Jack Reacher hits Despair (Nothing to Lose - Lee Child)

Member Name: Tracy_1127

Product:	Nothing to Lose - Lee Child
Date:	02/06/09 (45 review reads)
Rating:

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I've read quite a few of Lee Child's books with his main character being Jack Reacher and have to admit I'm really partial to them. Nothing To Lose is another Jack Reacher story based in two small towns in Colorado: Hope and Despair. These two towns are separated by 12 miles of empty road and couldn't be more different.

After spending a day in the town of Hope Jack Reacher figures it's time he moved on with his wandering lifestyle. He heads through Despair stopping only to get a coffee in the restaurant and things take a strange turn. Not only will the waitress not serve him but she calls for the town's civilian deputies who come and attempt to run him out of town. Jack Reacher is not one to be intimidated and even though he gets arrested and dropped back at the edge of Hope with the warning never to return to Despair he can't let it go. Just what is going on in Despair?

For anyone who hasn't read a Jack Reacher book he is currently homeless and jobless. This book doesn't explain that Reacher chose to walk out on his normal life and has plenty of money in the bank which is a shame because the early ones do and it makes him seem less of a hopeless case if you know those details. He is ex-military police, a huge guy with alot of combat skills so there are always some fight scenes and often tricks he picked up from his army days.

I read a couple of reviews before I bought this book and some people seem to be sick of Reacher's wandering lifestyle. Personally I think it works well to place him in various situations that create an interesting storyline and the only thing I'd like to see change about that aspect is perhaps Reacher getting briefly involved with more people at each stop. Sometimes, as is true with this book, there is only really one other person he has regular dialogue with which would be better if there were more people on his side. Having more people to work with would also allow the author to showcase Reacher's military tricks and skills better.

I do agree with the other reviews I read though that Reacher's character doesn't seem to develop much. Without reading the early books the reader knows next to nothing about him except he is ex-military police, can fight and wanders around America. It would be better if some situations arose that gave us more in depth information about Reacher in each book. Some of the facts we are told about him in the early books could do with repeating too as these books are stand alones and many readers will just read a couple.

The other minor gripe I have with this book is the way he becomes interested in Despair. I can understand the author wanting to make Despair as odd a place as possible to get us interested but surely if your town has something to hide and strangers are not welcome you would serve them coffee and watch them leave? Surely the intruder would only be run out of town if they tried to book into the hotel? It seemed a bit too contrived to have problems start just with the ordering of a coffee!

However saying that Jack Reacher stories are always interesting. There are always going to be some fight scenes, sadly in this book there weren't many fight scenes and I do really like these in Reacher stories! There are always a few survival techniques too which without fail intrigue me.

Naturally Jack Reacher with his brawny body and unique attitude always attracts a woman in each place he stays at. This book is no different and he has a no-strings-attached fling with the female police officer from Hope. Strangely though this works, unlike other authors who seem to give their main characters a string of girlfriends and it gets ridiculous, because Jack Reacher is always on the move it's credible he would have so many different women.

The storyline is intriguing and the character of Jack Reacher is as fair and likeable as ever so this book makes for a good read. I will definitely be reading the next in the Jack Reacher novels and think he has a good few books of wandering, fighting and flirting left in him yet!

I bought my copy from Tesco as part of a two for £7 deal but Amazon have copies at £3.84 new and 77p on Amazon Marketplace.

Summary: Jack Reacher can wander my way anytime!