Exit Strategy by Lee Child and Andrew Child

The wanderings of Jack Reacher make its 30th stop, this time in Baltimore, MD. Reacher is sitting in his usual haunt - a coffee shop - and scoping out the customers. Only thing kinda unusual is a 4-top with two couples, one elderly.  As he exits the shop, a customer coming in brushes up against Reacher (who then checks his pockets to make sure his passport and some cash are intact). They are. On the street is a 2nd hand store he stops in to buy a warmer coat giving the upcoming change in seasons. While transferring his meager existence to the new coat, he notices a note has been inserted into a pocket. A desperate plea for help. Could only have come from that brushpass at the door.  

But first, that older couple. Reacher recognized the shakedown as soon as he saw it. Con artists trying to scam the elderly for all their savings. He tells the couple they been taken and to sit tight while he confronts the scammers, gently tells them of the err of their ways, and returns the money to the couple (standard opening scene for most Reacher books is for him to help out someone getting scammed). 

What Reacher wants to do is find out who's behind the scam. What takes over, however, is the note he received. The note asks him to return the cash or the the man delivering the note will be killed. Obviously the note was given to him in error. This guy was told to deliver the note to the biggest guy in the coffee shop. Yeah, that was Reacher. But it was still the wrong guy. Another (bigger) guy was on the way to the shop when he was killed in a freak accident (we are led to believe) a block or two away.

Now it gets complicated and heavily layered involving a Blackwater-ish paramilitary contractor, fraudulent contracts, any number of thugs that unfortunately get in Reacher's way, Armenian separatists, CIA operatives, tunnels and caves used to train military dropouts, lots of coffee, and little sleep. 

This was a first for me . . . a Reacher story that didn't grab or hold my interest. I finished, but the further I got into the book, the more outrageous the plotline became. Upon closing the book, I breathed a sigh of relief. Done. A friend of mine saw I was reading the book to which he said, 'First Reacher book I ever quit reading.' I stuck with it, but if this was my first Reacher book, I doubt I'd be looking forward to reading another. As Amazon Prime continues to produce in the Reacher series (season 4 starts back up the end of March or April), think I'm safe in saying that this story is unlikely to be greenlit. 

ECD