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NIGHT SCHOOL is Lee Child’s 21st Jack Reacher novel. Instead of continuing with the present day adventures of this charismatic character, Child brings us back to an earlier time—1996, when Reacher was still affiliated with the military. This is not, however, a book of Reacher-background. Instead, the author presents the reader with a tale that has implications for the real life events that followed this time in history. Child has written an inspired novel that gives his main character something to use his mental prowess on other than the geometry of hand-to-hand combat. Jack Reacher figures out a puzzle and, literally, saves the world.
Reacher is still—or already—the Reacher we know, and the set pieces—such as where he uses mathematics to figure out how to take on a half dozen assailants at once–are supplied as needed. This is before either the Internet or cell phone technology was widespread, so both the evildoers and the ones seeking to find them must do things the old-fashioned way.
As the novel opens, Reacher has been given a medal and then assigned to go to school. But this is not a real school. His classmates are FBI and CIA agents and the whole idea is to give them a cover for investigating a situation that the government perceives as a high-priority threat. Through a strategically placed undercover agent in Hamburg Germany, they have learned that a deal for some unknown item is being negotiated through couriers. The amount of money being discussed is so large that it triggers an automatic need to investigate further. What could be worth one hundred million dollars? All they know for sure is that an unknown American is offering the deal.
Theories abound as to what might be worth this enormous sum. Information? Hardware, like missiles or missile launchers? This is before the millennium, and they even discuss the idea that there might be a connection to Y2K–the fear of worldwide disruption when the switchover to the year 2000 would create mass computer failures.
Reacher asks Sergeant Frances Neagley to be on his staff. She is a woman he had worked with before and respects both as a soldier and a friend. They fly to Hamburg and then attempt to locate the persons involved. Reacher has been given free rein to investigate as he sees fit, but he oversteps even these wide parameters. His presence ignites the attention of the local authorities, and various groups begin to target him.
The group negotiating with the unidentified American for the unknown item is a ruthless Al Qaeda-like entity. They think nothing of snuffing out any life that might implicate them. Reacher eventually figures out what is being bargained for, but corrupt officials stymie him at every turn. Suspense builds as we realize the implications of what is at stake and see the perpetrators slip though Reacher’s fingers again and again.
In this immensely popular series that began in 1997, Reacher has retained his strength, agility and creative resourcefulness even as he grows older in real time. Although his powers seem undimmed, readers might wonder if his aging might impact his abilities to continue fighting for justice, at least in the style to which we have become accustomed. By going back in time in NIGHT SCHOOL, Lee Child leaves this question unanswered but gives us reason to believe that there will be many more Jack Reacher exploits to read about in our own futures.
§ Anne Corey is a writer, poet, teacher and botanical artist in New York's Hudson Valley.
Reviewed by Anne Corey, October 2016
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