Lee Child seems to have taken on board some of the criticisms lobbied at his recent books. Reacher doesn't display unbelievable deductive powers, he doesn't bed any women in improbable circumstances and he doesn't always get things right.

However, all up this novel felt lazy and not very challenging - for either Reacher or me.

Nothing much happens in this book.

Reacher spends his time drinking coffee, and waiting, and talking on the phone, and waiting. He used to be a one man wrecking crew but there is very little action here – the sum total being a few murders and an explosion - which would have been the first chapter in an earlier Reacher novel. Plus, the plot is not sophisticated, and there is really nothing interesting about the book to offset the lack of action. There was too little Reacher, too little suspense, too much "here's the count-down" with too little pay dirt and too late. And the insider? Oh, gosh, that was a surprise! Plus key realities, like a bad guy should recognize the voice of someone he'd been talking to on a regular basis; and it is unlikely that a 737 could fly into US airspace unnoticed or land on a dark airfield in a snowstorm. And the ending? Pathetic! It really felt like a novel written just to get to the cliffhanger and then the next book ... very unsatisfying.




John Hannon (USA: WA) (2010/12/10):
I liked the mystery of it.
Plots within plots.



Deb (USA: AZ) (2011/08/27):
While there wasn't as much action as in some of the Reacher books, I did like the plot within plots.



Robyn (USA: NE) (2012/12/04):
I enjoyed it till the end. They keep the secret from you for most of the book, so it keeps you guessing and reading to find out. However I absolutely did not like the end whatsoever. Talk about unanswered questions. Talk about leaving you hanging.