The Hard Way

Absolutely fantastic. I was blown away by the pacing and the writing, especially those times Reacher made well-reasoned and utterly convincing predictions only for the next paragraph to say, "But Reacher was wrong." It slayed me every time!

Much better than the previous Jack Reacher book, in fact this was for me one of the best of all of them that I've read (so far). My only grumble is the dubious and somewhat cliched view of Norfolk when they drive up from London. STarts off of ok and geographically corrct but they bomb it up to, and past, Thetford without mentioning the horrendous single lane nightmare (currently anyway, it is being changed) that is the Elveden estate, or the fact that you have to stop at a roundabout every half mile around Thetford, then claiming that the road narrowed out to single track! It's faster than most of the M11 at that point! Oh and this isn't the Fens, you might have guessed I live in the area, yes it's quite flat but's NOT as flat as parts of Lincolnshire the way Child makes it out to be. Oh and getting a good sized double room with a bath at the “only pub for miles” for £40!!! Be serious. I know it's fiction, but Child is an Englishman, he surely knows he is writing cliche ridden nonsense, it does make me wonder about his descriptions of the US are they as bad? I have no clue having never been there. Rant over, it is actually a really good book :)

Short sleeve or long sleeve?

The thing about a Reacher book is that the instant the conflict is introduced (this time, a kidnapping), you know the major plot points for the book: Reacher will rescue the kidnapped people; there will be some physical altercations and at least 1 gunfight; he will meet (and likely bed) an attractive woman; and the Bad Guy will be vanquished (likely forever); justice will triumph.

Knowing a;; this, which pretty much eliminates all suspense, you also know that it'll still be a fun, intense, edge-of-your-seat read.

How does Child pull that off?

Don't know. Don't care, as long as he keeps it up.

Interesting twist to the usual tried and true kidnapping plot even if the ending left me a bit meh. Probably helped that the female sidekick/assistant who was fairly likable (and better drawn than others Child had written).

Lagged a bit near the end. Good twists to keep pages turning. Reacher is still an undeniable BAMF.