A story of a lucky hero (Die Trying - Lee Child)

Member Name: emmachilcott

Product:	Die Trying - Lee Child
Date:	02/11/09 (87 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Likeable characters,easy to read

Disadvantages: Too inconsistent to be realistic

Every time I pick up a book, there seems to be a recommendation line in it from Lee Child. I have never read one of his books but I always had the intention to as apparently he is one of the most prolific authors in the world, and his novels are regularly on the top of best seller lists. I came across a whole row of his books available for swap whilst on holiday and after initially picking up one of his novels in German (I didn't realise until I was settled back on my sun bed!)I came across Die Trying and settled in for what I hoped was going to be a long awaited enjoyable read.


Jack Reacher is the principal character in this thriller and he has appeared in many of Child's other novels. When I found this out I was a little apprehensive as I had not read any others in the series, however this book is perfectly readable as a standalone and even though I quickly realised that Reacher is a complex character with an interesting past, I did not feel as though I was missing out on anything by not reading his previous adventures- at the beginning of the book you are given a brief CV of Reacher that probably tells you everything that you need to know for the purpose of this read. Reacher is an Ex-military policeman with a highly decorated career, he is now retired and leads an anonymous life as a drifter, never settling anywhere for more than a few hours and never letting anyone get close to him. He is likeable as a character who is easy to relate to and he is attractive in a rugged sort of way - he is very much a product of his past.


Reacher is in the wrong place at the wrong time at the start of this story. He unwittingly helps a woman (Holly Johnson) who is on crutches and struggling to carry her laundry; before he knows it he has a gun in his stomach and he and the lady are being bundled into the back of a car (not giving anything away here,it ison the backof the book). As he is a trained military man he does not panic and quietly assess the situation, before long he realises that the woman is not panicking either and it turns out that she is a trained and wholly competent FBI agent - both believe that they should be protecting one another as neither of them knows the others true identity.


Back in Chicago, Holly's colleagues are trying to trace their missing agent, quickly piecing together the last moments before she went missing and the possible cause behind her apparent abduction. The action continues to go back and forth from Reacher and Holly on their unknown journey and the agents in Chicago, and although there is a lot of switching back and forth, the short chapters make the action easy to follow.


Reacher and Holly's journey takes days, they have no idea of their destination and this is where it becomes unrealistic for me. They stop over night twice and they have the opportunity to escape but as Holly can't walk properly they stay where they are and continue on the journey the next day. I'm sure that they could have escaped if they wanted to, but this would have meant a very short book! Also on the long journey neither of them ever needs to go to the toilet and they only have a couple of bad meals - I know that these are minor points, but it makes the whole thing too unbelievable. They also have no sleep, and this continues throughout the book - their ordeal lasts for six days: No sleep, no food, no drink and no toilet issues!! More detail in these areas would have made the story a lot more believable.


It turns out that their destination is to a disused town where a group of militia is attempting to setup a new world order, and they want Holly as political leverage (she has other connections that Reacher does not initially know about which are given to the reader straight away). They keep Holly as prisoner, but decide that Reacher might be useful so let him wander about believing that they can trust him which I think is totally ridiculous and I don't know why they don't just kill him as they have plenty of opportunity to do and the group seems to enjoy bloodshed (in graphic style - not for the squeamish!). Reacher keeps getting Holly out, and she often escapes under her own steam but the pair always get caught again and after a few times, it began to get silly!


At one point Reacher has to crawl through tunnels which are an inch wider than he is to escape, and it takes him four hours of claustrophobic terror. Reading it you can feel his fear and panic rise as he thinks that he will die in there, but later in the book he has to face his fear and do the journey again and it only takes him five minutes. It is inconsistencies like this that take something away from this book, and leave you thinking how ridiculous it is.


There is a lot of text about guns - their make, model, country of origin, ammunition, size, materials made from, trajectory of the bullet....and it goes on and on. So much so that at some points I found myself flicking through several pages at a time and not missing much as it was so descriptive. Some people might enjoy this, but I simply looked on it as unnecessary padding that lost my interest quickly.


In my opinion far too many political and military characters are introduced too quickly and I found myself constantly referring back to see what their roles were. Some of them had similar names which I found confusing and I often lost track of who the bad guys were, and it is only towards the end that everything comes together and their motives become clear. Having said that, I did find this book easy to read, and the story did flow well but the lack of detail where it was needed, and too much detail where it wasn't needed made this book average for me.


This book is all about Reacher and his ability as a strong and silent hero. I would say that he is a ridiculously lucky hero as in the real world he would have been shot on about page three! I think that this book was no way the "rip-roaring thriller" (as stated on the back of the book) that I was expecting. The ending is predictable and mediocre which is a letdown as there could have been a lot more twists and turns and it feels as though it is over all too soon. Essentially, this is a good storyline, but it simply has too many holes in it to make it credible. Reading this book has satisfied my curiosity about Lee Child, and I would consider reading one of his novels again, but this time without any great expectations!


ISBN 9780553505412
First published in 1998

Summary: Surely somebody needs the bathroom??