A Wanted Man

I love the subtle continuation of the previous novels (14 and 15), as I’ve read so much Jack Reacher that I wish for novels to be a bit more connected. That said, despite the world being consistent (and within a few weeks of the last adventure), this is not a very good Jack Reacher novel.

The primary issue is that Dick Hill has tried the “Reacher is part of a travelling group” plot device. That was the second novel, and it was done a whole lot better here, but not good enough. Reacher is not very interesting when he’s a part of the action. He needs to unravel a mystery, and then take revenge on the antagonists that are revealed. As such, the first half of this novel is very, very mediocre. There’s some bright points but only when the car scenes end does the novel really pick up.

It is my opinion that this isn’t a spoiler: the novel can be split into ‘in car’ and ‘out of car’ halves. Both have their own individual mysteries, and while they are connected, they feel like two different stories. This is again, merely fine. It’s an attempt to be creative but I wasn’t engaged because the mysteries were easily solved, and didn’t keep my attention throughout the book as stuff got wrapped up at the midpoint.

As such, this is thoroughly mediocre. I’d pass on this if you aren’t a hardcore Reacher fan.

all Im going to day about this, done, finally. I like the female agents. but I just find the rest of the book very hard to get into. a lot of scattered clues. first one I read of his tho. maybe earlier books would be better.

Fairly typical of the series, which means it was an enjoyable read and kept my interest until the end. It was entertaining and kept you guessing and had some good twists and surprise deaths.