Gone Tomorrow (Jack Reacher, No. 13) by Lee Child
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Book Reviews of Gone Tomorrow (Jack Reacher, No. 13)
Book Review: Mayhem in Manhattan
Summary: 5 Stars
"Gone Tomorrow" brings Jack Reacher to New York. He's riding on a subway train and stares at a woman who has most of the points of a female suicide bomber. When he rises and approaches the woman to see if he could talk to her, she pulls a gun and kills herself.
After giving his statement to the police, he meets the woman's brother, a cop himself. He tells Jack that his sister, Susan Mark, worked for the Pentagon and wouldn't kill herself. There must be something more.
There are men outside the train station. They ask Reacher if the woman gave him anything and if she mentioned John Swanson or Lila Hoth. She hadn't but these names give Reacher subjects to investigate. Swanson is a Congressman who wrote a book about his life. Reacher discovers that he had been in the Delta Forces and won a number of medals but the details were not revealed.
Compelled to find out what was going on with Susan, Reacher travels to Washington, DC. He meets with Swanson but the Congressman doesn't shed any light as to why the woman felt compelled to commit suicide.
Then Reacher travels back to New York. He meets Lila who states that she and her mother are in New York attempting to find a soldier who had a relationship with her mother when she was in Berlin. Susan Mark was helping them. She also asks if Susan gave Reacher anything.
As the page turning novel moves on, we are given insight to Reacher's thoughts. We find that Reacher believes that Lila and her mother appeared sympathetic but there were holes in their story. They wanted info that would harm the Congressman and maybe the United States. Reacher must find a way to stop them, without knowing what is on a memory stick that Susan stole from the Pentagon.
Child's last novel, "Nothing to Lose" was disappointing. However, with "Gone Tomorrow" he is back at the pinnicle of action thrillers.
Having privy to Reacher's thoughts makes him even more interesting and Child's descriptions of New York and its inhabitants are right on the money.
Book Review: super
Summary: 5 Stars
On a nearly vacant Manhattan subway train, former MP Jack Reacher notices the female passenger acting odd. She shows all the nervous signs of a suicide bomber as proscribed by the Israeli military, an occupation by definition always means first timer. The Israreli list of signs contains eleven points in common between the genders; this woman has all of them as the local train heads from Bleeker St. with stops in between towards Grand Central. Absurd as he thinks it is, Reacher follows his gut and calmly confronts her. In her bag is not wires, but a gun she pulls out and points at him before turning it on herself blowing away her head.
NYPD Detective Theresa Lee questions Reacher especially about the Israeli list that led to the "false positive" suicide. Detective Docherty offers a different scenario accusing Reacher of homicide, but the vet calls the cop dumb insisting they are stalling until the Feds arrive. When the FBI does they question Reacher before walking away. Leaving the precinct, he is accosted by four men wanting information and after that by the victim's brother, who insists his sister would not kill herself. Before long Jack finds himself pulled in two directions; one back to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the other into the heart of the global war on terrorism; neither make sense, but Jack knows his mission is to kill the bad guys before they cause harm.
The opening sequence as poorly described above is brilliant as Reacher is pulled into an international mess one step at a time. The story line gets even better as the tension mounts as Reacher finds himself caught in the middle. Fans of the series will believe GONE TOMORROW is one of the best entries (that says a lot with the consistency of this series) while newcomers could not ask for a better introduction to the world of the nomadic former MP.
Harriet Klausner
Book Review: Gone Tomorrow
Summary: 5 Stars
I picked up this book with a happy sigh and the same thought I usually have when opening a Lee Child book, "ahh, pure pleasure awaits!" And from the first paragraph: "Suicide bombers are easy to spot. They give out all kinds of tell-tale signs. Mostly because they're nervous. By definition they're all first-timers," one is plunged into the world of Jack Reacher, at once scary, exhilarating and, always, exciting.
The setting is a normally innocuous one: a New York subway train, at 2:00 AM, on which Reacher finds himself with no particular destination in mind. Reacher, to the uninitiated, is an itinerant, heroic ex-soldier and -MP always ready for anything. His attention is caught by a woman who, to his trained eye, exhibits all the classic signs. The refrain known to all NYers after September 11th is "If you see something, say something." I quickly learned more than I ever wanted to know about the "behavioral indicators" of a would-be martyr. Any more details on the story line would constitute a spoiler, because the suspense starts on page 1 and doesn't let up till the final page, sometimes abating slightly, and briefly. There are layers upon layers, with always another twist, another surprise, ahead.
One of the things at which the author excels is making entirely plausible to the reader the usually incredible. All the while caught up in writing witty and wonderful, deft, swift-moving and sure, with just the right amount of leavening humor. Characters and situations are introduced in succinct manner, telling you all you need to know. The same could be said for the book as a whole. Reacher is a man who famously travels light, no backpacks or any other kind of luggage, only what he can fit into his pockets, ""everything I need, nothing I don't." Exactly what Mr. Child gives the reader. It is, obviously, highly recommended.
Book Review: Another Reacher razzler-dazzler
Summary: 5 Stars
A Lone Ranger for the 21st Century, former MP Jack Reacher's 13th one-man pursuit of justice opens with him on the New York subway at 2 a.m. eyeing a woman who hits every bullet on the suicide bomber checklist.
But what the woman is carrying is not a bomb. It's a handgun and she blows her own head off when Reacher confronts her.
" `I think you tipped her over the edge,' " says Theresa Lee, the cop who conducts the investigation afterwards. Lee apologizes for the remark but it sticks with him as several sets of other investigators - shady and official - prod him for information and he discovers that the dead woman worked in an innocuous government job.
Everyone involved - from the FBI on down - seems to fob Reacher off with falsehoods and spin and nothing quite spur's Reacher's need to know like a lie. As he digs he turns up connections that go deep into a Senate candidate's distinguished and secretive military career, an Afghani widow's tragic story, and her beautiful daughter's quest for justice.
If flattery won't get him, then bullets will seems to be the mantra of the various human obstacles in Reacher's path as he doggedly, dazzlingly works out complex, top-secret plots and histories and then patiently, cleverly goes up against overwhelming odds, with little more than Theresa Lee as a hamstrung aide.
A snappy, cunning, diabolical plot master with an engaging stand-up individualist as a hero, Child has given us another top-notch, page-turning winner of a thriller.
Book Review: Lean, mean, and no mercy
Summary: 5 Stars
Shame on you Lee Child for not having pity on us working folks - am dragging as I write from staying up until 3 in the morning - poured through this voraciously flipping pages to see what happens next. The phrase "grabs you by the throat and doesn't let go" as been overused but the clean sparing prose just dragged me in. For those who were complaining about the detail overload or wordiness of Lee Child's last - here yah go - this one is stripped down with almost no warm fuzziness or backstory - you are just dropped into the middle of things.
It's brutal enough with plenty of twists - there were parts where I was thinking OMG. How is it this guy can write in so much detail about weapons and it works so well, and then give you just enough detail in other parts that your mind fleshes things out? This book reminds me of a favorite ("Persuader") and is pure Reacher, working more alone than I've seen in the other books - when it was over wanted to give the character a great big hug and a good meal. Has one of Child's most disturbing villains yet - this book is like going outside of your nice warm house and getting slapped in the face with a freezing blizzard - so naturally I will be re-reading it this weekend.
Personally I would have liked more snarky moments and hated to see the character working so much alone, but again this one is stripped down and hard. One cheery thing is that Child is working on the next Reacher novel, according to the back plate - for me it will be a LONG wait.