Without Fail (Jack Reacher) - Softcover

Child, Lee

4.16

105,694 ratings by Goodreads

9780425207604: Without Fail (Jack Reacher)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0425207609 ISBN 13: 9780425207604

Publisher: Berkley Pub Group, 2006

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Hired by the Secret Service to test their shield around the new vice president of the United States, ex-miliary copy Jack Reacher discovers that a team of assassins is already planning a hit on the vice president. Reprint.

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Review:

Lee Child has inexorably pulled himself into the upper echelons of thriller writing with a series of tough, lean and perfectly crafted novels featuring ex-US military cop Jack Reacher. Without Fail is the sixth outing for the resourceful Reacher, and far from showing any signs of incipient fatigue, the series just goes from strength to strength as Child hones his abilities.

As in such previous books as Die Trying and The Killing Floor, Jack Reacher is a maverick. He carries no ID, and any place he hangs his hat is home. And while he's more than capable of dealing out massive violence to the bad guys who take him on, he's a sucker for a plea for help--particularly from a woman. This time, he's asked by the persuasive Ms Froelich to help her protect the Vice-President of the United States from an assassination attempt that's on the cards. So Reacher, with only the clothes he stands up in, finds himself deep in the rarefied world of the United States Secret Service in Washington, where his problems come from the stiff-necked bureaucrats as much as from the utterly ruthless killer who soon has Reacher in his sights as much as the Vice-President.

If the plot here is a tad reminiscent of the Clint Eastwood movie In the Line of Fire, that's no coincidence--Child has his characters discuss the echoes of their situation with that film at length. But, boy, does Child ring some powerful variations of his own on the theme: this the most kinetic Reacher novel yet, full of the brilliantly orchestrated set-pieces that are a specialit� de la maison with the author (the final climax in a snowy ravine is a pip). The action here is relentless, but never at the expense of character--Child is canny enough to keep dark shadows from Reacher's past a key part of his motivation. And the skill that the British-born Child is so proud of--his faultless evocation of the American landscape--is the final icing on a very tempting cake. --Barry Forshaw

Review:

"Lee Child writes edgy American thrillers to rival the likes of Thomas Harris and John Grisham" (Daily Mirror)

"Sixth in seriously good series featuring Jack Reacher...Exciting, absorbing and intriguing, with hero big and bold enough to handle the percussive action" (Literary Review)

"For most fans of Lee Child the greatest draw is his military police tough guy Jack Reacher...To be fair, Reacher is more of a thinking girl's beefcake - I can see Russell Crowe already angling for the movie part" (The Times)

"Jack Reacher is a most magnetic creation, tough, cool and ultimately moral" (Irish Independent)

"Lee Child's protagonist, Jack Reacher, is a hero in the Dirty Harry style, a man who lives by his own principles...Produces a surprising twist when it's least expected" (Sunday Telegraph)

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