Blue Moon by Lee Child

This is the 24^th Jack Reacher novel.  Compulsively readable as always but very violent as well.  Unlike The Midnight Line violence is at the core of this book.  I was well into the book before I realised just how many bad guys Reacher was killing.

Yep, they were bad guys but he was bumping them off in volume and often.  I wasn't keen on some of the ways the dead were disrespected by Reacher either.

So I enjoyed the book but hope the author reins in the violence next time.

The Midnight Line by Lee Child

I haven't read a Jack Reacher in a while and wasn't exactly sure what to expect.  The Midnight Line is in some ways a typical Jack Reacher story but in other ways isnot.  It is the 22^nd Jack Reacher book.  You have to admire the inventiveness.

It is a cracking read and if you haven't read one before this would be a good one to start with.  There is a little violence and sex in it – but nothing graphic or gratuitous.

There was one odd thing – one of the characters – a policewoman, Nakamura, has a completely unresolved ending.  I hope this means we will see her again.

If you have been tiring of Reacher, do give this a go.  I was riveted and completely entertained.

Lee Child

Now, I don’t usually go for thrillers.  I bought one of Child’s for my better half when we went away and then read it myself when he had finished it.  I found myself reading it quickly and being interested in the main character Jack Reacher (a sort of human “superhero” type).  Actually, that doesn’t do the character any justice.

There were a couple of places in the book where it was a bit gruesome for me – at least with a book you can skip over those quickly – not like in the movies where even if you don’t look, you can’t help hearing.

I have now read quite a few of them and have some others stacked up on the Kindle to read when I am in the mood.  I don’t read them if I am on my own at night – or late at night but they are enjoyable to read every now and again.  You don’t have to read the books in any order.  The first one was Killing Floor.  The latest is “The Affair” which is actually a sort of prequel that explains how Reacher came to be a drifter.  Currently there are 16 Jack Reacher books.  The first one is now being made into a movie with Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher – which is hilarious casting given Reacher is 6foot5 in the novels!

Lee Child is a pen name – the author’s real name is Jim Grant.  The interesting thing is that he is British despite all of the novels feeling quite authentically set in the US.