61 Hours by Lee Child

Jack Reacher is doing what he does best . . . drifting. In the middle of a fierce winter storm out in nowhere South Dakota, he flags down a tour bus headed west and manages to pay for a seat. Bad move. A while later, the bus careens off the road near the small town of Bolton. A replacement bus must be sent in after the storm lets up. The town of Bolton takes in the passengers and of course, Reacher and the local police cross paths. They do a little checking and find out Reacher really is who he says he is. 61 hours to go.

Bolton in a town going through a bit of a rebirth because they scored big when the Feds decided to build a prison nearby. Now they get a steady flow of visitors and an increase in their police budget to serve as support for any problems that might come from the prison. Every nice little town seems to have some drug runners and Janet Salther, a retired teacher and librarian, witnessed a buy of methamphetamine and is under protective custody while she waits to testify. Reacher likes this lady and want to do every thing he can to protect her.

But a Mexican drug lord, Plato, is in control of the drugs and orders her to be killed and puts a killer on her trail. Outside of Bolton is this strange, cold war installation that was built but never occupied. Turns out it is a storage facility for post WWII bricks of amphetamines and somehow Plato found it.

Reacher contacts the new C.O. of his old unit to get information and is quite taken with the voice and effectiveness of 'Amanda'. Every time they talk, you get the feeling that they will get together after this all comes to a close.

As they work to protect their witness, the police and Reacher are trying to figure out who is the hired gun, how the assassin will approach given the bitter cold, wind, and snow, and when this will happen. Reacher ventures out to this mysterious old base to find a motorcycle gang packing up to leave; no idea why they would chose this day to leave.

Reacher and the cops manage to enter a mysterious stone building that turns out to be the head of a stairway, a 210 foot stairway down. At the bottom, they find tons of amphetamine bricks and 5000 gallons of what appears to be jet fuel. They soon realize that the bikers left because they were told to and someone (Plato) is coming to collect his booty. They also realize the huge concrete expanse is actually a landing strip. Something is going to happen and it will happen in just a few hours.

I won't any further other than to say it's Reacher vs. Plato vs. some double crossing guards employed by Plato vs. 5000 gallons of explosive jet fuel.

Child tells this in a countdown. Nearly every chapter has a paragraph that ends something like. "10 minutes to 1am. 27 hours to go." What the countdown is headed for remains a mystery for most of the book. But rest assured, Child is taking the reader on a wild ride over the 61 hours. When the proverbial clock chimes, we see Reacher is his very best. As he says, "all plans go to hell after the first shot is fired."

What is it with the prairie? This is my second book centered in the drug trade in the upper midwest plains. This is Child's 14th Reacher book (and I've read them all) and Reacher is a serious character who strolls into a problem, fixes it, then rolls on. Not this time. While Reacher ends up in Bolton accidently, and works to fix the problem, the end is less a resolution and more of a cliffhanger. Does Reacher survive the mess with Plato? Will he and 'Amanda' ever get together?

What can I say? Child is one of the elite, every book being a best seller and optioned to Hollywood. For my two cents, 61 Hours is one of the best in the Reacher catalogue. If I hadn't had work to do, I could have read this in one sitting. This one really was worth the wait.

So, back to the fire. Does Reacher survive ? Does he meet Amanda? How was Janet Salther's testimony put the bad guys away. So, my advice to you is this: find it and Buy it. You won't be sorry. You will not be disappointed.

East Coast Don