Gone Tomorrow (Jack Reacher, No. 13) by Lee Child
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Book Reviews of Gone Tomorrow (Jack Reacher, No. 13)
Book Review: This is a great thriller
Summary: 5 Stars
Lee Child is the author of thirteen well-crafted, thrilling and interesting Jack Reacher thrillers. He is a master of his craft.
Reacher, a very tall and muscular ex-military police major, wanders from city to city, without any plan, where he stumbles on injustices inflicted upon people he feels obliged to help. He travels with what he can carry in his pockets, such as a clip-together tooth brush and an old expired passport. He changes cloths when necessary by buying previously used items, and throws away what he had worn. He knows how lodge in hotels for reduced prices, by offering night clerks a fraction of the regular price in cash late at night, so that the clerk earns money and Reacher has a place to wash, sleep, and "iron" his cloths by placing them under the mattress he is sleeping on. He carries no watch because the clock in his head always knows the exact time, to the minute, even when he wakes from sleep or from being unconscious for hours after being stabbed. If Superman lost all his special powers and had human faults, he would be Reacher. Readers of both sexes find themselves liking this hero and enjoy following him through the twists and turns of his thrilling life.
Reacher has a keen insight into many things and readers find themselves intrigued by his explanations of arcane matters they never thought about. He understands people, both as individuals and in groups. He knows hand to hand combat, even how to defend himself from attacks by several people and uses this knowledge when necessary. He knows that four A.M. is the hour that most people are disconnected from reality and is a good time for an assault. He knows that attacks should be from a high level and how to use this knowledge. Lee Child tells us about his skills, and explains why Reacher is right in an interesting manner.
Unlike many mysteries where readers are not told all the facts, Child's style is to reveal everything that a normal person would see and Reacher's initial understanding of these facts. We tend to agree with his assessment; it is reasonable. Later, as Reacher rethinks about what he has seen, he draws a different interpretation, and this revision also seems plausible to us. These reassessments happen frequently, sometimes prompted by a new event, and each time what Reacher concludes seems reasonable to us.
Child frequently states that a person remained silent after something was said. This silence brings the readers' attention to the remark and moves readers to think about what was said and draws them into the tale.
In Gone Tomorrow, Reacher is in a New York subway some few hours after midnight. The temperature is warm. He sees a woman dressed in an overcoat who "undoubtedly" meets all of the dozen criteria devised by the Israeli Mossad for a bomb carrying terrorist. Reacher approaches her and tries to dissuade her out of killing so many people. But he is unsuccessful. She draws a gun and shoots herself. He then realizes that the dozen criteria also apply to a suicide. But do they also describe a different mind-set?
This simple scene raises many other questions. Did Reacher's efforts to save the subway and its inhabitants drive the woman to suicide? Why was she on a subway, an unusual place for a suicide? Why did one of the people on the subway disappear before the arrival of the police? Why did a federal agency involve itself in the affair? What agency is it? Why are the agency agents trying to persuade Reacher to abandon his interest in the matter?
Reacher feels compelled to resolve the woman's death. Despite repeated government attempts, some quite brutal, to stop him, he perseveres. He is shot several times by government agents with tranquilizer guns and is assaulted with real bullets by others. Many interesting characters enter the story, delta forces, Al Qaeda, Afghanistan, a senator, a female cop who prefers not to be drawn into the affair and a male police officer whose nephew is kidnapped. Reacher is frequently frustrated in his attempts to find answers by the government invoking the Patriot Act instigated after 9/11.
This book holds the reader's interest throughout, without let up. It is an enjoyable read.
Book Review: Lee Child finds his groove again in this Jack Reacher page turner
Summary: 5 Stars
Lee Child has found his groove again with his 13th Jack Reacher novel. The last one was marred by excessive voicing of Child's personal political views which offended many who did not share them. Thankfully, Child has not repeated that performance to any significant degree.
For those who haven't had the experience, Jack Reacher is a former U. S. Army officer, an MP so he has more than a bit of law enforcement experience. He chooses to have no fixed residence, but with his government pension and other assets, he has a steady and secure income, so he can wander the country at will. No family, no obligations. Just the ability to find trouble wherever he happens to be.
Reacher is a brilliant invention as a character. Motivated by merely a sense of right and wrong, he involves himself on behalf of the underdog - and wreaks violence on all who stand in his way. He doesn't have to be a "deep thinker", because Jack Reacher is all about action, page-turning action.
It is a simple formula and it works. Characters don't to have depth if the plots are complex and fast-moving and this is where Lee Child is nothing other than brilliant.
In "Gone Tomorrow", Child has Jack Reacher performing what is a basic act for tens of millions of people every day: riding aq subway.
It's late at night and Reacher is on the 6 train heading north in Manhattan. He doesn't quite know where he is going to get off, but that's his way. He has a few dollars in his pocket, an ATM card, an expired passport and a folding toothbrush. Reacher buys clothes when he needs them; he sleeps in cheap hotels and motels or by the side of the road or under on a bench. Jack Reacher is a wandering man.
Right now, though, he is on the 6 train in a car with five people. Reacher notices one of them a woman and Child comes in with the first of many plot twists. In his mind, Reacher starts going down a checklist of signals that a person may be a terrorist suicide bomber. The woman clicks on almost all of them. Reacher can simply get off the subway train and let what happens happen. But instead he approaches the woman and tries to talk her out of what he believes she is planning to do.
Surprise, the first of many: the woman draws a gun and points it at Reacher. Reacher keeps talking and the woman stops pointing the gun at Reacher and instead blows her brains out.
In a few pages, Child has introduced at least three plot twists and sucked the reader right in.
It doesn't stop here. Child introduces more twists and turns than you'll find on a mountain road - and he stays a step or two ahead of the reader most of the way.
In sum, this a thriller/police procedural and it is excellent, a genuine page turner.
There are a few negatives which really don't mar the story. Anyone with a knowledge of computers or information technology will shake with laughter at Child's depiction of the technology. Fortunately, though his errors leave holes a miles wide, they don't really take away from the story. In lesser hands, however, they would be showstoppers. Child does interject his political views again, but not as blatantly as in his last Reacher novel and nowhere near as offensively. And, finally, Child has this annoying habit of jimmying in sex scenes, generally with unlikely partners. Mercifully there is only one such sex scene in this book and it is brief.
There are thirteen books in the Reacher series and things have now reached the point where the series appear to have its own "A Reacher Novel" label. In many ways, Lee Child has simplified and streamlined the Jack Reacher character. Initially, Child probed Reacher's mind, coming up with motivations for the character's actions. Not any more. Just enough to justify the next plot twist - and frankly I like it that way.
Jack Reacher's simple morality, his clear concept of right and wrong, and Lee Child's devilish plotting - a thriller reader's paradise.
Jerry
Book Review: The best in the "Jack Reacher" series!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
I've been reading the "Jack Reacher" novels by Lee Child since the first one, Killing Floor, came out in paperback during the mid-nineties. I've enjoyed most of them, some more than others, and I've always considered the Killing Floor to be the best of the pack. That has changed with the publication of Gone Tomorrow. This novel simply blew me away with its plot, characters, action, and multiple twists and turns. I couldn't put it down once I started reading it. In fact, the book held me to the end, delivering everything that was promised. This is the kind of novel that every author in the thriller genre dreams of writing.
As for Gone Tomorrow, it opens with Jack Reacher in New York City, riding a subway train late at night, going to nowhere in particular. He's minding his own business until he notices a lone female--Susan Mark--sitting several feet ahead of him. He begins to watch her and soon realizes that she's displaying all the signals of a would-be terrorist, which makes him think that she might be intending to blow up the subway car. Standing up, he approaches her and questions the bag she's holding, wondering if there's a bomb in it. When he tells her to take out what's inside the bag, she pulls out a revolver and calmly shoots herself in the head.
From the moment of Susan Mark's suicide, Reacher's life begins to change in ways he'd never anticipated, and he soon finds himself on a mission that involves a former Major in Delta Force, who's now running for the Senate, and a large group of Al Qaeda agents that are led by two women who enjoy torturing men and are experts in knife fighting. While Reacher is trying to find the connection between the Major and the terrorist group, he'll have to stay one step ahead of the NYPD, the FBI, and the Department of Defense, all of whom want to see him locked up for a very long time for sticking his nose where it doesn't belong. Reacher, however, can't be stopped. He's a like a dog with a bone. Once he learns the real reasons for Susan Mark's death and why the Al Qaeda group is attempting to sabotage the Major's run for the Senate, Reacher declares war with the intent of killing every terrorist in the group that he can find. He's going to be their worse nightmare, and the ending is going to make the first Rambo movie look like a picnic at summer camp.
There's no doubt in my mind that author, Lee Child, has created the best novel of his career. The writing has never been sharper and the characters more vivid and the action more intense than in this book. More importantly, I feel as if the character of Reacher is fighting for the American people (not the Government, but the actual people of this country) in an effort to get revenge against those who murdered so many innocent civilians in the 9/11attack. Reacher does what we can't, or what our government has failed to do. He takes on the bad guys on with extreme prejudice and has us cheering for him the whole way. This is my kind of book!
Though I'm no longer a collector of autographed novels, I'd love to get a signed copy of Gone Tomorrow. This novel is a definite keeper...one I want permanently up on my bookshelf. This is also a book Lee Child should be damn proud of. He did what I thought was the impossible and finally wrote something that surpasses even his first novel. If you're a fan of the "Jack Reacher" series, don't wait for the paperback to come out. Run to the nearest store and buy the hardcover. You won't be disappointed. Highly recommended for pure summer enjoyment!
Book Review: The ultimate thriller -- impossible to put down
Summary: 5 Stars
Lee Child books are like those old Lay's potato chips commercials: Betcha can't eat just one - only in this case, betcha can't read just one. It's not my fault the author makes the books so addictive. Just take the opening line: "Suicide bombers are easy to spot."
Now who doesn't want to keep reading with an opening like that?
Here's the entire first paragraph of the book:
Suicide bombers are easy to spot. They give out all kinds of telltale signs. Mostly because they're nervous. By definition they're all first-timers.
Well that first paragraph is all it took for me to be hooked.
Child's longtime hero, Jack Reacher, is riding a New York City subway train at two in the morning when he spots a woman, one of five passengers on the subway, whom he believes to be a suicide bomber. She has many of the signs on the list of ways to identify such a person.
So what does Reacher do? Quickly get off the train like most folks and hope that the woman doesn't detonate herself before you can escape? Of course not. But he keeps ratcheting up the tension until it's almost unbearable.
We looked straight at each other for the best part of ten seconds. Then I got to my feet. Braced against the motion and took a step. I would be killed thirty feet away, no question. I couldn't get any deader by being any closer. I passed the Hispanic woman on my left. Passed the guy in the NBA shirt on my right. Passed the West African woman on my left. Her eyes were still closed. I handed myself from one grab bar to the next, left and right, swaying. Passenger number four stared at me all the way, frightened, panting, muttering. Her hands stayed in her bag.
I stopped six feet from her.
I said, "I really want to be wrong about this."
She didn't reply. Her lips moved. Her hands moved under the black canvas. The large object in her bag shifted slightly.
I said, "I need to see your hands."
She didn't reply.
"I'm a cop," I lied. "I can help you."
She didn't reply.
I said, "We can talk."
She didn't reply.
If you look up "page-turner" in the dictionary, you should see Lee Child's picture. Gone Tomorrow is a thriller from its gripping start to its exciting climax.
Book Review: An Excellent Reacher Novel
Summary: 5 Stars
Two things made me hesitate to pick up Lee Child's latest Jack Reacher novel, Gone Tomorrow. The first was the memory of the 12th entry in the series, Nothing to Lose. It was a different Reacher novel, one with a message that hit the reader over the head. The second was that I had heard that Child phoned in this installment. I wish that I remembered where I heard that, as I want to point out that this Reacher novel is as good as any Child has written.
Reacher is traveling through New York City on the subway early in the morning. At that hour, there are only a few people on his car. Of those, only one deserves his attention, and that is because she appears to be a suicide bomber. Reacher, familiar with such things, is comparing the Israeli Counter Terrorism's list of eleven behavioral indicators against the woman. She has set off quite a few red flags. Reacher approaches her, explaining that he is a policeman, and attempts to reduce the threat by calming her. However, she pulls out a gun and kills herself. Interviewed by the FBI, NYPD, and Department of Defense officials, Reacher is asked if she passed him anything. To the Feds, he makes it appear as though he is in possession of something, as he feels that he owes the woman, since he probably should have given her more time, in retrospect, before approaching her. While Reacher has two groups of the Federal Government pursuing him, and the NYPD, there is another group that wants the information, and that group is much more vicious and motivated than anything the US Government can throw at Reacher.
Lee Child has crafted an excellent Jack Reacher novel. In addition to bringing the reader into Reacher's world, where he sees everything but looks at nothing, Child incorporates a realistic premise which keeps the pages turning. Readers familiar with the Reacher novels know that once he is involved in something, he will see it to the end. And dispense his own brand of justice, if necessary. Playing on Reacher's lack of permanent address, Child allows him to move from one location to another fluidly, investigating the reasons behind the suicide. However, Reacher has quite a few groups interested in his interaction with the dead woman, some may not be as they seem, which add to the suspense and thrills. If you were disappointed with Nothing to Lose, Gone Tomorrow will reaffirm your confidence in Lee Child and Jack Reacher.
Already writing the 14th installment in the series, I can't wait to see where Reacher surfaces with his worldly possessions (ATM card, out-of-date passport, and toothbrush).