Jack Reacher novels.

[Faiaoga]

I am now reading "A Wanted Man", where Jack teams up with a female FBI agent to foil the bad guys and save the nation. While I appreciate Jack's critical views of governmental secrecy and bureaucratic paranoia, I still don't understand how an Army brat, West Point graduate and military police team leader can not seem to understand that a pocket knife is a useful, even essential, tool,

Glancing ahead at the final pages of "A Wanted Man", it seems that Jack has to use a room key to clumsily saw through duct tape and nylon cord in order to save us from destruction. Somehow, this is disappointing. Like Jack Reacher, I was raised as a military dependent - I know that Scout troops are an important part of the military family culture. What part of "Be Prepared" did Jack Reacher fail to learn?

My copy of "A Wanted Man" includes a preview of the next book, "Never Go Back", where Reacher is involuntarily called back into the Army. This time around, I hope they teach Reacher to carry useful items such as a Zippo lighter, GI can opener, pen light, pen and note pad, a handkerchief, pocket knife and so on. Perhaps they will require some refresher classes at MP basic training

 

[Faiaoga]

I am now glancing through "Never Go Back", where Jack is involuntarily called back ( so he can be court-martialed over an old case). Apparently, he is reinstated as a major in the 110th Special Unit, where he works to stop US military weapons from being sold on the black market.

While I have not seen any mention of knives so far, I will suggest that Major Reacher visit the supply sergeant and obtain a small pocketknife. Perhaps they can issue him a GI pocket folding knife (sometimes called a "demo knife") or a TL-29 electricians knife. Either one would be more effective than some of the improvised and clumsy cutting tools he has used in the past. After all, Jack Reacher seems willing to commandeer government vehicles and to bring prisoners out of the post stockade - obtaining a government-issue folding knife should not be too difficult for him.

 

[Steve Lawrence]

Carl , If you liked the Reacher novels you ought to try Vince Flynn The Mitch Rapp novels .
Unfortunately he just died form cancer....A major lost talent.

 

[Faiaoga]

After several years of looking, I finally found a used book store that had a copy of the first Jack Reacher novel, "Killing Floor" by Lee Child. In this book, Jack wanders into a small Georgia town, is falsely accused of murder, helps break up a major counterfiting operation, and avenges the murder of his brother Joe. Joe had been a Treasury agent investigating counterfit money produced overseas and brought in to the US. He also falls inn love with a local police officer, but romance doesn't work out - jack does not want to settle down, while the policewoman plans to clean up her home town and live happily ever after. At least Jack gets to avenge his brother, kill a crooked FBI agent and knock off a minimum of fifteen bad guys (I lost count after the first dozen or so).

In this book, Jack Reacher does use a knife to intimidate a prison guard, cut open cardboard boxes full of bogus money and perform other tasks. The knife is one he finds in the glove compartment of a sedan belonging to a corrupt and incompetent police chief. It is described as a switchblade with a double edged, seven inch blade of Japanese surgical steel with a mahogany handle. While Reacher carries it and uses it, I don't think he kills anyone with it - he does all his killing in this book with his hands and with .44 Magnum Desert Eagle pistol. In the end, of course Jack goes back on the road but without the knife - the switchblade had the police chiefs name on it in gold-filled engraving. The engraved name might tie Jack to events in the town and cause local, state, federal and international agencies to become suspicious, so Jack probably tosses the knife. before he begins hitching rides again.

As he waits to be picked up, he probably sings the song he and Joe Reacher used to sing together, "Rambling On My Mind".

 

[CARRERA50]

Favorite authors in this genre are Connelly and Crais. Bosch and Reacher are both cops, but Joe Pike seems
to exist more in the Reacher mold. Still a good read, if for no other reason than there are so many Reacher
novels for the novice to explore.

 

[theoldawg]

NEVER GO BACK - New Reacher to be released Sept. 3...........

'Never go back—but Jack Reacher does, and the past finally catches up with him. . . . Never Go Back is #1 New York Times bestselling author Lee Child’s new novel of action-charged suspense starring “one of the best thriller characters at work today” (Newsweek).

Former military cop Jack Reacher makes it all the way from snowbound South Dakota to his destination in northeastern Virginia, near Washington, D.C.: the headquarters of his old unit, the 110th MP. The old stone building is the closest thing to a home he ever had.

Reacher is there to meet—in person—the new commanding officer, Major Susan Turner, so far just a warm, intriguing voice on the phone.

But it isn’t Turner behind the CO’s desk. And Reacher is hit with two pieces of shocking news, one with serious criminal consequences, and one too personal to even think about.

When threatened, you can run or fight.

Reacher fights, aiming to find Turner and clear his name, barely a step ahead of the army, and the FBI, and the D.C. Metro police, and four unidentified thugs.

Combining an intricate puzzle of a plot and an exciting chase for truth and justice, Lee Child puts Reacher through his paces—and makes him question who he is, what he’s done, and the very future of his untethered life on the open road.'

From Amazon

 

[Faiaoga]

"Never Go Back" is on bookshelves now but is too expensive hardbound. I will look for paperback or used copies to find out how he handles a threatened court martial and how he and Major Turner end up. I will also carefully examine the book to see if Jack Reacher finds a pocket knife he is able to carry with him - I hope he doesn't end up using his teeth, room keys or other makeshifts.

 

[average gimp]

That tells you right there that the writer is British - he made Reacher hate knives. I guess knives aren't part of the British culture. No American action writer would do such a thing. But that is a small thing.

There is also the fact that he had the late Tony Swan in "Bad Luck and Trouble" as a fan of those maggots at PETA. Retch.

I have enjoyed some of the Jack Reacher novels but I have found I hard to believe that he never carries a knife, lighter or other useful tools as he wander over America. Jack Reacher is supposed to be an experienced and competent field soldier but never has a pocketknife, penlight, lighter or other basic Every Day Carry. Worse, some of the other characters have been decorated military men who never have a knife when needed.

Please clue in Reacher concerning the uses of a Zippo, a P-38 and a military-issue pocket knife.

Reacher is all about minimalism and prefers to improvise rather than carry more than he deems strictly necessary. Which is why he almost immediately sold a house bequeathed to him in one of the novels that I don't recall the title of. I don't agree with this, either, but I carry and own far more than I probably need.

Killing Floor was the best one!

Really? This is the book where Reacher claimed that shotguns only needed to be pointed rather than aimed indoors, and where a 250 pound man was made to pivot all the way around by the swinging force of a 1 pound blackjack. Child hadn't bothered to do his homework before that book, or before writing about the SIG with a magazine safety in "Gone Tomorrow."

 

[Mark Celebsclothing]

The one thing that I loved in Jack Reacher was the Tom Cruise jacket.