Tag: Lee Child

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What is it about Jack Reacher?

Latest Reacher CoverWhy is Reacher so popular? After all, the man is a human wrecking ball. As Malcolm Gladwell pointed out in the New Yorker in 2015, Reacher has killed over two hundred people since making his first appearance in Killing Floor. His readers don’t seem to mind the death toll he leaves in his wake. Reacher would say the victims deserved it. He certainly doesn’t agonize about it, a strategy he suggests to whoever happens to be around and might be squeamish.

Ever since first discovering Reacher six years ago, I’ve wondered about my own fascination with him. Like most humans, I carry an idea of myself. I think I know who I am. And that idea is entirely different from Reacher. Sure, I’m a bit of a loner, but that’s where any similarity stops. Continue reading “What is it about Jack Reacher?”

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The Thriller as Melodrama

The Cast of Dudley Do-Right. (Wikipedia – Fair Use)

Why do people read detective stories? Edmund Wilson posed this question in a 1944 New Yorker essay. He went on to say that since Sherlock Holmes there hadn’t really been anything worthwhile published in that genre. He had nothing nice to say about Agatha Christie and his comment on Dashiell Hammett was this: “‘The Maltese Falcon’ … seems not much above those newspaper picture strips in which you follow from day to day the ups and downs of a strong-jawed hero and a hardboiled but beautiful adventuress.”

Wilson dismisses contemporary detective fiction as being a reaction to guilt and fear of the years between WWI and WWII. “Nobody seems guiltless, nobody seems safe; and then, suddenly, the murderer is spotted, and—relief!—he is not, after all, a person like you or me. He is a villain—known to the trade as George Gruesome—and he has been caught by an infallible Power, the supercilious and omniscient detective, who knows exactly how to fix the guilt.” Of course, detective fiction and mystery fiction in general has thrived since Wilson dismissed it as not worthy his time. Today, there are more sub-genres than ever.

Continue reading “The Thriller as Melodrama”

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Never Go Back by Lee Child

Jack Reacher has finally made it back to Virginia. Except what he finds isn’t what he was looking for. If you recall, Reacher was stuck in North Dakota four books ago (62 Hours). While helping the local police department to keep a witness alive, he ended up talking to the commanding officer of his old MP unit, Major Susan Turner. He liked her voice and decided to go to Virginia to meet her. It took him a while to get there (Worth Dying For and A Wanted Man) were stations along the way.

In any case, when he gets to the 110th, everything is upside down. Major Turner isn’t there. Instead a Lt. Colonel tells him that he’s accused of a crime Reacher was supposed to have committed sixteen years ago. In addition, a paternity claim has been laid against him. And he informs Reacher that, by the way, he’s recalled to active duty. He is brought to a nearby hotel where two thugs, obviously military in mufti tell him to disappear or else.

And, with that, we’re off. The book is very fast paced and full of tension. Whenever you think Reacher has beat his pursuers, they have another trick up their sleeve. The hunt takes them from Virginia to Pittsburgh to Los Angeles. Once in L.A., the book starts dragging a little. By that time, the MPs, the FBI, the DC Metro Police and the bad guys are after him and Turner. I was disappointed by the ending. SPOILER ALERT! The suicide at the end seems like a copout. That notwithstanding, I found the book hard to put down.