Publishers Weekly
08/29/2022
At the start of the relentlessly paced 27th Jack Reacher novel—the third collaboration between the Child brothers (after 2021’s Better Off Dead)—six men meet at Minerva, a Mississippi prison, to decide if someone who witnessed the murder of Minerva employee Angela St. Vrain in Gerrardsville, Colo., poses a threat to their illegal sources of profit. That someone is Reacher, who, when a police officer urges him not to get involved, says: “A woman was murdered. Someone has to do something about it.” The Minerva team’s justifiable fears and Reacher’s quest for justice propel the plot, which charts Reacher’s long journey from Colorado to Mississippi. Most Reacher stories focus on Reacher, the victims, and the bad guys, but this one has two additional narrative threads: a 15-year-old boy runs away from his foster home in L.A. to reunite with his imprisoned father; and a successful arsonist wants vengeance for his son’s mysterious death. The authors sacrifice some narrative momentum with these subplots, but they also provide all the familiar elements Reacher fans expect: the slow reveal of Minerva’s massive secret, plenty of violence, Reacher’s unique approach to dispensing justice, and a thrilling denouement. Who could ask for more? Agent: Darley Anderson, Darley Anderson Literary (U.K.). (Oct.)
From the Publisher
Praise for No Plan B
“The ‘Child’ brothers keep powering along, and their collaboration is bringing a new energy to the beloved Jack Reacher series (which is also flush with new fans in the wake of the hit adaptation). No Plan B has all the staples we’ve come to appreciate: a smalltown, arrived to seemingly at random, but soon Reacher finds a conspiracy unfolding, as a series of ‘accidental’ deaths have something more sinister behind them. Reacher, naturally, will apply brutal reason (and other brutal forces) to find his way into the depths of this small town’s corrupt soul.”—CrimeReads
“No Plan B is one of the best Reacher books in years.”—TheRealBookSpy
“Who could ask for more?” —Publishers Weekly
“Fans who come for the action . . . will not be disappointed. . . . A grimly efficient addition to the Reacher canon.”—Kirkus Reviews
“No Plan B is not to be missed. It is a perfectly plotted, fast-paced thriller, with bigger twists than ever before. It’s no wonder Jack Reacher is everyone’s favorite rebel hero.”—Karin Slaughter
“Lee and Andrew Child nail it again with No Plan B.”—Richard Osman
“The world’s favorite hero packs an even harder punch than ever.”—Peter James
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
Library Journal
09/09/2022
Six-feet-five-inches-tall, 250-pound ex-MP Reacher witnesses a killing masqueraded as a suicide: a hooded man pushes a woman in front of a bus and runs off with her purse. Reacher pursues him, someone pursues him, and the bloodletting starts. Reacher doesn't know why the killing happened or why someone is chasing him, but he won't give up until he finds out. Two other narratives interweave with Reacher's: a runaway 15-year-old travels to meet a father he's never known, and a middle-aged criminal hunts for the man who supplied a defective liver to his son when he needed a transplant. Neither of these subordinate plots has enough interest to maintain it over the long haul, so there's padding, and the main story line, of Reacher on the hunt, is cookie-cutter stuff—all the juice seems squeezed out of the series by this time. The franchise has had a long run: this is the 27th Jack Reacher thriller (after Better Off Dead), and the third coauthored by brothers Lee and Andrew. Perhaps it's time to hang up the gloves. VERDICT This humdrum, by-the-book thriller isn't all that good, but it will still attract Reacher's countless fans.—David Keymer
NOVEMBER 2022 - AudioFile
The latest Reacher audiobook weaves a number of seemingly disconnected yet gripping subplots before the pieces come together in typical Reacher fashion. Twisted and fast-paced, the story begins with Reacher witnessing the murder of a woman. Narrator Scott Brick voices Reacher as strong and determined but also compassionate. Brick also creates a wide range of multidimensional supporting characters. He particularly shines in voicing Jed, a boy who is searching for his father, and Hannah, a woman who is determined to get justice for her best friend, who teams up with Reacher. The varying plotlines may seem disjointed at first, but those who stick with it won’t be disappointed. K.S.M. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2022-08-31
In the latest volume from Child, Inc., in which the retiring Lee's younger brother, Andrew, will soon take over the Jack Reacher franchise, the colossal ex-Army cop traces the killing of a woman in a Colorado town to a gruesome prison conspiracy in Mississippi.
The death is ruled a suicide, but Reacher saw a man push the woman under a bus and steal her purse. After tracking down and disposing of the culprit, he learns that the woman worked for a private prison in Mississippi and had returned to Colorado to run troubling statistics about the prison's operation past her former boss. He died of a supposed heart attack 12 hours before her death. Teaming up with the man's tough-skinned ex-wife, Reacher heads South to sort things out, "wired to move toward danger." Fearing Reacher will interfere with their deadly schemes, prison officials set up a network of roadblocks outside of town to pick him off. Meanwhile, a vulnerable 15-year-old boy, escaping his abusive foster mother in Los Angeles, travels to Mississippi after his birth mother tells him life-changing truths about his father. He, too, is targeted by bad guys. Most of the ingredients of classic Reacher are here. Our sadistic hero delivers bone-crushing blows to his hopeless foes with sadistic satisfaction ("Would you care if you stepped on a cockroach?"). He eludes the traps set for him and penetrates the high-security prison. He drinks a lot of coffee and beds a local woman. What's missing in this follow-up to the collaborative Better Off Dead (2021) is Lee Child's elegant writing, for which he hasn't received enough credit. The sentences here are short and metronomically flat, and the early sections are uncharacteristically disjointed. But fans who come for the action and the traveling tips—a folding toothbrush is best, he advises—will not be disappointed.
A grimly efficient addition to the Reacher canon.