Jack Reacher is an ex-military policeman who travels around the USA attempting to keep under the radar, but somehow always ends up slap bang in the middle of a situation that requires his special set of skills. In The Hard Way, his tenth outing, Reacher witnesses what is, apparently, the pick up of a ransom demand. He gets persuaded to help the victims and attempt to find the kidnappers of a woman and her daughter. As he spends more time with Edward Lane, the husband of the kidnap victim, he comes to realise that he is not a very nice man, and is the leader of a gang of mercenaries. He assumes that the kidnap is a piece of revenge for some nefarious action committed by Lane and his cohorts. However, when the sister of Edward Lane's first wife approaches Reacher and says that she is convinced that Lane had something to do with the kidnap and murder of her sister, he fears that history might be repeating itself ... Within the first page, I knew I was in the safe hands of an incredibly skillful author. Lee Child has the exceptionally useful knack of engaging the attention of his readers immediately. You are right there, totally immersed in Reacher's world after just a few lines, and you know you are in for a good time. The action is taut, the dialogue is snappy and the sense of place - whether it be New York, or an isolated farmhouse in the backwaters of Norfolk, England - feels authentic. I raced through this book at breakneck speed, and was always eager to return to its pages. If you are looking for an action-packed thriller with plenty of twists and turns, then I would heartily recommend this book to you. A winner.
My STAR rating: FOUR.
Length: 528 print pages.
Price I paid: free, borrowed from local library.
Formats available: print; unabridged audio download; ebook.
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