Book Review

A couple of posts ago I mentioned Lee Childs' Jack Reacher series. I just finished reading Running Blind, the 4th in the series of 15 (so far). It was phenomenal.

The first three books were heavier on the action aspect than Running Blind, which was more of a mystery. I've enjoyed them all a lot and appreciate the subtle differences in the methods and story types.

The main characters name is Jack Reacher. All the stories revolve around him. Duh. But Mr. Child does a fantastic job with the supporting characters. So far the main supporting characters have been women, which allows for some good romance & sexual tension to get included. The sex scenes aren't overtly pornographic, which I appreciate, but it's just enough to make me think that Reacher's thoughts are probably what I would have thought, had I been there.

A lot of the background is military, something I'm not experienced with at all. Child has a very useful way of providing information to fill the supporting characters similar lack of knowledge. He also does that with the supporting characters corresponding fields, like the FBI, in the case of Running Blind, which Reacher didn't know much about.

Running Blind was a little different than the first 3 books. It actually included sections written in the perspective of the perpetrator. I've read another author that did the same thing, I think it was Dean Koonts, but Lee Child did it better, I think. Koonts method was very involved and put you right in the mind of the killer, which is probably exactly what he wanted to do, but it made me very uncomfortable. Childs' method was far less intrusive, so to speak.

I don't know if this is good or not, but I guessed who the killer was at about page 460, of 533. The actual mystery part of the story runs almost to the end, but not quite, to allow for some tying off of relationship stuff. I'd actually guessed correctly way before that, but changed my mind at least twice until going back to the original guess. This was one of those stories that made me excited enough to stop reading, think back through the clues, and make my own deductions. Not many authors have done that for me.

The only problem I had with Running Blind is that Child made Reacher out to be a real asshole in the beginning. I hadn't read anything like that in the first three. It almost turned me off, but right as I began my usual nightly reading last night, around 10 pm, the story got exciting and I stayed up reading until 1:30 am. I finished Running Blind before going to church this morning and stopped by the bookstore to pick up the next installment, Echo Burning.

Overall, I would highly recommend the book and the series. Reading them in order probably makes it better, but not entirely necessary.


Sorry for the lack of pictures. For some reason, blogger isn't letting me post any.