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Jack Reacher doesn't live his life on the same timetable as do ordinary mortals. Thus, while riding the subway at 2 a.m. is something most people do but rarely, that's where Reacher is. His eye is caught by a woman sitting near him. Reacher had spent more than a decade as a military policeman and during that time had picked up various tidbits of esoteric information, including how to identify a suicide bomber, as specified by Israeli Counterintelligence. Reacher notes, with considerable interest, that the woman is displaying all the signs. He decides that it is in his own interest as well as the interest of all the other passengers on the train for him to approach her, which he does, with unforeseen results. After the woman does what she feels forced to do, a NYPD detective, Theresa Lee, becomes involved. (I wonder if future books will contain any character named Child, or would that be too much to hope?) She, of course, takes an interest in Reacher. His knowledge of the Israeli list, which, unfortunately, he had admitted to, makes him a person of interest to the authorities and he is commanded to go to the precinct house. There Reacher is interested to discover that the NYPD is unaware of a fifth passenger who was on the train at the same time that the woman provoked a tragedy. Not only does the NYPD want to question Reacher but so, too, does an anonymous Federal agency. They, however, do not wish to share any information with Reacher, not even the identity of the woman. By the time it's all over, the story has expanded to reach more than three decades and to involve the lives of people in Washington, California, Afghanistan, the world. Child's plots are rarely simple and uncomplicated. This particular novel goes well beyond any single murder or suicide but extends to Afghani freedom fighters. Once it gets that far, it is difficult to sort out just who is on the side of good from who isn't. Lee Child's books are always tightly plotted, and this outing is no exception. Reacher, while on the whole displaying an almost complete inability to make major mistakes, does occasionally make a minor error and has to remedy it. The author's characterisation is always plausible. I've always found that he rarely produces caricatures, as opposed to characters. The plots, too, are convincing. For all that I have enjoyed the Reacher books, right from KILLING FLOOR, the very first, I do occasionally wish that the author permitted Reacher to make a really big mistake and stop being quite so perfect.
Reviewed by Denise P, May 2009
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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