THE SENTINEL - Book review

 

The Sentinel (2020) is the first Jack Reacher novel co-written by Lee Child and his brother Andrew.

Some readers have voiced their disappointment; and I can understand that to a certain degree. Yet I cannot see the join. How much is Lee, how much is Andrew? I couldn’t even guess. There are the usual scenes one comes to expect in a Reacher novel; some many pages long, where it’s talk-talk to reason everything out and tell us what’s what, interspersed infrequently with explosive action. The one-word sentences are still there. The repetitions. Even people who are named are referred to by their role, job or other aspect rather than their name, which can become tedious. Maybe there’s not so much wit or dry humour. But in the final analysis none of that matters: the style and the story inevitably suck the reader in yet again.

The book begins in Nashville where Reacher comes to the aid of a band of musicians who are denied their earnings by a nasty club owner. We know how that’s going to play out… This seems like pure Reacher even if the incident has no relevance to the main story.

Hitching a lift, Reacher ends up in a town where he prevents a civilian being kidnapped – in daylight. The town is suffering computer outage and the guy he rescues, Rusty Rutherford, is being blamed for it and has been sacked from his IT job. Of course there’s more to it than that. Is it just a simple case of computer blackmail? You get your systems back if you pay the ransom. Or is it something more? Some of the plot seems overly contrived and even confusing, with ludicrous misdirection pertaining to the Second World War.

The Macguffin this time is the The Sentinel, a computer application, the country’s last line of defence against computer terrorism – illuminatingly explained on p265 with regard to ‘stolen elections’ etc; which is nice and topical. And yet it isn’t mentioned until p195, over half-way through the book. Like so many Reacher titles, this one is not memorable; after a short while it will blend in with all the others.

Rusty’s helper is an ex-FBI agent (that’s useful!) called Sands. Behind the scenes is a guy called Speranski who is calling the shots, pulling the strings, and trying to track down Rutherford. There’s mention of the Center, whatever that is. Possibly I missed something, but the Speranski guy seems to vanish from the story at some point; I might have blinked. Maybe the Childs ran out of space or time so left it to the FBI to sweep up the bad guys, one of whom is presumably Speranski. Perhaps less description of furniture and buildings that have no relevance might have allowed for more space to bring alive the Speranski anomaly. I blame the editor. Unless Speranski is going to figure in the next book, of course...

Reacher’s charisma must be slipping, too. There was no sex though an invitation was implied…

Not one of ‘his’ best efforts, alas. Not a ‘keeper’. In my view.

NIGHT SCHOOL - Book review

Lee Child’s 2016 book is a flashback novel, taking us and Reacher to 1996. Intelligence has overheard that a deal is going down, and it involves an American and the price is a hundred million dollars.

Reacher is sent to so-called night school with two others: an FBI agent and a CIA analyst. Their homework – decide who the American is and what is worth that amount of money. And who is buying?

Reacher opts to recruit Sergeant Frances Neagley and skips school, heading for Berlin where he reckons the action is. He’s not wrong. Is he ever?

Accounting can  be boring, by all accounts. And bad accounting can be the harbinger of a cataclysm. To say more would involve spoilers.

Meanders more than usual; not one of his best.

WORTH DYING FOR - Book review

Lee Child’s 2010 novel is high-suspense, one of his best in my opinion.

It started in a small town in Nebraska. A domestic disagreement. Seth Duncan punched his wife. She deserved it, according to him. Reacher happened to be with the local doctor when the call came through. He went with the doc – and discovered Mrs Duncan was a regular punch-bag.

Reacher detests bullies. So he walks to the steakhouse and punches Seth Duncan in the nose. Breaks it.

This is not good because the Duncan clan is mighty powerful in these parts. And the brothers use the sports jocks as their protectors and enforcers. They set these enforcers on Reacher – and soon come to regret it. Almost more broken bones than you’d find in a charnel house.

Apparently, the Duncans are involved in some criminal business, but nobody talks about it. Another thing nobody talks about is the missing eight-year-old girl who vanished decades ago. The girl’s mother is the elderly lady, Dorothy Coe who befriends Reacher; she’d always hoped her girl would return one day.

There’s something wrong in this town and Reacher can’t let it go. And as Dorothy Coe declares, ‘Some things are worth dying for.’ (p379) Maybe this is one of them.

A fitting explosive denouement.

Blue Moon - Book review

 

Lee Child’s 2019 blockbuster ticks all the usual boxes. Readers have come to expect certain things, and Child always delivers. 

Travelling on a Greyhound bus, Jack Reacher notices that a passenger is taking an unhealthy interest in an elderly man further up the aisle. When the old man gets off, so does the apparent stalker. Reacher’s instinct kicks in and he follows, preventing a serious mugging. The old man was carrying a fat envelope crammed with dollar bills. He’s grateful but doesn’t want Reacher to get involved. He won’t reveal why he is carrying so much money. Reacher helps the old man get home, and slowly the backstory of old  Mr and Mrs Shevick.

Meanwhile, two rival factions, Ukrainian and Albanian, are at each other’s throats. There is a connection between them and the old man. And Reacher doesn’t like it. As he sees it, ‘This is a random universe. Once in a blue moon things turn out just right. Like now.’ (p44)

This time Reacher enlists the help of a plucky waitress Abby and a couple of musicians; as if he needs help…. While first meeting Abby Reacher listens to a band’s rendition of Howlin’ Wolf’s ‘Killing Floor’ (p89) – a neat reference to Child’s first Reacher novel. The love interest is there, but not laboured. Of late, I reckon that Reacher had become excessively more violent. The body count is very high. No matter: the bad guys get what they deserve…

As usual, not a lot happens,  except in a few brief violent scenes but Child keeps you turning the pages in order to get to the bloody end.

The formula works. Why knock it?

 

 

Book review - Bad Luck and Trouble

Bad Luck and Trouble (2007) is the eleventh Jack Reacher novel from Lee Child, a publishing phenomenon. Night School, his twenty-first in the series is published this November.

Lee Child is one of the few modern authors to hit the best-seller list on each new release. His style and pace are geared to keep the reader turning the pages. A number of valid criticisms – lack of in-depth characterisation, over-use of clipped sentences, phrase repetition – have no effect on his legions of readers. He has tapped into the psyche of the modern readership – both female and male. He entertains. No mean feat, writing about the same guy year in year out.

In case you’ve been hiding under a rock or in a cave for almost twenty years, I’ll explain that ex-Army Military Policeman Jack Reacher is a wanderer, walking the streets and roadsides of North America, working when he needs money, but otherwise simply drifting. Under the radar. Off the grid. Helping unfortunates who need help. He’s tall, ‘two metres tall, a hundred and ten kilos, maybe a hundred and twenty’, a lot taller than Tom Cruise who plays him in two films, and all muscle, with ‘wrists as wide and hard as two-by-fours, hands like shovels’, and a shaved head. (The reference to metres instead of feet is from the point of view of a Middle Eastern villain).

Sometimes the Reacher books skip to the man’s past. Useful, that. Let’s be honest, the past has a habit of coming back to bite. At the wrong moment. This latest escapade begins when Frances Neagley, a member of his old Army unit, gets in touch in a rather outlandish way, and he answers the call. There may be a need to put the old unit back together again. Unfortunately, one of their number won’t be joining them, since his corpse was found in the desert. Tortured. Murdered. Dropped from a great height. And the rest are not answering the call. Something’s amiss. Badly awry.

One thing Reacher advocates – and respects – is loyalty. He’s loyal to his people. If they’re in trouble, he’ll plough through anything to get them out of it.

I’m not a great fan of Child’s choice of titles, and this book is no exception. ‘Because, second rule, learned from a lifetime of bad luck and trouble: maintain a little dignity.’ (p143) But I get it.

As a Brit author, Child is immersed in Americana, it seems. ‘… Huntington Drive, which Reacher was pretty sure had been a part of the old Route 66… Reacher started singing to himself, about getting his kicks…’ (It’s a while since I last read a Reacher book – One Shot, 2006 – but I don’t recall him singing to himself. Could be wrong. Reacher is rarely wrong.)

Neagley doesn’t much like physical contact, unless it’s to demolish an opponent.  She’s also not keen on the LAPD – ‘There are always scandals. It’s statistically difficult to quit the LAPD any other way.’ (p312) That won’t endear her to LAPD and ex-LAPD readers, I suspect. But her dislikes go further: ‘She’s human resources. It’s what they do.’ (Tell lies). (p322) Of course in this politically correct age, such generalisations can alienate; though doubtless draw cheers from those who have grievances! Incidentally, Neagley features in Night School, which is a flashback novel to their army days.

Much is made of Reacher’s skill with maths – square roots and all. Yes, the plot hinges on this aspect to a minor degree, but I found this tedious. The first two-thirds of the book present puzzles and a lengthy search for clues, but it’s the final third that delivers the pace and excitement we’ve come to expect. Delivered with aplomb. Spectacular. Lethal. Bad luck for the bad guys.

Not surprisingly, it’s reported that Transworld have announced a new contract with Lee Child for three more thrillers plus a volume of short stories and a novella, all featuring Jack Reacher. That’ll make it two dozen. Not bad. Clearly, he hasn’t over-reached himself yet.

'Two distinct races'

Charles Lamb (1775-1834) had a few things to say about borrowing.

‘The human species, according to the best theory I can form of it, is composed of two distinct races, the men who borrow, and the men who lend.’ – The Two Races of Men

‘I mean you borrowers of books – those mutilators of collections, spoilers of the symmetry of shelves, and creators of odd volumes. – The Two Races of Men.

I believe that there are readers who buy books and readers who borrow. [We’ll ignore those people who borrow books from us but never return them…] There are plenty of reasons why readers borrow – cost and storage space being just two. I may have a collection of about 4,000 books, but in my lifetime I’ve read thousands more. Space precludes storing so many. I’ve borrowed from the public library when I couldn’t afford to buy sufficient books to read; and of course pre-Internet, I delved into the non-fiction shelves for research. Like most generalisations, I’m sure this separation into two types of book readers will fall down under close scrutiny, but I feel that it has a grain of truth in it. Until relatively recent times, authors received no payment for books borrowed from libraries.

It seems only fair that authors should benefit in some small measure from institutional borrowing of their work. Twenty-eight countries have a Public Lending Right programme. The first was implemented in Denmark in 1946; the UK’s PLR was enacted in 1979.

As a resident of the EU (UK citizen living in Spain), I am able to take advantage of the PLR system applied to libraries in the UK and Eire. It is a welcome annual event, receiving notification of the pecuniary reward (taxable) along with the number of borrowers for my registered books.

Registered authors are eligible for payment if their PLR earnings reach a minimum of £1. The rate per loan is currently 6.2 pence [and for foreign readers who may not be aware, there are 100 pence in the £]. There is an upper limit for any author, £6,600. Last month, PLR made payments totalling £6.1 million to 22,327 authors. It is funded by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport through the British Library. Writers can register online. A book has to be registered by 30 June to be eligible for assessment in the following January.

To read the rules about registration, please go to the website www.plr.uk.com

A list of the hundred most borrowed titles included James Patterson fifteen times; needless to say, he was the most borrowed fiction author (for the seventh year running); Nora Roberts dropped from fourth place last year to sixth; M.C. Beaton was seventh and tenth was David Baldacci (previously eighteenth). Lee Child had the two top most borrowed titles; J.K. Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy was the tenth most borrowed title, well beaten by Fifty Shades of Grey (third).

 

The top twenty of the 100 most-borrowed books in Scotland are all crime novels.
 
Top non-fiction author was cookery expert Mary Berry.
 
The full list can be found on the website.
 
Last year my books (penname Ross Morton) were borrowed 5,464 times from the UK libraries. That’s a great feeling, to know that that number of people have read my novels.
 
Since its publication in 2007, my first novel Death at Bethesda Falls has been borrowed 8,709 times.
 
My most-borrowed title is The $300 Man.

If you can't borrow it, please purchased post-free world-wide from here

So, I must go against the advice of Shakespeare, in Hamlet: ‘… neither a borrower, nor a lender be…’ (I know, he was talking about money, rather than books!)