I received this book for free from the library in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Source: the library
A Wanted Man
by
Lee Child
It is part of the , series and is a thriller in Hardcover edition that was published by Delacorte Press on September 11, 2012 and has 405 pages.
Explore it on Goodreads or Amazon
Other books by this author which I have reviewed include Killing Floor, Die Trying, "Second Son", Tripwire, Running Blind, Echo Burning, Without Fail, Persuader, The Enemy, One Shot, The Hard Way, Bad Luck and Trouble, Nothing to Lose, Gone Tomorrow, 61 Hours, Worth Dying For, The Affair, "Deep Down", Never Go Back, "High Heat", Personal, Make Me, "Small Wars", Night School, MatchUp, The Midnight Line, Past Tense, No Middle Name, The Hero, Blue Moon, "Cleaning the Gold"
Eighteenth chronologically in the Jack Reacher thriller series and seventeenth publication-wise. Reacher is thumbing a ride out of the disaster of Worth Dying For.
My Take
It’s am improvement over 61 Hours and Worth Dying For, and yet it lacks the tension and depth of earlier Child-Reacher installments. It’s a bit depressing as well when even Reacher starts referring to himself as “old”. Sigh.
This was fun to read as Reacher figures out who these three people are in the car he’s hitched a ride in. How he determines what’s a lie and what’s not. Sorenson could be a match for him in terms of figuring things out, but she is not a match for countering his logic, and she ends up following along. But, then, we knew how that was going to go.
Child is certainly tricky in keeping us in suspense as to what happens to the witness, the little girl, Karen…talk about shades of post-9/11 and those overreaching laws that trample all over our rights. The FBI wants to arrest Reacher no matter what.
It’s certainly a good lesson in not assuming anything, as well as why I never want a corporate/government job!
Okay, really odd. Reacher never gets laid in this one. He’s sure thinking about it, doing a little feeling around, but…nada, zip, zilch. Poor baby.
There are some loose ends: Goodman figures they took Lucy out on foot, but we never learn how that occurred or if he was even right; then there’s Lester3 whose identity we never learn; and, just why Washington is so concerned about Kansas City’s propensity for killing people off.
The Story
A dead guy in an abandoned pump house gets the police, FBI, CIA, and the State Department all ‘het up with blockades and search parties. Leave it to Reacher to thumb his way right into the middle of it all.
The Characters
Jack Reacher is bashed and somewhat broken after events in Worth Dying For, and all he wants to do is get to Virginia. An ex-MP, he’s huge at 6-foot-5 with “hands the size of dinner plates”. Not necessarily someone you’d feel comfortable picking up on the side of the road.
County Sheriff Victor Goodman lives up to his name. He’s good, experienced, and smart. So why he appointed Puller as his chief deputy, I’ll never know.
Special Agent Julia Sorenson is highly qualified, highly experienced, and highly regarded. Until she meets rebel-with-a-cause Jack Reacher. Special Agent-in-Charge Stony Perry is Sorenson’s boss and a real jerk, more interested in how he looks than in truth or justice. The following are Special Agents with counterterrorism out of Kansas City: Robert Dawson and Andrew Mitchell come to look over Sorenson’s shoulder and Bale and Trapattoni handle the hotel duties. Lester Lester Lester, Jr. is with the State Department. And gots him a real imaginative daddy…!
Karen Delfuenso is a cocktail waitress at Missy Smith’s, who just wanted to go home to her little girl, Lucy. Paula is the neighbor’s little girl and Lucy’s friend.
Alan King and Don McQueen seem to be partners with Delfuenso. Rather overbearing ones. Peter James King is Alan’s younger brother.
The Cover and Title
The cover is RED with touches of yellow and white. A long, empty, open road disappearing into the distance in Nebraska.
The title is true enough as Reacher is A Wanted Man.
