61 Hours – Lee Child

A random accident on a snowy bridge in the middle of South Dakota sees traveller Jack Reacher stranded with an elderly tour group and a shocked driver. In the midst of two approaching snow storms all the tow trucks sixty miles in either direction are caught up, and the only nearby shelter is the small town of Bolton. Most of the town is reliant on the recently opened jail; the contract was contested, and came with a number of non-negotiable conditions, chief among which was the requirement that, in the event of a jailbreak, all officers in town must attend until stood down.
When Reacher learns that there’s a witness under protection in the town, and that a lawyer’s been shot in the head in his car, he suspects an attempt to kill the witness before she can testify. Though he doesn’t know it, there’s a clock running – he’s got less than three days to stop a murder.
And we’re reminded of that clock at every opportunity. Done more subtly I think this would have added to the suspense, but I became increasingly irritated by the ending or opening of almost every chapter reiterating the countdown - the first lines of the book are

“Five minutes to three in the afternoon.
Exactly sixty-one hours before it happened.

And that was fine, setting the scene. But then we have page twelve:

Five minutes to four in the afternoon. Sixty hours to go.

The end of chapter two:

Five minutes to five in the afternoon. Fifty-nine hours to go.

The end of chapter three:

Five to eight in the evening. Fifty-six hours to go.

Page forty-seven:

Five minutes to ten in the evening. Fifty-four hours to go.

The end of chapter six:

Five minutes to eleven in the evening. Fifty-three hours to go.

Page 71 (and a small variation):

The clock on the refrigerator ticked on and hot five to midnight. Fifty-two hours to go.

And so on – four more times in the next twenty pages, and another thirty-two times (unless I missed one) before we get to “Twenty-seven minutes past three in the morning. Twenty-eight minutes to go.”
And then we have another two updates before:

Five minutes to four in the morning. Sixty-one hours gone.

61 Hours is supposed to be a novel of significance on the Reacher series, with a cliff-hanger ending and a twist, because the countdown isn’t to what we expect. There’s even a twist in the hook-up aspect that’s de rigueur in the series, because Reacher’s potential bed mate isn’t even in the same state.
As is often the case in the Reacher novels, the initial issue is only the introduction to a far bigger situation, and in the case of 61 Hours it’s a pretty big scenario, with roots going back to WW2, and an almost believable premise.
However, the impact of the twist, the force of the shock ending, was almost wholly diminished for me by the monotonous countdown. Not only did it occur with tedious regularity but, like a series of 24, every update occurred at five minutes to the hour. Except for the three updates within the final hour, page forty gave the only break in the monotony: “Twenty-five past nine in the evening. Fifty-four and a half hours to go.”
Okay, fine, ratchet up the tension with a ticking clock, but a little variety and a little less tick-tick-tick would have been more effective and less distracting. Though that wasn’t my only issue with 61 Hours, it was my biggest.
Others included the fact that I also got ahead of Reacher a couple of times, when it came to the location of a key, and the identity of a mole; in the first case I got there over fifty pages ahead of him, and I wasn’t looking for an answer.
But back to the count down. Frankly, by the time of the big boom finale I didn’t really care any more. Worse, when I closed the book my sense was relief rather than suspense about where to from here for Reacher.
And that’s a shame. Though I’ve found a number of the Reacher plots to be a little far-fetched, I think they’re generally great escapist action novels that repay a willing suspension of disbelief with strong story telling and satisfying conclusions – the wrong are punished, the righteous rewarded, the right upheld, there’s a little non-graphic sheet action, and our archetype strolls off into the sunset as footloose as he began.
When 61 Hours was released there was the promise of a sequel, as Jack Reacher’s story was to be continued. I certainly found the least-sequelly-sequel-ever next instalment a return to the Reacher I enjoy, and it’s reviewed here. - Alex

The Jack Reacher novels
Killing Floor; Die Trying; Tripwire; The Visitor; Echo Burning; Without Fail; Persuader;The Enemy; One Shot;The Hard Way; Bad Luck and Trouble; Nothing to Lose; Gone Tomorrow; 61 Hours; Worth Dying For

Show No Fear - Marliss Melton

Ten months after an intelligence mission in the Middle East went bad, CIA operative Lucy Donovan is delighted to be assigned to rescue hostages held by Colombian rebels. She's undaunted by the risk and the threat of harm; the only thing that troubles Lucy about the mission is her co-operative, Gus Atwater. Then known as James, he was the only man she ever loved, but Lucy left him when the aftermath of a bomb explosion left her unable to reconcile her terror with the promise of happiness.
Now a very buff Navy SEAL, and going by his abbreviated middle name of Angus, Gus rescued her from her most recent mission, searching for vital information in an elite Guard warehouse after freeing herself from restraints. Though convinced she'd have managed to rescue herself, thank you very much, her boss is wedded to the idea of a joint operation, and the insulting notion that she needs assistance - and that she and James need to play a married couple as their cover. Or something. I quit at the top of page 28, so I have no idea how the story played out. The plot is clearly far-fetched, but I'm prepared to suspend my disbelief quite high if the writing and characterisation promise a worthwhile payoff. And perhaps the brief insights into Gus and Lucy's personalities fail to do them justice - certainly the SmartBitches forum recommendation brought me to it, and those bitches are usually on the money. On the other hand, it was multiple recommendations there than caused me to read Naked in Death, so I knew going in that I don't see eye to eye with every member of the community (or even great swathes of members - do people come in swathes?).
My point is that the plot, or at least as much of it as I managed, was ridiculous but genre-appropriate. The characterisation was superficial, but again I didn't get very far. I warmed not at all to the heroine, who seemed mired in an unattractive combination of PTSD denial and unfocused shittyness, while the hero was something of a cipher.
what caused me to put the book down before I was 10% through, though, was the overblown, florid writing. In the first three pages, as 'seconds drain[ed] away like sand through an hourglass', Lucy is 'awash in a cold sweat' and then

Lucy's heart stopped.
It had to be the greasepaint that made him look exactly like her college boyfriend, James, The athletic body didn't jibe with her mental recollection. But as she took a curious step closer, his expression of horror confirmed her observation.

Okay, I've never been rescued from a terrorist warehouse, my cargo pants pockets stuffed with CD's full of important intel, by an old boyfriend. I have, however, been in an emergency situation and surprised by the appearance of an ex-lover. I'm not aware of a type of recollection that's not mental, but I'll ignore that tautology to point out that I, a non-combat trained person, responded with a brief nod, a frisson of surprise, and an immediate return to the emergency before me; Lucy, not quite so quick.
The writing's all tell, not show - not a facial expression nor a feeling goes unmentioned, from stabs of of suspicion to expressions "both guarded and disapproving.
As that brief extract demonstrated, the writing's a little... florid. As they're escaping, "thoughts shifted across [Gus's] face, too quickly for her to gauge." Really? Perhaps too quickly to decipher, or to read, but to gauge?
And, in common with poor writing, the characters rarely just say anything - in one scene alone Lucy amends, brazens, insists, quips with sarcasm and archly demands (in consecutive statements), explains, assures, protests, retorts twice, adds, cries in disbelief, counters, admits, answers and asks ("remembering with a pang the tenderness he used to show her"), while Gus counters, counters softly, quietly reminds twice, retorts, growls, grates, continues, repeats, articulates ("with a tremor in his voice") and actually both asks and says (the latter with a scathing look). He also "rake[s] her with another look, this one reflecting honest fear and concern." That's a lot to fit into four pages. In the interim, nobody looks - Lucy regards while Gus gazes. It was reading the line:

Lucy shook two Advil tablets into her hand and regarded them in her palm, lit up by the bright sunlight streaming through the airplane window...

that I decided I'd had enough. Next time I'll stick with Brockmann. - Alex

The Visitor – Lee Child

Jack Reacher is used to the techniques police use to get suspects to talk - he used to be an MP. So when he's taken in for questioning by the FBI the usual tactics don't work. It helps that Reacher knows he isn't the serial killer targeting women who are ex-military and who made sexual harassment claims - women he had a connection with. He also knows that there can't possibly be any evidence against him. When the lead agent agrees, and with the assistance of his girlfriend, lawyer Jodie Garber-Jacob, Reacher is released, only to be blackmailed be two of the agents to assist them in tracing the killer before he strikes again.
This is the fourth in the Jack Reacher series, but although Reacher's history builds with each novel, there's no real need to read the books in order; Child includes enough background to aid new readers without inundating loyal followers with repetition. The series is a cut above the average thriller novel, not only because of its unique, independent hero but also because of the interesting elements woven into the plot. In the case of The Visitor (Running Blind in the UK), this includes a very interesting exploration of the strengths and weaknesses of criminal profiling, particularly the role presupposition plays; the legacy of Vietnam-era inter-departmental conflict on current relations between the military and the FBI; some puzzling crime scene elements; and a truly original murder technique, with an opaque motive that I admit I saw coming, a aspect that barely reduced my engagement with the novel.
I do, however, have a couple of quibbles. The first is the extent to which hypnosis can override someone's true preferences, particularly having seen a Mythbusters episode dealing with the question. The second is when a pathologist is discussing ways of causing death without leaving a mark:

'Air embolism would be the best way. A big bubble of air, injected straight into the bloodstream. Blood circulates surprisingly fast, and an air bubble hits the inside of the heart like a stone, like a tiny internal bullet. The shock is usually fatal. That's why nurses hold up the hypodermic and squirt a little air out and flick it with their nail. To be sure there's no air in the mix.'

Yes and no - an air embolism can be fatal, triggering a heart attack due to an interruption in the heart's blood supply. But small gas emboli are almost always dissipated when the blood passes through the lungs before returning to the heart - fatal emboli are sizable, something bigger than 5ml in an adult; nurses push air out of syringes to ensure that the patient is getting an accurate dose.
These minor glitches were relatively insignificant, however, and were almost wholly compensated for by the insertion of the serial killer's point of view, interestingly presented in second person and indicated by italics.
The Visitor is fast paced, engaging, fun and a light-weight but well structured and well packed escapade. - Alex

The Jack Reacher novels
Killing Floor; Die Trying; Tripwire; The Visitor; Echo Burning; Without Fail; Persuader;The Enemy; One Shot;The Hard Way; Bad Luck and Trouble; Nothing to Lose; Gone Tomorrow; 61 Hours; Worth Dying For

Without Fail - Lee Child

Jack Reacher – former army cop, now wanderer – is back in his sixth adventure. Inadvertently assisting an elderly pair of itinerant musicians, he’s tracked down by M.E. Froelich, a member of the Vice President-elect’s protection detail, and former lover of Jack’s brother, Joe, killed six years earlier, two years after they broke up.

Froelich wants to hire Reacher to attempt an assassination of the VP, to test the integrity of his security detail, in response to a serious, potentially internal, assassination threat. When Reacher finds no fewer than five opportunities where he (or a co-conspirator) could have killed Brook Armstrong, Froelich is distressed, confirming Reacher’s suspicions that his assignment was to check the likelihood of a real threat being carried out. But is the threat aimed at the VP-elect, Froelich, or the Secret Service?

Reacher is the action equivalent of a fanfic Mary-Sue – he’s intelligent, insightful, disciplined, skilled, principled, strong, brave, patriotic, expert at manly arts like shooting and hunting, self-sufficient, unfettered by possessions and relationships, independently well enough off that he need only work when he wants to, and he gets to have sex with beautiful women who don’t expect him to call the next day. It’s a testament to Childs’ prowess that Reacher is also well rounded, relatable and interesting.

Also interesting was the explorations of the mindset of an assassin, and the precautions taken by the Secret Service – understandably, popular culture is referenced, with particular attention paid to presidential assassination films. As Childs, via Reacher, points out, there’s a big difference between killers who want to get away, and those who are happy to die once their mission’s accomplished.

This is the second Reacher novel I've read, and I have a sneaking suspicion I'll be moving my way up on the back list with some alacrity. As I wrote in my first Child review, it's not world changing but the Reacherverse is excellent escapist fun. Though not at complex as my stand out, all time favourite action/adventure author, Bagley, the protagonist is surprisingly relatable and the plots are fast paced and vastly entertaining. I'm usually quite adamant about reading a series in order (by publication date or, if they differ, chronology) but that appears to be unnecessary here - enough history is given for the character of Reacher to make sense, and it doesn't seem as though there are any recurring characters apart from our lone wolf. - Alex

The Jack Reacher novels

Killing Floor; Die Trying; Tripwire; The Visitor; Echo Burning; Without Fail; Persuader;The Enemy; One Shot;The Hard Way; Bad Luck and Trouble; Nothing to Lose; Gone Tomorrow; 61 Hours; Worth Dying For

Die Trying - Lee Child

Former MP Jack Reacher is idly walking down a Chicago street one morning when his path intersects with that of a young woman exiting a dry cleaner's. Teetering on crutches and laden with clothing, Reacher pauses to assist her, and finds himself sharing her fate - kidnapped at gunpoint the two are bundled into the back of an anonymous van.
Holly Johnson says only that she's an agent of the FBI, but Reacher senses there's more to her than that, and he's right - Holly's also the daughter of a prominent senator. Holly's abduction is part of a wider plan, and more than her safety lies in Reacher's competent hands.
Die Trying is the second in a lengthy series about this aimless yet purposeful retired serviceman, and my introduction. I became interested in reading Childs’ work, which I’d seen around but paid no attention to, after seeing him on the First Tuesday Book Club’s bestseller special episode. I’m glad I did – the series won’t change the world, but Die Trying is entertaining, escapist and fun. It rings true without beating you over the head with researched miscellany, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to catching up with the rest of the series, which it doesn't seem essential to read in order. - Alex

The Jack Reacher novels
Killing Floor; Die Trying; Tripwire; The Visitor; Echo Burning; Without Fail; Persuader;The Enemy; One Shot;The Hard Way; Bad Luck and Trouble; Nothing to Lose; Gone Tomorrow; 61 Hours; Worth Dying For