 3 Stars
Let me be frank right from jump - I love Jack Reacher. I love the character, I love the stories. I love Lee Child's writing style. He's an amazing storyteller and his prose cracks with intensity. It's terse, nail-biting stuff. Hard Luck and Trouble does not disappoint in the writing department. It is all of the above and then some.
Unfortunately, a lot of it is wrong.
First, the basic plot-
Reacher is contacted by one of his old unit, requesting help. Reacher's old unit, it appears, are disappearing one by one. Then they start turning up dead. Someone has to do something because "You don't mess with the Special Investigators." But someone did, and Reacher and his surviving part of the unit is going to make them pay. Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, Vegas casinos, possible Islamic terrorists, and some cops - it makes for a volatile mix. And Reacher is just the guy to make the whole thing blow up.
Even in fiction, however, the story has to follow an internal logic. Reacher's stories, more often than not, have a fatal flaw or two written in them. Bad Luck and Trouble has more than a few.
We start with Reacher buying a one-way ticket, in cash, and then flying through an airport without having to go through the extra security screening someone buying such a ticket, with cash, would automatically earn (SSSS). Imagine if you were a security person and you get a guy like Reacher, flying with no bags, no checked luggage, nothing. Any halfway competent person would know there was something interesting here. Reacher would get the third degree.
We move onto a guy risking carrying a special knife and knuckles through airport security when he could just check it in his checked luggage. Why risk it? Imaginary Homeland Security records and checks that don't exist. Cop training that involves running around with no round in the chamber of the pistol (there is no such training). Pistols carrying more rounds in them than they do. People blowing things up and shooting and leaving evidence with their fingerprints all over things, yet no one finds them? No record checks? People snapping adult necks with one hand (no human on earth can do this). One armed chokes. It's all too ridiculous.
These factors may be aggravating to some and irrelevant to others, but when something is integral to the plot then the whole structure falls apart if the thing in question is impossible or doesn't exist. This happens too often in Reacher novels. Supposed clues that can't occur in the real world are used to move the story along. One has to suspend disbelief too much and that weakens the story. Which is, again, unfortunate because the writing really is top shelf. Most people would probably not notice or, if they did, not know how things work in the really real world. Professionals in the field (and a lot of us read Reacher novels) will and do.
The writing in Bad Luck and Trouble is all that I hoped it would be. I will continue to buy Reacher's story, because it's entertaining and well written. If Mr. Child would only do some research to smooth up some of the egregious errors it would be some of the best thriller work on the market. It's writing already is. Just do some due diligence and then it will earn the highest marks. Mr. Child just needs someone to tell him that he can make a book accurate and still be exciting and suspenseful. He can pull it off. He's one of the few suspense authors out there that doesn't need to resort to tricks. Reacher would demand that honesty. I just know it.
Recommended, but with reservations.
Book Review: Lee Child is Superman!
Summary: 5 Stars
Unlike otdher Reacher books where he works alone, this one he is working with members of his old team. I read this book in one day. I couldn't put it down, the best Reacher yet! When does the movie come out? FISH