No Plan B: The unputdownable new Jack Reacher thriller from the No.1 bestselling authors

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Although, so far, the co-written novels in this long-running series haven’t matched up to many of the earlier ones, in No Plan B there are signs that there could be life left in the series yet. Lee has three homes—an apartment in Manhattan, a country house in the south of France, and whatever airplane cabin he happens to be in while traveling between the two. In the US he drives a supercharged Jaguar, which was built in Jaguar's Browns Lane plant, thirty yards from the hospital in which he was born. The whole thing begins as Reacher sees a man throw a woman under the bus - quite literally - after which he steals her purse and runs. Something Reacher saw seems to have triggered feelings of ill will, so to speak, from some folks who would rather it not be seen - what was there threatens the good thing they want to keep going. Reacher, doing his Reacher thing, smells a rat (and we all know he doesn't react well to threats), so he vows to get to the bottom of it even if it takes him halfway across the country. While this is going on, those other folks begin to converge at the same place - the Minerva Correctional Facility in Winson, Mississippi. Reacher is the stuff of myth. . . . One of this century’s most original, tantalizing pop-fiction heroes.” — The Washington Post From vastly different parts of the country there are forces at work, drawing a bunch of seemingly unrelated people together. Not surprisingly, Reacher is one of the key components of the inevitable meeting.

Having been dissatisfied after listening to the first 'official' collaboration between Lee (Grant) Child and his brother, Andrew (Grant) Child, "#25, The Sentinel" (3-Stars, but on re-reading my review, I think I was being generous), I decided to skip "#26, Better Off Dead" and see what delights awaited me in "#27, No Plan B". This is full of action and intrigue and can be read as a standalone. I think this is the best Andrew Child yet. I squirm at a certain scene...brutal, but Reacher is still my hero.💓When Reacher strolled into Gerrardsville, Colorado, he didn't expect to become embroiled in murder. But witnessing a woman pushed in front of a bus started the ball rolling for Reacher, and his determination to get to the bottom of what was going on drove him forward. Connecting with Hannah Hampton, she and Reacher headed to Winson, halfway across the country, where they hoped to find answers.

I, too, have read all Reacher books but I have not liked ANY since lee child’s brother started writing them! I am a 77 years old wife, mom, grandmother, great grandmother, aunt, and sister…I have eclectic taste but prefer mystery stories, worked in a library…so I feel I’m a good judge of books! The tragic tale of a wrongly convicted man. He wondered what it had to do with Angela. Which made him think of another tragic tale. One that was just beginning. For the little girl in the wallet photo. Angela's daughter. Who would now have to grow up without a mother. No Plan B is not to be missed. A perfectly plotted, fast paced thriller, with bigger twists than ever before. Lee and Andrew Child team up again in the 27th thriller of this series, the third for Andrew. As with any long-running series like this, the plot scenario never varies too far from what has always worked well. Here, Reacher has stopped in Gerrardsville, CO, to spend time in a museum that interests him. Right in broad daylight in the downtown, he sees a woman pushed to her death. But the official ruling is suicide so Reacher feels compelled to figure out what's really going on and who would want her dead. The search leads him to a privately-owned prison in Mississippi. Like many other commentators, I have read all the Reacher books. I lament the passing of the reader’s ability to accurately visualize what was happening in these stories, and where and why.

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Since there wasn't enough intrigue to pull me into the plot, I had plenty of time to be irked by the writing style. This review is based on an uncorrected advance review copy, not the final copy for publication. So, perhaps the editors will make a few changes before the book’s release. But one thing I noticed worth criticizing is the copy I read contains more than a few blatantly British colloquialisms and manners of speaking that feel a little jarring because they don’t fit with a story set in America with only American characters. Even given Reacher’s history growing up on Marine Corps bases all over the world as a military brat, it’s unlikely he would have adopted specifically British ways of speaking into his speech. There’s nothing wrong with two British authors writing a book set in America and filled only with American characters, but they should avoid the use of terms and colloquialisms almost only ever spoken and written in British English. As only one example, “fishmonger” is a mainly British term for a storekeeper who sells fish which in my entire life I’ve never heard uttered in the United States, though Americans may have used the term in the colonial days. This is clearly not a traditional Reacher book and that is NOT a good thing. This Reacher is a thug who continually looks forward to violence. It’s not the amount of violence, it’s the attitude. Then at the end, he becomes righteous –“I’m not going to kill anyone in cold blood”– tell that to the warden he choose to kill. Undoubtedly, Andrew Child will continue to live off of his brother’s reputation, but I will no longer be reading them. It’s an action/adventure mystery consisting of three to four plots, each plot seemingly having no relationship to any other--which means we keep skipping from plot to plot, all the while wondering what and where the “big reveal” will be. Unfortunately, it doesn’t come until the very end, by which time Reacher has engaged in more than his share of brutal violence--including a killing that is exceedingly grotesque. And when the reveal does come, it’s not very credible completely agree – Reacher has jumped the shark! The last few chapters of this book were beyond ridiculous, the villains so insanely villanous, the plot so incredibly convoluted as to render it pretty much unreadable.

Reacher was wired to move toward danger. To confront it. To defeat it, or die trying. It was baked into his DNA. Reacher and Hannah formed an alliance to find out the truth. A father in Chicago loses his son. A fifteen-year-old foster boy from Los Angeles searching for his dad. Everyone heads to Winson, Mississippi. The evil corporate conspiracy trope has become cliche--variations of it have become too common in the series. And I'm not disappointed; I did not see the end of the story come. I liked the way the story alternated between Reacher himself and the bad guys and it had a certain pace and rhythm that made me enjoy it. The book followed the well-known path I came to like in earlier books. There is obviously something sinister behind the machinations of those running the Minerva Correctional Facility …. How is it related to the release of an innocent man? How will Jed and Lev eventually find themselves in Winson, Mississippi? I certainly enjoyed the ingenuity how the many moving parts of this narrative explosively collided to form an enjoyable denouement.There’s a crime sitting behind all of the mystery at the center of this book, but it’s really only presented as an aside with very little substance provided. It’s a dark, horrifying crime that may be difficult to come to terms with and if more was revealed about it, I may have been more convinced about Reacher’s actions when he reached Winson. As it is, Reacher appears to be heading further and further down the psychopathic path than ever. (Not a criticism, just an observation).