Without Fail: 6 (Jack Reacher) - Softcover

Child New York Times Bestselling Author, Lee

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0425264424 ISBN 13: 9780425264423

Publisher: Berkley Books, 2013

Synopsis

Jack Reacher takes aim at the White House in the sixth novel in Lee Child's New York Times bestselling series.

Skilled, cautious, and anonymous, Jack Reacher is perfect for the job: to assassinate the vice president of the United States. Theoretically, of course. A female Secret Service agent wants Reacher to find the holes in her system, and fast--because a covert group already has the vice president in their sights. They've planned well. There's just one thing they didn't plan on: Reacher.

About this title

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 specialité 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:

"If Without Fail doesn't hook you on Lee Child, I give up."--The New York Times

"Relentlessly paced...and absolutely mesmerizing."--Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

"Everything falls into place like a well-assembled time bomb."--The Boston Globe

"A stunner...The suspense becomes nearly unbearable."--Booklist

"This is a knockout."--Library Journal

"[The] plot is ingenious...This is a superior series."--The Washington Post Book World

"If you haven't read a Reacher story, do yourself an exciting and engrossing favor and pick one up. Grade A."--Rocky Mountain News

About this edition

• Publisher: Berkley Books
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0425264424
• ISBN 13: 9780425264423
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 416