Gone Tomorrow (Jack Reacher, No. 13) by Lee Child
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Book Reviews of Gone Tomorrow (Jack Reacher, No. 13)
Book Review: Jack is Back
Summary: 5 Stars
I am giving 5 stars for this book because it is as good as it gets for the character as he has evolved. The earlier novels that explored Jack's past and how he came to be who he is were better books. But Child is through with developing the character, it seems. So I have decided to evaluate him on the basis of the action/intrigue formula. And Child has returned to top form with this entry.
I won't go on and on regarding the plot. There are many good synopsis reviews here. But this was a great read. It was intriguing, exciting, and satisfying. The villains were very very bad, frighteningly plausible, and yet unique. In response, Reacher rained down enough righteous fury to satisfy the most depressed international news junkie. Lee Child is to be congratulated on creating a book superior to several previous efforts, rather than continuing on an inspiration-drained slide, as has been the fate of other series that started well. The author is still not thrilled with the excesses possible under the Patriot Act, but he does not spare us any details of just how dangerous our enemies are either. Hey, we get all our great plots and action from the guy, Don't begrudge Mr. Child a bit of a bully pulpit - as long as it doesn't become a political diatribe like Born to Lose. He obviously listens to his fans; and that is a smart man.
Back to his protagonist and our hero, Reacher is a bit superhuman, but we like him that way. Jack has to be 47 at the time of the action in 2008, since he states that he was still at West Point in 1983 (22 maximum plus 25). He gets a lot of "senior" comments from active law enforcement types, but holds up just fine, thank you. However, it was cool to have him being taken a bit down to size (figuratively speaking) by Delta Force veteran Springfield's comments regarding the denouement, despite his obvious prowess. And as for what one reviewer has referred to as the gratuitous roll in the hay, would he be Reacher without reminding you that he is a sexual, if not romantic, guy? I was waiting for it and could actually have used a few more details, thank you. As a female reader, I like my action heroes sexy as well as lethal. For sexless I could just turn to the Terminator. And speaking in that vein, Child makes Reacher larger than life without becoming a cartoon. I kind of dreaded the new Reacher novel after being mired in Despair the last time. But Hope prevailed. Ok that's corney, but pretty hard to resist. At any rate, I can't wait for Number 14.
Book Review: Lee Child is back in form
Summary: 5 Stars
The first and best news is that Lee Child is back in form with "Gone Tomorrow". While not the all time best Reacher novel that I have read, this is a more than satisfactory addition to the series. It involves some truly unpleasant villains, a politician with a deeply guarded secret, a missing son and plenty of tension. One thing I love but also find quite disconcerting when I'm reading a Reacher novel is the way that he deliberately seeks out and provokes the bad guys. It's so much the opposite of the way that I would behave that I find it quite nerve-wracking to read. And in this book, he does it a LOT.
It starts with Reacher on a New York subway in the small hours of the morning. He spots a woman, Susan Marks, whose behaviour meets every criteria for a suicide bomber. She's not. But she is a woman in trouble. Reacher can't help Susan, but he can't let the matter rest until he finds out what was behind her state of mind and finds the people who drove her to that point. Although at various times he recruits her brother and a friendly police officer as allies, essentially this is Reacher taking on the bad guys on his own.
The first half of the book is all set up and it's quite gradual. Reacher is a little slow off the mark: there are a couple of revelations that seemed pretty obvious to me, but which take some time to emerge. On the other hand, I wasn't sure for quite some time who the villains would turn out to be, which I enjoyed. In the second half, Reacher goes after the villains: this half is dead exciting and includes some of the most graphic descriptions of violence that I can remember Lee Child writing.
There is one central implausibility: Reacher is told repeatedly that he'll be in deep trouble if he finds out a particular secret. But when he does find it out, suddenly it doesn't seem to matter that he knows. Reacher also has developed an unlikely ability to track down his adversaries with ease. Some key plot elements are left unresolved. And the obligatory roll in the sack feels just that: out of place and only there because it's expected. However, at the end of the day the book's momentum means that these are just annoyances, not critical flaws.
Unusually, this book is written in the first person (as if Reacher is narrating): only three other Lee Child books have used this. It's not my preference given that Reacher is such an enigma, but it works fine. It's a great read: enjoy!
Book Review: As good as early books
Summary: 5 Stars
Jack Reacher is back in action. We meet him at New York night subway train, when Reacher recites the Israeli "suicide bomber check point list" - twelve points for men, eleven points for women. When one of the women in the train car "clicks" all the points, Reacher decides to move. From this moment, nothing happens as expected. NYPD, Feds and Department of Defense get involved and the plot moves forward so fast, that the reader doesn't have time to breathe in between the pages.
Overall, I liked the latest installment of Reacher series more than previous two books. First, Lee Child got the right mood from every perspective - geopolitical, psychological, and historical (I don't know about military one, so I am going to believe this one is authentic, as well). This made the story as plausible as the news - may be, even more.
Second, I was glad to see that Lee Child switched to first-person narrative. The military precision and abruptness of the writing, especially in dialogues, is definitely more natural in first person narrative. "I said nothing", coming from Reacher's mouth, is slightly less annoying than infamous "Reacher said nothing" from the previous books.
Also, in "Gone tomorrow" Jack Reacher is more the one from the early books: "the only guy in the world without a cell phone", who has difficulties adapting to the modern world realities. I loved the scene when Reacher used internet to find the information. In any other book, the protagonist would turn to Google search on the first two pages - and probably, would save to himself a lot of trouble and public-transportation travel time. By the time Reacher got to the internet, I began to wonder whether he heard at all about Google. Apparently, he did.
There is only one thing that I didn't like in this book. It is more "graphic", than previous books. Apparently, it comes with the territory - Afghanistan, in this case - but some of the scenes were too descriptive to my taste and slightly disturbing. Well, this, and "I said nothing" phrase on every second page. But I am getting used to it.
Fast-read, full of tension and action thriller - highly recommended both to fans of Reacher series and to those who had never read any book in the series. "Gone tomorrow" is perfect as stand alone novel, the knowledge of Reacher's background is not necessary to enjoy the book. You will not be disappointed.
Book Review: Tight plot, and classic Jack Reacher...
Summary: 5 Stars
Jack Reacher is one of my favorite novel characters, so I'm excited when Lee Child puts out another installment in that series. In Gone Tomorrow, Child delivers a classic Reacher mystery, putting Jack in the middle of something that has numerous layers and plenty of danger. While Reacher's "I don't live anywhere or own anything" philosophy doesn't get a heavy workout here, his persistence and sense of duty certainly does. This was not a read that I easy put down until I finished.
Reacher is on a subway train headed into New York, and he sees a woman that triggers all the checkpoints on the suicide bomber behavior checklist. As a former MP, he decides to approach her in an attempt to keep her and himself alive. Instead of carrying a bomb, she has a gun and proceeds to commit suicide as Reacher is trying to talk her down from her obvious distress. This death triggers more than just the local police, and when the feds and a mysterious 3rd party start asking Reacher for the information she was supposedly in possession of, he decides to act like he *does* have the information, just to see where this all leads. As the different layers and characters emerge, Reacher soon has entire organizations, both federal and international, trying to get his information and then "erase" him from the scene. The question becomes which one(s) are telling the truth, and which ones will he trust with the final answers.
Child kept the pacing on this one tight. Anywhere that Reacher showed up, there was a good chance that some group was already there ahead of him, wanting to take him out of the action. Child was able to use Reacher's lack of roots effectively to keep him moving and flowing with whatever the changing environment threw at him. His street fighting strengths also came into play, as most of the groups who wanted to "interview" him didn't care to play nice. The fight scenes were well-detailed, and getting the look into Reacher's mind as he took on the killers made for interesting reading. And finally, I was intrigued by Reacher's ability to take a normal scene or situation, and draw out tactical and strategic information to be used to get the information he needed. Most people would miss 90% of what actually is going on.
All in all, an excellent installment in the Reacher series, and I'm already looking forward for the next one.
Book Review: With my personal guarantee
Summary: 5 Stars
Some readers were disappointed by Nothing to Lose. They have my personal guarantee that they will not be disappointed by Gone Tomorrow. Jack Reacher is back and he's back with a vengeance. Literally. The story opens with Reacher on a northbound NYC subway car, one built in Japan, to specifications which he discusses in detail. Why? Because Jack is a curious man and so are the readers who overhear him telling his stories. He also details the specifications because they will come back to play a role in the story several hundred pages later. On that car, in the middle of the night, a woman who appears to be a potential suicide bomber does something else instead. Her action haunts Jack and he does not rest until he knows the reasons for her actions and exacts vengeance on those who have caused those actions.
Except for some brief moments in Washington, Gone Tomorrow is set in Manhattan, a city that both Jack Reacher and his creator know very well. The wide cast of characters includes members of the NYPD, the FBI, miscellaneous defense/homeland security types, some private security forces and some uber-baddies from Turkmenistan. The plot involves actions from the early 1980's and actions from today's headlines. The plot is as tight (to adapt one of the novel's similes) as the endpoint of the alimentary canal of a piscine creature. There is a bit of sex and a great deal of violence (strong but not pornographic).
The novel is replete with information, as Child taps into the wellsprings of the techno-thriller. There is also a great deal of ratiocinative mystery: how can you find someone in NYC in the middle of the night? How can you deduce the likely behavior of an individual from the scant remaining facts at your disposal? What are the best moves to employ against two individuals coming at you with brass knuckles? Why do you need a glove to operate a certain form of automatic weapon? How do the government's security-system computers operate?
This is Lee Child at his best: jackhammer suspense, pages flipping at light speed and Jack Reacher in full-tilt sarcastic mode, with a small army of baddies deserving of the business end of his best skills. Only one bit of advice: begin it when you have the time to finish it, because that is exactly what you will want to do. This is primo stuff; don't miss it.