Author(s): Lee Child
Series: Jack Reacher #18
Published by Dell on 09/03/2013
Genres: Mystery/Thriller
Pages: 400
Format: Hardcover
Source: Purchased
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After an epic and interrupted journey all the way from the snows of South Dakota, former military cop Jack Reacher has finally made it to Virginia. His destination: a sturdy stone building a short bus ride from Washington D.C., the headquarters of his old unit, the 110th MP. It was the closest thing to a home he ever had.
Why? He wants to meet the new commanding officer, Major Susan Turner. He liked her voice on the phone. But the officer sitting behind his old desk isn’t a woman. Is Susan Turner dead? In Afghanistan? Or in a car wreck?
What Reacher doesn't expect to hear is that Turner has just been fired from her command. Nor that he himself is in big trouble, accused of a sixteen-year-old homicide. And he certainly doesn't expect to hear these words: ‘You’re back in the army, Major. And your ass is mine.’
Will he be sorry he went back? Or – will someone else?
Review by Reynold Starnes
Never Go Back is the eighteenth and latest Lee Child thriller featuring Jack Reacher. For those new to the series, Reacher is a drifter who, often without intending to, finds himself against very bad people, which never ends well for the bad guys. He is an ex-Army MP who is six feet, five inches tall and weighs around two-fifty. He is an accomplished investigator, expert marksman, trained in hand-to-hand combat, and very smart.
In Never Go Back, Reacher heads to the special MP unit he used to lead to see the new commander, a woman, whose voice he liked when he spoke to her on the phone. When he gets to the post, he becomes involved in a conspiracy she has inadvertently touched.
Like the other Reacher novels, this is a good read. It isn’t a favorite, but it isn’t the least favorite either. Middle of the pack. The bad guys were a little more wooden than those in some of the other novels, and at times it seemed that Child had Reacher going through the motions. Still, it is Reacher, an that is not bad. He is the toughest protagonist this side of Bob Lee Swagger.
Reacher is a certifiable and quintessential American hero – the loner drifter. Which is ironic since Lee Child is the pseudonym of British author Jim Grant. Read the series.
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| Overall: | 4.1 |
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