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Child, Lee - 'Bad Luck and Trouble'
Paperback: 528 pages (Mar. 2008) Publisher: Bantam Books Ltd ISBN: 0553818104

Jack Reacher's back. And this time he has company. Yes, finally it turns out that our favourite loner has some friends. And these are not just any old friends.

Reacher gets a cryptic message from a member of his old army unit. There were eight of them, a tight unit working special investigations. And now one of them wants his help enough to have tracked him down. So, Reacher heads for California where he meets up with Frances Neagley. She tells him that another of the unit has just been found dead in the desert - thrown alive from a helicopter. And others from the team appear to be missing. It seems that someone is picking on the old unit. The question is why? One of the old team has stirred up a hornet's nest and they need to work out which one it was and deal with it. Reacher and his old buddies have a new mission.

It's interesting to read about Reacher working with people who know him. Usually he's only just met the people in any book, moving about as he does. It's a good chance to get a bit of back story about his previous life in the military, and to see him in a slightly different light. I liked that.

You know what you're getting with a Lee Child book - good characterisation, a fast-moving and intriguing plotline - and this delivers all that, plus it reveals a bit more about the elusive Jack Reacher.

I'm beginning to worry about him though. He famously never carries anything but a toothbrush, an ATM card and a passport (and even this is a recent innovation), and he buys himself a new shirt every so often, but he never seems to buy any socks. I'm a bit concerned about his feet. Someone needs to knit him some new socks.

Read another review of BAD LUCK AND TROUBLE.

Pat Austin, England
April 2008

Pat blogs at Mysterious Yarns.

Details of the author's other books with links to reviews can be found on the Books page.
More European crime fiction reviews can be found on the Reviews page.



last updated 5/12/2010 09:13