ridel reviewed Without Fail (Jack Reacher) by Lee Child (Jack Reacher (6))
Review of 'Without Fail (Jack Reacher)' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
If you are reading Jack Reacher book after book, you will be glad to know that this is Lee Child's best work so far. Without Fail has everything you want in a Jack Reacher novel - a great mystery, Reacher pushing the limits of his investigative capabilities while juggling with his unlawful status.
Let's start with where things don't go wrong - the author's weaknesses from the past five books have been around non-Reacher narrative. The antagonist in this is realistic, mysterious, and capable. Gone is the moustache twirling evil of previous novels. Reacher himself is highly active, rather than experiencing the plot. Info-dumps where secondary characters talk at Reacher are kept to a minimum. I've gritted my teeth through some pretty poor writing and I'm hopeful that the author is now in his prime.
And now let's talk about why this is great - we have a few secondary …
If you are reading Jack Reacher book after book, you will be glad to know that this is Lee Child's best work so far. Without Fail has everything you want in a Jack Reacher novel - a great mystery, Reacher pushing the limits of his investigative capabilities while juggling with his unlawful status.
Let's start with where things don't go wrong - the author's weaknesses from the past five books have been around non-Reacher narrative. The antagonist in this is realistic, mysterious, and capable. Gone is the moustache twirling evil of previous novels. Reacher himself is highly active, rather than experiencing the plot. Info-dumps where secondary characters talk at Reacher are kept to a minimum. I've gritted my teeth through some pretty poor writing and I'm hopeful that the author is now in his prime.
And now let's talk about why this is great - we have a few secondary characters that are as capable as Reacher, but in different capacities. The stakes are high. There are callbacks to previous novels that make you feel like the universe actually did move forward. The Secret Service organization is compelling and different from Reacher's offense-is-the-best-defense attitude.
I absolutely devoured this novel. You can't stop once you start. This is one of Lee Child's best. I look forward to the next in the series.
Reacher's support - SS Agent in Charge Froelich, former army sarge Neagley, and the SS boss Stuyvesant were all highly competent and well characterized imho. I can't remember any of the previous novels where there was a diverse array of useful allies. Neagley doesn't even sleep with Reacher! Yeah, gotta call that out because I'm reading in the 2020s and it's cringey when the main character sleeps with the female lead in every novel. Also the villains... I mean you don't even know who they are until the end, and while it's a little underwhelming that they're just some random cops, it really fits the hobo-Reacher narrative.
