Lee Child is a British author whose real name is Jim Grant. Grant attended law school and later worked for a British television network where he wrote commercials, trailers and news stories.
Jack Reacher series novels by Lee Child that I have read
1. Killing Floor (1997)
Back of the book summary: Ex-military policeman Jack Reacher is a drifter, just passing through. He is in Margrave, Georgia, for less than a half hour when four policemen arrive, shotguns in hand, to arrest him for murder. All Jack knows is he didn’t kill anybody. Not in their town, and not for a long time.
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2. Die Trying (1998)
Back of the book summary: Jack Reacher is an innocent bystander — in the wrong place at the wrong time — when a woman is kidnapped. Now, he’s at the mercy of a group of men demanding an impossible ransom, for this mysterious woman is worth far more than Reacher ever suspected. And though she doesn’t ask for his help, he’s going to give it to her. Because ex-military policeman Jack Reacher is a hero. He’s used to saving lives. But this time he’s going to take a few before he’s through.
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3. Tripwire (1999)
Back of the book summary: Ex-military policeman Jack Reacher is in Key West enjoying a sort of lazy anonymity when a stranger shows up looking for him. The man has a lot of questions — too many. Hours later, he’s dead. And Reacher is forced to follow the man’s cold trail back to New York to find the people who dispatched him in the first place: an alluring and intelligent woman from Reacher’s own haunted past; a bewildered, elderly couple still mourning the All-American son lost in Vietnam; and at the center of the web, an opponent, more vicous than any he’s ever faced.
Mini book review: When you pick up a Lee Child novel, you know what you’re getting. Mystery and some violence to go along with your mystery. In Tripwire, the third installment of the Jack Reacher series, the hero is in Key West hanging out, digging ditches and working as a bouncer in a strip club. In typical Reacher fashion, he vastly enjoys this drifter lifestyle. Soon, his peaceful existence is interrupted when he is sought out by a private detective and a couple of tough guys. Reacher winds up in New York City, where he reacquaints himself with the daughter of his mentor in the military police. And they unearth a plot that involves the military and MIA soldiers in Vietnam. (The movie Basic, with John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson, has some very similar — almost identical — plot elements and if screenwriter James Vanderbilt didn’t read this book, I’d be very surprised.) Reacher has an uncanny way of finding trouble, and by this third installment, the reader is hip to the modus operandi in this series — the drifter is minding is own business until some criminal makes the mistake of awakening the sleeping giant, so to speak. Despite the predicitibility of the violence, this book — and the two previous novels — are entertaining in a Rambo meets Die Hard sort of way. And when I’m in the mood for more of this molotov cocktail style of writing, I’ll pick up the next Jack Reacher novel.
4. Running Blind (2000)
Back of the book summary: Across the country, women are being murdered, victims of a disciplined and clever killer who leaves no trace evidence, no fatal wounds, no signs of struggle, and no clues to an apparent motive. They are, truly, perfect crimes. In fact, there’s only one thing that links the victims. Each of the women knew Jack Reacher — and it’s got him running blind.
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Jack Reacher books by Lee Child on my reading list
