In Child’s latest Reacher novel, his ex-army hero is hitchhiking to Virginia, battered but unbowed, when he’s picked up by a car carrying three men and a woman. Much of the book takes place in that car, with the always-suspicious Reacher doing a lot of sleuthing into the backgrounds of his mysterious fellow passengers. His suspicions are, of course, well founded. The four are connected to at least one murder. Before too long, Reacher has switched vehicles, now driving with a beautiful FBI agent and following his former companions into the heart of a seemingly inscrutable conspiracy. Some listeners may find the road trip a little meandering and the arbitrary death of a likeable character off-putting, but none should have any complaints about narrator Dick Hill’s vigorous, sardonic performance in this audio edition. His reading is perfectly tuned to Child’s hardboiled prose, and the narrator maintains an energy level that’s high enough to carry the listener past some of the book’s slower passages. Of special note is Hill’s ability to pick just the right word to linger on, nicely capturing Reacher’s attitude, be it one of distrust, sarcasm, anger, or, in rare instances, warmth. A Delacorte hardcover. (Sept.)
A Wanted Man (Jack Reacher Series #17)
A Wanted Man (Jack Reacher Series #17)
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Overview
A masterpiece of suspense from #1 New York Times bestselling author Lee Child
Four people in a car, hoping to make Chicago by morning. One man driving, eyes on the road. Another man next to him, telling stories that don't add up. A woman in the back, silent and worried. And next to her, a huge man with a broken nose, hitching a ride east to Virginia.
An hour behind them, a man lies stabbed to death in an old pumping station. He was seen going in with two others, but he never came out. He has been executed, the knife work professional, the killers vanished. Within minutes, the police are notified. Within hours, the FBI descends, laying claim to the victim without ever saying who he was or why he was there.
All Reacher wanted was a ride to Virginia. All he did was stick out his thumb. But he soon discovers he has hitched more than a ride. He has tied himself to a massive conspiracy that makes him a threat-to both sides at once.
In Lee Child's white-hot thriller, nothing is what it seems, and nobody is telling the truth. As the tension rises, the twists come fast and furious, keeping readers guessing and gasping until the explosive finale.
Editorial Reviews
Bestseller Child’s surprise-filled 17th Jack Reacher novel (after 2011’s The Affair) takes the ex-military policeman on a wild road ride that builds to a terrific slam-bang climax. While hitchhiking one winter night in Nebraska with a broken nose that makes him look more than usually disreputable, Reacher is picked up by two men and a woman wearing identical cheap blue shirts. The fun begins when clues suggest that the men in the car are responsible for the brutal murder of another man at an abandoned pump station. The role of the woman in the car remains unclear. Sheriff Victor Goodman is quick to call the FBI, which arrives in the person of Julia Sorenson, only the first of many agencies and agents heard from. While the erratic trip through America’s heartland doesn’t always follow a logical path, Reacher displays his acuity, patience, endurance, and military skills in the exhilarating fashion series fans have come to expect. Agent: Darley Anderson, Darley Anderson Literary. (Sept.)
Praise for the Jack Reacher series
“The truth about Reacher gets better and better. . . . This series [is] utterly addictive.”—Janet Maslin, The New York Times
“Jack Reacher is today’s James Bond, a thriller hero we can’t get enough of. I read every one as soon as it appears.”—Ken Follett
“Reacher is the stuff of myth. . . . One of this century’s most original, tantalizing pop-fiction heroes.”—The Washington Post
“I’m a fan.”—James Patterson
“The Reacher novels are easily the best thriller series going.”—NPR
“Reacher is a man for whom the phrase moral compass was invented: His code determines his direction. . . . You need Jack Reacher.”—The Atlantic
“I pick up Jack Reacher when I’m in the mood for someone big to solve my problems.”—Patricia Cornwell
“[A] feverishly thrilling series . . . You can always count on furious action.”—Miami Herald
In Child's 17th Jack Reacher thriller, which picks up the action from Worth Dying For (after a detour in the prequel The Affair) our loner hero is hitchhiking east to Virginia. Unsurprisingly for series readers, Jack's ride turns out to be not just a ride, but a car the state police, the FBI and the CIA are seeking, with occupants who are involved in a cold-blooded killing. To survive, Jack must use his wits more than ever. His statistical knowledge, analytical thinking, and insight into human behavior help him dig deep into a multilayered puzzle well before the need for an all-out physical confrontation builds to a heart-racing climax. VERDICT Fans will devour this volume quickly and long for the next Reacher novel. Readers who enjoy character-driven thrillers such as Robert Ludlum's Jason Bourne books will be intrigued by this series. [See Prepub Alert, 3/12/12; Jack Reacher, the film adaptation of Child's first novel, One Shot, starring Tom Cruise, will be released Dec. 21, 2012—Ed.]—Susan Carr, Edwardsville P.L., IL
Will Jack Reacher ever make it to that woman in Virginia he was trying to reach in Worth Dying For (2010)? Not if all hell continues to break loose in Nebraska. Shortly after an eyewitness sees three men enter a small concrete bunker outside an anonymous town and only two of them emerge, Reacher, "just a guy, hitching rides," is picked up by a trio of corporate-sales types: Alan King, Don McQueen and Karen Delfuenso. In a tour de force that runs well over a hundred pages, Child cuts back and forth between the clues county sheriff Victor Goodman and FBI agent Julia Sorenson gather concerning the unidentified man in the green coat who was stabbed to death inside that bunker and the inferences Reacher is making about his traveling companions. For one thing, it's clear that King and McQueen know each other better than either of them knows Delfuenso; for another, a good deal of what they casually tell him about themselves isn't true. Just when you've settled down expecting Child to keep up this rhythm indefinitely, he switches gears in an Iowa motel, and Reacher's left out of danger but on his own--at least until Sorenson arrives to arrest him and the two of them form a quicksilver partnership whose terms seem to change every time Sorenson gets another phone call from the cops or the Feds. After working every change imaginable on their relationship, Child switches gears again and sends them a bang-bang assault on a hush-hush installation that shows how far into America's heartland its enemies have penetrated. In this latest attempt to show Reacher enjoying every possible variety of conflict with his nation's government short of outright secession, Child (The Affair, 2011, etc.) has produced two-thirds of a masterpiece.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940171874629 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Penguin Random House |
| Publication date: | 09/11/2012 |
| Series: | Jack Reacher Series |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
| Sales rank: | 426,185 |
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Copyright © 2013 Lee Child.
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