Krishna
We have reviewed many books in the action packed and popular Reacher series. For just two examples, refer to Worth Dying For or 61 Hours.
This story is told in the first person and starts with the narrator approaching Pentagon gates. It is of course Jack Reacher. He meets xxx and learns why he was called.
He is to watch while another operator investigates a murder. He is not to do anything to interfere or even investigate. However, when Reacher (because it was he who was telling the story) goes he learns that the girl did not die mutilated but her throat was cut ear to ear. (As they are taught in the army to do). He also learns that a car was left on the rail tracks and was (intentionally?) blown to smithereens. He wants to find which car. They may be trying to destroy evidence of some kind.
He meets two threatening folks who ask him aggressively what his business is and what he is doing there. He stands his ground in true Reacher style. They leave without physical confrontation.
Then he meets the sheriff who is a woman and (of course, as this is a Reacher novel) attractive. He sees the pictures of the three victims - two before the latest one, and all of them are attractive.
He goes investigating and there is another murder. This time it is a man, surprisingly. And after being shot in the leg, he apparently bled to death and the shooter even tried to save him by bandaging the wound before fleeting. Which made reacher think that it was not a killing shot but a warning shot that went awry.
Meanwhile the bullies come back to confront Reacher again, with two more folks. He is openly disdainful and sends them away 'asking them to bring in a lot more folks'. They go and the sheriff warns him that he is now a target.
They both go investigating to the victims' houses. They find that one of the victims had a boyfriend from the army and he owned a blue car. The car that got smashed was a blue vintage car, and Jack found the license plate and memorized it. His boss asked him to destroy it, but
Reacher finds that all the debris, including the plate has been carefully removed when he went back there. By what looks like a fairly large group of folks.
When the brother of the victim, the slow boy is killed, Reacher says he cannot overlook it any longer. He borrows a rifle from the sheriff and then goes into the forest, trying to find the hidden army who are trying to create a safety zone around the army camp. It is full of Reacher style heroics and interesting.
He meets them and stunningly kills one and the rest run away. Finally he realizes that the culprit is Riley and his friend Duncan also tells him that the girl Devereux dated him too. It is a surprise to her but she realizes that the guy she dated socially who was the son of a friend was in the army base. She had not known.
But then Reacher comes across a dossier passed to him temporarily that Devereux had trashed his ex lover's car and all three girls murdered were the same man's girl frinds after he broke up with Devereux.
Reacher then goes back to the city and meets her. Meanwhile he learns that the Senator's son who was the boyfriend of all the girls - had stayed back and not gone off like they had claimed - even sending a fake plane out.
The army decides that since the police chief was the killer, there is no involvement with the army, and decides to close the case. Reacher decides to stay back until he has resolved the mystery for himself.
All indications point to Police Chief Devereux and this is buttressed by the evidence that she owned a deer trestle near her house which could have been used to kill the girls. All of whom were rivals to her - except the one who was shot on foot.
Reacher needs to think. And think hard. He thinks back to the file that nailed Devereux and then decided to investigate when the Senator and his son arrive for victory celebrations. What follows is pure action - Reacher style. He finds out the real killers and takes revenge in the spectacular Reacher fashion.
A satisfying read - until you remember the one accidental death that simply does not make any sense - or makes sense in a convoluted, tangential way.
Still a good read.
7/10
-- Krishna