Krishna
Another Jack Reacher book. We have reviewed some of the earlier Reacher books by Lee Child here, including Echo Burning and Running Blind.
Reacher agrees to ‘contract kill’ someone right in the beginning of the book! The person asking him to do is a young lady.
Reacher bums a ride with an old couple part way from California and when the lady sings, he is mesmerized enough to go all the way to Colorodo(?) with them. They request him to stay there as a help and he agrees.
Meanwhile a lady (presumably the girl in the preamble) is searching hard for him. She belongs to law enforcement and convinces her boss to let her hire Reacher. First she has to find him and it takes a bit of doing. She finally does, and introduces herself as MC Froelich. Her assignment to him? To assassinate the Vice President of the United States! It is to be a ‘Red Hat’ operation to test the security, not a real one. And she knows of Reacher because she dated Reacher’s dead brother Joe.
He senses she is lying about why she wants him to help her. He senses that she already has a suspicion that someone is targeting Vice President Blake. He agrees to do her bidding and disappears – for the moment.
When he is back, he reveals four different ways (and a ‘maybe’ way in addition) where he could have assassinated Armstrong, the candidate. She is struck speechless.
After initial scepticism, her boss Sturveyant employs them to unearth the real threat they have, which is a note left in the highly secure office of the boss assuring him that ‘Blake is going to die’.
It gets racier. A demonstration is planned and it is spectacular – two random folks were killed, both sharing the Vice President’s last name of Armstrong. A pointed reference.
As always, Reacher and the lead female have sex – also a regular feature in the books. Two things are definite about Reacher. He ends up in a new town and helps solve a problem; second, he is associated with a very capable, and very beautiful young girl with whom he will have sex. Both checkboxes are ticked in this book also. I guess this is a formulaic feature of Reacher stories.
Reacher detects how the letter came there by brilliantly analyzing the tape that they saw. When they realize that the person in charge of videos is the one that did it, they go to his house but he goes into a catatonic shock. They realize that his wife has been kidnapped and tortured and he is terrified to talk.
When another letter arrives by mail asking them if they ‘liked the demonstration’ they are alarmed. They now have to call FBI.
When an attempt is made on Armstrong’s life on a charity event, Reacher catches a quick glimpse of a retreating back before going to help Froelich, who was wounded and dies in his arms. The vague look triggers something in his mind, especially the way the assassin walked.
He goes investigating with his partner Nagealy. They work out that this was personal against Armstrong the man as opposed to a political opponent and then confront him in a private audience. Armstrong did receive a threat directly – cryptic enough for others but clear for him (a broken baseball toy) but had no idea about the other threats.
Once they figure out who they are, they then cleverly lay a trap for them to get Armstrong to go to Froelich’s funeral and letting everyone know.
In that small town, they lie in wait for the assassins to turn up.
What follows is a scorching tempo of a story for the last twenty or so pages.
A good book, not as good as Running Blind, perhaps, but a classic Reacher book that presses all the buttons for the fans.
7/10
– – Krishna