| Product: |
Bad Luck and Trouble - Lee Child |
| Date: |
18/04/08 (76 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Fast-paced with enough to keep even the most discerning reader happy
Disadvantages: Very one-dimensional characters
At the moment, when not playing internet poker, I find that I'm reading more and more and always eager to pick up books by many authors - one of which is Lee Child - so when I picked this off the shelf of the local library I was eager to catch up on the exploits of Jack reacher and his manly charm.
Following the strange appearance of $1030 in his bank account Jack contacts an old army colleague (ten-thirty being the call sign used when a military policeman needs assistance) and discovers that Calvin Franz, a member of the team he fronted, has been murdered. The motto 'You DO NOT mess with the Special Investigators' has never been more pertinent and Jack Reacher is not a man to take this lying down.
Together with Frances Neagley the pair attempt to contact and enlist the help of all the old team and plan to discover what happened to their dead friend and then to exact a revenge on his behalf. Revenge, it just so happens, is one of Reacher's specialities.
'Bad Luck and Trouble' is Lee Child's eleventh book featuring the drifting loner Jack Reacher and this time everyone's favourite, for want of a better word, traveller is packing a passport. The events of 9/11 have changed the world he lives in and photo ID is now standard fare in his (almost) untraceable lifestyle.
The story is, as ever, fast-paced and the pages just fly by as you delve into the dangerous world Jack and his buddies inhabit. Even the standard phrase 'just one more chapter' will get over used as you go through this as each chapter is a nice length. Not too long so your sleep really suffers and not too short that it feels like you've not actually read anything of substance at all. Take a hint Mr. Patterson.
My only real gripe with the Reacher stories is that the characters are very poorly realised. Nobody, even the hero himself, suffers from what we humans call emotion; even during the moments when visiting the wife of the dead comrade do you actually believe that she is in pain over the loss of her husband. The main characters are just too busy being 'cool' all the time. The trouble is they're not just cool - they're cold.
This problem aside Lee Child can still tell a rivetting tale that keeps you coming back for more and has enough twists and turns and muscle to keep the men-folk happy and enough twists and turns (and muscle) to keep Reacher's female fans in the same far-away land of 'If only' fantasy.
Fans of the hit TV show '24' or the Joe Pike novels of Robert Crais will love this tale of retribution along with its quick pace and ubercool protaganists and finish the book wanting to reach for the next in the series of which the paperback version has the first chapter of at the back. I really hate this - who wants to read one chapter of a book? It's like watching the first five minutes of a movie and then switching off. (Although to be fair some books/films only deserve the briefest of samples to realise they are never going to keep you happy.)
If you have read any previous Jack Reacher story then this one will not disappoint and, for me, is a better read than 'The Hard Way'. If you've yet to sample the man and his 'act now - talk later' mentality then you will be in for a treat.
Available in paperback for the (now) standard £6.99 and has 528 pages but can be found for as little as £3.86 new from Amazon or from 90p used.
Also posted on Ciao.
Summary: Lee Child's 11th Jack Reacher novel and better than the 10th
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