Thursday, July 1, 2010


I know I've posted about Lee Child's Jack Reacher books once already, and I don't want to bore you with repeated post, since in general his books are pretty similar. Reacher comes into town, trouble of some sort finds him even though he doesn't ask for it, he meets a girl that'll help him, and takes care of business using his previous Army MP experience. He doesn't worry about the law, which honestly, should normally be on his side anyway, and he doesn't worry about what people will think. He just goes about setting things right. I find more and more that I really enjoy Reacher's world. It's the simplicity of it. In his world, the rules are simple, "if you mess with me, I'll mess with you". He owns only what he carries with him, which is a folding tooth brush and ATM card and he buys a set of clothes, wears them for a few days, buys new ones and throws the old ones away..(I'm always hoping he doesn't wear his underwear that long in a stint). It's simple. It's the kind of world we often wish Jack Bauer had.

In Nothing to Lose Jack Reacher wanders into a town Called Despair to get a cup of coffee, and they immediately arrest him, take him to court, and throw him out of the city on a vagrancy charge. This, of course, gets Reacher's attention and he can't resist going back to see what's going on. That's when he meets a female law enforcement officer in the next town over, and the puzzle starts getting solved in the familiar Jack Reacher fashion. I liked this one, it seemed to flow well and didn't slow down as some of his earlier books do, (the later books in the series seem to do better in that way). All in all, it works for me, I enjoy being in that world for awhile, and I look forward to reading the next Reacher book I have sitting on my shelf.

Nothing to Lose

3 comments:

seana graham said...

I haven't read Lee Child yet. From what I've heard here and elsewhere, it seems he's got a formula that really works for a lot of people. I'll have to try him sometime.

Glenna said...

When you do, start with the first book so you get an idea of why Reacher does what he does, but after that, you can skip around and not really miss much since Reacher is the only real reoccurring character. :)

seana graham said...

Thanks. I'll remember that.