Two lonely towns in Colorado: Hope and Despair. Between them, twelve miles of empty road. Jack Reacher never turns back. It's not in his nature. All he wants is a cup of coffee. What he gets is big trouble. So in Lee Child's electrifying new novel, Reacher--a man with no fear, no illusions, and nothing to lose--goes to war against a town that not only wants him gone, it wants him dead. It wasn't the welcome Reacher expected. He was just passing through, minding his own business. But within minutes of his arrival a deputy is in the hospital and Reacher is back in Hope, setting up a base of operations against Despair, where a huge, seething walled-off industrial site does something nobody is supposed to see . . . where a small plane takes off every night and returns seven hours later . . . where a garrison of well-trained and well-armed military cops--the kind of soldiers Reacher once commanded--waits and watches . . . where above all two young men have disappeared and two frightened young women wait and hope for their return. Joining forces with a beautiful cop who runs Hope with a cool hand, Reacher goes up against Despair--against the deputies who try to break him and the rich man who tries to scare him--and starts to crack open the secrets, starts to expose the terrifying connection to a distant war that's killing Americans by the thousand. Now, between a town and the man who owns it, between Reacher and his conscience, something has to give. And Reacher never gives an inch.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 2.5 / 5.0
Boo-Hoo, Jack Reacher doesn't share your views on Iraq:
This is a standard Lee Child/Jack Reacher novel, and in that sense, it's pure action, suspense and thrills. I'm writing this review primarily to help counter the OBVIOUS attempts to sabotage the book by hard-right zealots who just can't believe an author has the gall to have his hero not support the phony war in Iraq. The people tossing down these one-star reviews not only need a reality check; they need to understand what books are for. Period. Go Lee!
Stunning -- again:
Another triumph. Dark, gripping, sinister, nightmarish . . . . it reminds me of the best Michael Innes. The plot threads are complex and subtle -- you have no idea what's happening, and often, in otherwise excellent thrillers you guess what's going on. Here, I had no inkling. Oh, man, I wish I could write like that.
Deep Despair:
I have enjoyed other of Child's Reacher stories but this one I should have missed. First we go to Hope and then to Despair and Reacher keeps going back to Despair, the town. In this story Reachers keeps fighting with the poor miserable inhabitants of this town and it is just overkill and Reacher comes off as more of a thug. There are absolutely no surprises in this book except for how ill-conceived it is. The Reacher character works better when he is up against tough characters, not weak ones. The ending to... more info
Disappointing, but Jack Reacher is still a wonderful character!:
Jack Reacher is truly a wonderful character, but this book loses touch with him. The ending is hurried and struck me as contrived, rather than polished, which is the norm for Lee Childs. I'm sure it's very difficult to create new and interesting material repeatedly, but this character deserves the extra effort. As an idea, why not try bringing the character full circle with a reason and desire to stop drifting and become involved in a current real-life military or geopolitical situation - maybe working... more info
