Nothing to Lose (Jack Reacher, No. 12)

I will never read another Child book. This idiocy and abrupt departure from a very successful francise has ruined it for me. The worst part is that this book is BORING.
Now that the Iraq war seems to be going well, I hope Child
is happy that his pathetic attempt to pander to the MoveOn group backfires and he becomes largely forgotten.

Lee Child's creation, Jack Reacher, has earned his legions of fans the hard way - through kicking butt and taking names. He's a surprising combination of loner, warrior, and detective and gifted with a surprising talent for finding trouble.

Thanks to Child's twisted imagination, Reacher has met several diabolical characters in his wanderings. Indeed, these villains are among the best features of these books. But the villain in the twelfth Reacher novel just doesn't rise to the usual level. And this makes for a rather boring Reacher tale.

To be fair, a relatively boring Jack Reacher novel is better than most thrillers. But we must weigh expectations, and they just aren't met here.

This novel follows the usual plot-line. The book starts out with a sinister death, Reacher shows up and gets involved in trying to figure out what is going on. Along the way he breaks some bones and uses his gifted detective's mind to thwart the dastardly villain. Along the way he drinks a lot of coffee and romances a Reacher Girl - a competent, clean, beautiful, no-nonsense woman who shares Reacher's sense of adventure.

In this book, Reacher wanders into the Colorado towns of Hope and Despair. Despair is where the action is. Reacher tries to order a cup of coffee and is set upon by four grown men who want to kick him out of town. Nobody kicks Jack Reacher out of town - they just don't know it yet. Reacher tries to figure out what's going on in the company town - owned by an End Times religious fanatic of a businessman. He does so with the help of Vaughan, a gorgeous cop from Hope who has a dark, painful secret.

What ensues, unfortunately, is a lot of driving around, walking, scaling of walls, and talking. This has to be one of the least action-filled Reacher novels. Yes, it tries to be "about something" by bringing up Iraq, conscientious deserters, and duty, but ultimately the novel fails to satisfy. This book reminds me of when you drive for two hours to your favorite restaurant, craving your favorite dish, only to be told they have a new chef and he doesn't get it just right.

Here's hoping the prolific Child returns to form quickly - Reacher is too good a character to waste.

Up until now, the Jack Reacher novels have followed a sure-fire male fantasy formula--Reacher wanders about, finds people who need killing, and kills them. The fun is finding out how this lone man, who owns nothing more than a toothbrush, is able to defeat an enemy who is usually rich and powerful.

This book is nothing like that. Instead if laying out the problem up front and letting the mayhem commence, Childs writes this one like a mystery, and not a very interesting one. In addition to false leads that go nowhere, there are endless description of the physical layout of locations, neither of which do anything to move the story along at its usual whirlwind pace.

Although there is a political message, I don't think it is at all inconsistent with the Reacher persona. I have always had the feeling that if Jack thought he was getting bad or stupid orders, he'd defy them--or kill his CO. The problem with this book isn't its politics, but rather the endless delay until things go boom.

I genuinely wish I hadn't read it. I say that with sadness, not vitriol.

I've loved Reacher since The Killing Floor. Have met folks like him. Served with them. But I was completely jarred out of the story by what I viewed as inconsistencies between the character as previously written (which I respected, so to speak, and felt credible) and the one that emerges near the end of this book.

The author is allowed, of course, to write or re-write his character as he wishes. But when that character acts in ways that are 180 degrees out from prior books, in a sense this "ruins" the character for me.

In a nutshell, and without trying to spoil it for others, in this book Reacher condones breaking faith, breaking your word, breaking trust. My immersion in the book (it was then 1:30 AM) and my suspension of disbelief blew away like a puff of smoke in a windstorm. I put the book down with a snort of disbelief and went to sleep. Whatever you might think of an assignement, the idea of deserting your buddies before deployment is unthinkable for anyone with honor. And as cynical as Reacher's character is, he has always understood honor.

I never did finish the book. Maybe it was only a bad dream that Reacher had (a la Dallas).

If you like Reacher as he was in prior books, tenacious, brave, honorable, and willing to commit to an ideal regardless of cost, skip this book and hope the next one is back on track.

Never thought one of my favorite ex-military characters would condone deserters/desertion. I understand being burnt out, but this is way off track.