Why Can't We Be Friends? (The Enemy - Lee Child)

Member Name: samueltyler

Product:	The Enemy - Lee Child
Date:	17/04/07 (87 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Reacher, decent story

Disadvantages: Not as good as the others in series, powers of future sight!

Sometimes I miss the 80s. I look back fondly to the days of Thatcher’s regime and think that the world seemed a better place in grim shades of grey. Too be honest this is not true at all as I was a mere bambino in the 80s and all I remember about that decade is falling over near some cabins and that Wham! bars used to be so much bigger. One group that does regret the passing of the 80s is political thriller writers. No longer is the red menace hiding behind its iron shower curtain meaning that 1000s of gripping story devices are lost. How can an author overcome the tragedy of the USSR’s fall? Write a prequel that’s how! Don’t feel too sorry for thriller authors though at least they now have the war on terror to write about (are we allowed to call it that still?)

Jack Reacher is back in this prequel about his time in the army as a military policeman (MP). He has just been transferred back to America at the dawn of the 1990s. With the collapse of the Berlin Wall it seems that things in the army are likely to change. Reacher has more pressing matters at hand when a Two-Star General is found dead in a local motel room. It looks like a heart attack, but where is the General's briefcase? Can Reacher uncover the briefcase before more bodies start to pile up? And is this just a local matter or is it all part of a seismic shift in the armed forces of America?

Lee Child has managed to achieve the level of success he has from just one character – Jack Reacher. Usually we find Reacher embroiled in a covert operation on the behalf of a shady government agency, but before this he was an army man through and through. In previous books Child has touched upon what Reacher was like as a MP, but never really went into too much detail. By going back 10 years or so we are able to uncover a little more about the man behind the action.

In 1990 Reacher is hanging onto a career in a changing army where politics and infighting are as important as medals and experience. As an old school military man Reacher finds it hard to fit into this new world and it is this change, from loving the army into starting to distrust and hate it, that is so interesting for fans of the earlier books. Reacher is a fantastic character for fans of characters that get the job done no matter the risk. This is one of the reasons that this book does not quite live up to the rest of the series as Reacher is normally a loose cannon out on his own. Here he is restricted by the army and this actually detracts somewhat from the character.

The other characters in the books are also not fantastic. There is a love interest that is conveniently not mentioned in later stories and a group of army types that don’t particularly stand out. The one interesting character that appears is Reacher’s French mother and the side plot that involves her really fleshes out Reacher's character and for fans of the series this will be very interesting.

One other area that I found annoying was Child’s willingness to use his characters as clairvoyants. This book was written recently, but set almost 20 years ago so with the power of hindsight Child is able to point the story in the direction he wants. This means that at times people in the book mention the fact that there may be a future war in the Balkans and Iraq. It all read a bit too much like Child’s political ramblings and not what the characters would actually say. It must be difficult to write from the perspective of a person in the past without reflecting on the present. However, this must be done if the book is going to feel realistic. Unfortunately, Child fails somewhat to achieve this.

Although this book is not particularly bad I just feel that it pales in comparison to the vast majority of the set. The restriction caused by the army setting and the fact that Child can not write anything that will impede on future stories, that are already in print, means that the book has to be very isolated to work. The story itself is a competent crime mystery but involves far more phone calling and driving than real action. It is not until the final 50 pages that the action we know and love kicks in. I think that if a new reader to the series started with this book they may end up not bothering to continue. This would be a shame as the rest are not average at all, but fantastic action packed reads – I expect more from Lee Child.

Author: Lee Child
Price: amazon uk - £5.59
play.com - £5.49

Summary: A decent novel - but I expect more from Lee Child