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 

In Too Deep by Lee Child and Andrew Child

Never gets old. Even after 29 books, the Jack Reacher story continues to roll on.

Somewhere near the Ozarks, Jack Reacher (no middle initial) is having a burger, coffee, and a slice of pie. Outside, it looks like a couple punks are trying to steal a car. Reacher’s sense of right/wrong won’t let him ignore them, steps outside and in his typical friendly manner, convinces the would-be thieves to rethink their plan.

The car owner is quite grateful and in the ensuing conversation learns that Reacher is headed toward New Orleans via his thump and a bus ticket. The grateful car owner offers Reacher a ride. While showing off what his car can do, the driver runs the car off the road. Driver dead. Reacher unconscious. No memory of the attempted car theft, the ride, of the crash.

Somehow, Reacher ends up in a hospital with a healthy case of retrograde amnesia and a casted broken wrist. A day in the hospital is more than Reacher can stand and makes his leave against medical advice.

His first task is to find out more about the driver. On second thought, that might not have been his best decision because he’s stumbled onto a small ‘gang’ of crooks who specialize in stealing/selling counterfeit or original artwork. And they’ve been pretty good at it.

One member of this gang is quite the online researcher. She directs her compadres on where to find and obtain said artwork. But she’s also hacked into something called Cone Enterprises and has hit on what could be the motherlode of motherlodes. A report whose contents are so explosive that they could name any price and sell it to enemies of the US. Reacher, a suspended Phoenix PD detective, and the FBI try to track down the report and keep it away from any form of prying eyes.

Good grief. This is the 29^th Jack Reacher book. And Child and Child still manage to keep the story fresh and current. This was a fast 3-day read for me. Saying it was a page-turner is trite. You just can’t wait to see where the next page will take you.

And if you’ve been living in a cave, Amazon Prime Studios has two seasons of Reacher for streaming. And no, Tom Cruise isn’t playing Reacher. Alan Ritchson (all 6’2” and 240 lbs of him) is carrying the weight of the franchise on his considerable shoulders. Season 3 is being shot now and a 4^th season has already received the green light. With 29 books, the Reacher character has plenty of source material.I've watched both seasons twice. A third is in my future.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance reviewer copy. Publication date is 22 OCT 2024 so reserve your copy now . . . not tomorrow. NOW.

East Coast Don

1586. The Secret by Lee Child and Andrew Child

Reacher #28.

1992. An earlier case that didn’t go welland got Reacher busted back to Captain and assigned to the minor leagues. He’s investigating the sale of M16 firing mechanisms that can turn a civilian version into a fully automatic weapon that only the military should have. Small operation. A couple of clerks at an Illinois arsenal processing Desert Storm surplus for demolition remove the devices and sell them on the black market. Reacher and a female FBI agent take down this little operation barely breaking a sweat.

That’s just the preamble. It may be 1992, but his next assignment has its origin in 1969 at a chemical plant in India. The Russians were concentrating efforts on the development of chemical weapons. The response by the US was to double their efforts at finding defensive antidotes. Thus, this plant in India.

Morgan Sanson was a mid-level administrator at the plant whose assignment was safety. He unearthed some cost-cutting to swindle money and was preparing to send his findings up the chain of command. When his findings are ignored, he decides to go public. Apparently filled with guilt or remorse at the lack of action, he takes his own life leaving behind his wife and four children to be shipped back to Germany to fend for themselves.

While the India plant was doing what was advertised, there was another lab doing its own weapons development. Seven scientists worked in secrecy, but it was their work that was what Sanson uncovered. An accident at the plant happens and about a half dozen people died. Sanson is a convenient patsy now that he’s not around.

Back to 1992. Four respected and mostly retired scientists have died. Mostly by accident or suicide. The next one to die was in a hospital and found below his window from a long fall. That one doesn’t sound like the others.

The deaths were those scientists who worked secretly at the India plant. The Defense Dept is now interested. A task force is assembled with a rep from the Army (Reacher), FBI, CIA, and Treasury with the purpose of developing a list of names of whomever might be behind these deaths/murders. One of the first, and most interesting questions, is why were these four selected for this task force? Because of they are investigative terriers or because each has some black marks on their record. If anything goes wrong . . . the chances for further demotions loom large.

This isn’t the rambunctious street fights we are used to with Reacher. More of a research procedural. Doesn’t take long to figure out who is behind the deaths or their motivations. Think of this as the Child’s version of a Lt. Columbo story. Everyone knows who’s guilty and the story is not the ‘who’. Rather the story is the search and just how will this task force. 

The addition of Andrew (Lee’s son) to the mix (this is maybe the 3^rd or 4^th collaboration) indicates that the dad (Lee) is moving closer to full retirement. While Andrew is a publish author, he is still learning how to present a Jack Reacher story. I see improvement, but it’s still not there yet, but I’m hopeful. 

Two things I liked about this outing. First is that the story investigates Reacher’s history. I seem to remember one earlier book (with Reacher in the former Yugoslavia, can’t recall the title) and would like to see more. Second is purely coincidental. This is the first Reacher book to come out since the casting of Alan Richson as Reacher by Amazon Prime. Was always kind of hard to picture Reacher as Tom Cruise. Not so now. Each page turned brought a new image of Richson in my mind’s eyes. That works so much better. 

ECD

#1496. No Plan B by Lee Child and Andrew Child

Jed, a 15yo kid in foster care somewhere in LA, learns that the father he never knew is soon to be released from prison in Mississippi and takes off on an ill-conceived cross-country trip.

Minerva Correctional is one of those new-fangled for-profit prisons designed to help inmates return to normalcy. Not to mention that they specialize in cleaning up the records of the wrongly convicted.

An arsonist-for-hire’s son has destroyed his liver through drug abuse. An off-the-radar group performed a transplant that failed. He’s on the prowl to destroy anyone involved in the supply chain of the diseased liver.

Angela St. Verain, bookkeeper, dies in Gerrardsville, CO. Suicide. Hit by a bus.

An accountant, this one in Winson, MS died the week before in a house fire. Apparently, he died while smoking in bed.

Jack Reacher saw the woman’s death. She didn’t step in front of the bus. She was pushed. Reacher takes off after the guy in the hoodie, corners him in an alley, ‘suggests’ the guy fess up. Checked out an envelope the guy pulled from the woman’s purse. Only thing he learns is Winson, MS and a photo.

Cops arrive. The detective interviews Reacher. Runs his name and is impressed by his record. Wants help. The detective says there has been another recent death. Ray, a local 40ish accountant, divorced and living next door to his ex-, died of a heart attack. His ex-, Hannah, discovered the body. Also a numbers guy, he was an obligatory exerciser who died of a heart attack. 

Suicide. Heart attack. Fell asleep smoking. Life sucks. Stuff happens.

All 3 cases are closed. No connection seen. Reacher checks up on the two Colorado deaths. Both had worked for Minerva Corrections. Some irregularities were found by the Winson victim (also a Minerva employee). He talked with Angela because the numbers didn't add up. Angela takes the data to Ray, a mentor to her. Now all three are dead. To find some justice for Angela, Reacher sets out for Winsom, MS. Ray’s ex-, Hannah, decides she wants justice for Ray so she grabs Ray’s truck and takes off driving Reacher to MS.

All roads lead to Winson. The CEO of the prison and his top subordinates do more than house and rehabilitate inmates. They get their pick of inmates, some of which are ne’er do wells that no one will miss. They also house some who have some medical experience, forgers, and anyone smart enough to follow directions while cooking. These hand-picked cons are housed apart from gen pop. Get extra privileges. The prison's feature activity is when they get wrongly convicted inmate acquitted. When this happens, the CEO puts on a big show for the publicity. And this week’s acquittal just happens to be none other than Jed’s father, neither of which knows the other. But their profit margin comes not from housing prisoners.

And the arsonist will be arriving the same day Reacher, Hannah, and Jed turnover the remaining puzzle pieces.

If Reacher’s involved, you should be able to guess what’s gonna happen when all these ingredients get shoved into the same pot. The CEO thought he knew how to take care of a homeless lug. 

Problem is, when confronted by Reacher, he has no plan B.

The MRB boys have been firmly in Reacher’s camp since we first started this blog way back when (’05? ’06?). Child delivers what his readers want. An alpha male who wanders around helping out those in trouble for no reason other than to do what’s right regardless of what the law says. Since daddy Child (Lee) retired, he’s been joined by son Andrew to carry on the Reacher saga. This is the 3^rd book written jointly. I thought that I could tell when a different Child was writing in the first book. Not anymore. I see the story as being a seamless effort by the two. The Childs continue to deliver what fans want. With 2 movies and 1 Prime series, there is no loss of subjects for more Reacher streams.

This one is a bit more complex than recent Reacher books what with multiple story lines finally intersecting in a typically Reacher-ish conclusion. Doesn't matter. It's a fast read. Got it from the library on Monday. Finished in on Friday. Not to mention I managed to read Plan B while being distracted by the World Cup – my true obsession.

East Coast Don

 

Better Off Dead

The Sentinel by Lee Child and Andrew Child

The 24^th edition about the wanderings of Jack Reacher has Jack getting off the bus in Nashville. Looking for some coffee to enjoy while listening to some music, he wanders into a bar. Band’s pretty good. Strikes up a conversation and learns that the bar owner has just stiffed them. In his typical low-key way, Jack convinces the owner to pay up, with a couple bonuses thrown in. The owner also agrees not to diss the band’s rep around town. Also gets a cut as the band’s new manager.

Having done some good, he manages to cop a ride with a young insurance adjuster headed west out of Nashville. Destination is a suburb called Pleasantville. Sounds OK, so Jack tags along. Upon arrival, Jack again goes looking for some coffee. Finds a coffee shop and settles in. The customers and staff all seem to be giving this one guy a serious collective cold shoulder. Being a buttinsky, Jack learns that Rusty Rutherford is the town’s IT director and under his watch, everything has gone entirely offline. And Rusty is blamed. And he gets fired. But Pleasantville in his home and he wants to stay and clear his name.

The town is being held up by a ransomware routine that has shut the town down until a ransom is paid. The town has insurance, and the adjuster has just arrived to pay up and get life back to normal. Of course, nothing works out right. Rusty gets jumped and Reacher steps in to convince the thugs to take their issues elsewhere. Another band of punks takes a run this time at Reacher. More bad planning.

In his attempts to protect the Pleasantville data, Rusty and on old friend, ex-FBI cybercrime agent, had developed a bit of software to protect the town against such an attack. Town bean counters weren't interested. It sort of worked, but it couldn’t fully stop the ransomware attack.

Has to be more to this than just this ransomware attack. Turns out Pleasantville is the home of a former Nazi. Add in that the folks muscling Reacher and Rutherford are Russian. Russians with a connection to some of those bots that presumably messed up the most recent election. And whenever the Russians are involved, the FSB can't be far behind. Pleasantville is mixed up with some pretty heavy hitters.

The annual fall release of another Jack Reacher book is an event. Breathless fanboys line up. This year is different. Lee Child is in retirement mode and is turning a multimillion-dollar franchise to his son, Andrew Grant/Andrew Child. Both are credited with writing the book. Grant has a few mysteries published in the UK, but the initial reviews by the obsessed fanboys were not very favorable. Matter of fact, some reviews were downright nasty. I’ll admit, in the beginning I thought the writing style seemed a bit forced. But once the story took off, I couldn’t tell what was written by Dad and what was written by the son. For me, it was a clean handoff. Maybe not as smooth as the Vince Flynn to Kyle Mills move, but certainly not so obvious that I’d stop reading. Reacher wouldn’t like that. 

(if I had to make a complaint, it's with the choice of Pleasantville, TN. Such a town does exist. And it's west of Nashville. But its population is listed as 666 (potentially ominous) and that's a bit small for some of the amenities noted in the book. Primarily, Rutherford's apartment is multistory with its own doorman and underground parking. Pretty uppity for a town of 666. But that's nit picking at its finest). 

ECD