Krishna
This is the book in the series after Killing Floor, Die Trying and Tripwire, all of which have been reviewed earlier.
Two things are different about this book from the earlier Jack Reacher books. One is that Reacher continues his relationship from the previous book. Usually he has to ‘let the girl go’ so that he can meet an interesting new girl and usually it is always mutual. However, here his relationship with Jodie from the previous book continues. The other difference? We will discuss that a bit later.
Jack is having breakfast in a cafe/ bar where he realizes that the owner is being harassed by a pair of thugs who demand money. They have given him an hour to come up with the money. He waits for them and teaches them a tough lesson and pretends that he is from a rival mafia who already has this shop covered in order to ensure that they stay away for good.
He is kidnapped by the FBI and taken to a remote house and locked up. When there is another murder they say that they have learnt he is innocent and ask him for help. He realizes that the whole thing was a ruse to get his cooperation, which pisses him off. He refuses to help. They threaten to unleash mayhem on his girlfriend Judy.
He has a plan and goes on a road trip with Lamarr. He is forced to go long distances by car since Lamarr has fear of flying.
When he reaches the FBI facility, he finds himself assigned a minder, the pretty girl Harper. The room he is in is missing a handle inside and he is a virtual prisoner, untrusted. However, he cleverly suggests that the murderer is likely to be the special forces cop.
There is a scene where he hoodwinks his ‘watcher’ Hunter by going back stealthily (when he is supposed to be in a closed room with his ex boss and reading documents) and damages two of the drug lords pretending to be Petrosian’s goon and returns on time. FBI has not a clue.
He continues to waste their time. While slowly thinking about what may be happening. When finally he manages to eliminate Petrosian, Julie does not like it. They realize that they want different things in life and he goes back to the FBI with another murder, this time Lamarr’s sister being murdered. Due to the first mistake from the killer (whom you know is a Colonel – nothing else) they realize that the paint is shipped as an unsolicited washing machine delivery. Now, they go and find that the paint was delivered to every one of the seventeen intended victims and then go remove all of them.
They bring the tub from Lamarr for analysis. The doctor opines that the killing could only be done by inserting a soft substance in her throat and removing it later. No one could understand how he has them cooperating for their own killing.
Then Reacher has a brainwave. He wants to check it out and so goes over to the intended next victim Sinisca(?).
Now that there is police presence on each of the remaining victims, the killer plans carefully and is confident that the police can be outwitted. There is a very clever scene where the place is being scrutinized by the killer (of course the killer’s identity is not revealed) who is confident that the obstacles can be surmounted. The killer plans carefully. The FBI surveillance lasts for 12 hours and the local police surveillance for 12 hours. So the killing has to be during daylight, when the local police is present.
While Reacher and Harper rush to her house, we find the killer calmly planning and successfully entering the house despite the police presence by an ingenious ruse.
Almost at the point of succeeding, the killer is interrupted by Reacher. We then understand the motive for the murders – the theme borrowed from the ABC murders of Agatha Christie – and how it was executed, which is original Lee Child.
For those of you who are used to Reacher’s nonstop breathtaking actions, this may be a bit of a disappointment, wherein he uses his brain much more than his brawn but still the suspense and the denouement are as exciting as ever.
For an author (Lee Child) who was working in a communications department until he was forty and started writing only after (or was it shortly before?) he lost his job to a restructuring, Lee Child has done spectacularly well.
Another good book in the series 7/10
– – Krishna (November 2019)