Echo Burning - Hardcover

Child, Lee

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0593046595 ISBN 13: 9780593046593

Publisher: Bantam Press, 2001

Synopsis

Hitching rides is an unreliable mode of transport. In temperatures of over a hundred degrees, you're lucky if a driver will open the door of his airconditioned car long enough to let you slide in. That's Jack Reacher's conclusion. He's adrift in the fearsome heat of a Texas summer, and he needs to keep moving through the wide open vastness, like a shark in the water. The last thing he's worried about is exactly who picks him up. He never expected it to be somebody like Carmen. She's alone, driving a Cadillac. She's beautiful, young and rich. She has a little girl who is being watched by unseen observers. And a husband who's in jail. Who will beat her senseless when he comes out. If he doesn't kill her first. Reacher is no stranger to trouble. And at Carmen's remote ranch in Echo County there is plenty of it- lies and prejudice, hatred and murder. Reacher can never resist a lady in distress. Her family is hostile. The cops can't be trusted. The lawyers won't help. if Reacher can't set things straight, who can?

About this title

Review:

There was a time when a US-set crime novel by a British writer (such as James Hadley Chase's No Orchids For Miss Blandish) could get away with a certain carelessness in local detail. Not any more. Since the Englishman Lee Child began writing his superbly authentic novels, few readers on either side of the Atlantic would accept anything other than the gritty authenticity of books such as Child's latest, Echo Burning. He prides himself on the plausibility of his settings and characters, and actually has a more striking sense of the American landscape that many native writers. He never allows the reader to forget just where his hero Jack Reacher is, what he's feeling, smelling, seeing. And Reacher has slowly but surely become one of the most fully rounded protagonists in thriller fiction. It's hardly surprising that the novels have been optioned for filming; what is surprising is the fact that it hasn't happened before.

Jack finds himself suffering the intense heat of a Texas summer, and (leaving behind a messy situation) hardly worries about the dangers of who will pick him up when he hitches a ride. But it's a beautiful young rich girl driving a Cadillac who gives Jack a lift. Carmen tells him she has a little girl who is being observed by unseen and sinister forces. And her brutal, abusive jailed husband is more than likely to kill her when he gets out. It's obviously highly inadvisable for Jack to travel to Carmen's remote ranch in Echo County and become involved in her problems, but (needless to say) he does just that. And he's soon encountering lies, lust and prejudice, with untrustworthy cops and lawyers absolutely no help. Jack finally realises that there is only one way to resolve this lethal situation.

As always with Child, the narrative rattles along with real élan, and the sultry characterisation keeps everything ruthlessly on track. --Barry Forshaw

Review:

"As sweltering as the El Paso sun." -"PEOPLE" "Smashingly suspenseful." -"KIRKUS REVIEWS" (STARRED REVIEW) "[A] rip-roaring thriller." -"ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS"
"As sweltering as the El Paso sun."--PEOPLE

"Smashingly suspenseful."--KIRKUS REVIEWS (STARRED REVIEW)

"[A] rip-roaring thriller."--ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS

"As sweltering as the El Paso sun."--"PEOPLE"

"Smashingly suspenseful."--"KIRKUS REVIEWS" (STARRED REVIEW)

"[A] rip-roaring thriller."--"ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS"
"As sweltering as the El Paso sun."--PEOPLE
"Smashingly suspenseful."--KIRKUS REVIEWS (STARRED REVIEW)
"[A] rip-roaring thriller."--ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS

"As sweltering as the El Paso sun."--"PEOPLE"
"Smashingly suspenseful."--"KIRKUS REVIEWS" (STARRED REVIEW)
"[A] rip-roaring thriller."--"ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS"

"As sweltering as the El Paso sun."--PEOPLE
"Smashingly suspenseful."--KIRKUS REVIEWS (STARRED REVIEW)
"[A] rip-roaring thriller."--ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS

"As sweltering as the El Paso sun." "PEOPLE"
"Smashingly suspenseful." "KIRKUS REVIEWS" (STARRED REVIEW)
"[A] rip-roaring thriller." "ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS"

"As sweltering as the El Paso sun." PEOPLE
"Smashingly suspenseful." KIRKUS REVIEWS (STARRED REVIEW)
"[A] rip-roaring thriller." ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS"

Jalapeno-hot suspense...As sweltering as the El Paso sun. "People"
The best mystery I have read this year. "The Boston Globe"
""
Child builds suspense to almost unbearable extremes. "Kirkus Reviews "(starred review)
The best thriller writer of the moment. "The New York Times""

Jalapeno-hot suspense...As sweltering as the El Paso sun. People
The best mystery I have read this year. The Boston Globe

Child builds suspense to almost unbearable extremes. Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
The best thriller writer of the moment. The New York Times

"

"Jalapeno-hot suspense...As sweltering as the El Paso sun."--People
"The best mystery I have read this year."--The Boston Globe"

"Child builds suspense to almost unbearable extremes."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"The best thriller writer of the moment."--The New York Times

-Jalapeno-hot suspense...As sweltering as the El Paso sun.---People
-The best mystery I have read this year.---The Boston Globe-

-Child builds suspense to almost unbearable extremes.---Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
-The best thriller writer of the moment.---The New York Times

"The best mystery I have read all year."--The Boston Globe

"A real dyed-in-the-wool hero...with a wicked sense of right and wrong. A story you can sink your teeth into."--The Denver Post

"As sweltering as the El Paso sun...bottom line: jalapeno-hot suspense."--People

"Constantly escalating tension and a host of sinister villains...a Texas version of Deliverance. Child is a vigorous storyteller, gradually building the suspense to almost unbearable levels."--The St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"Smashingly suspenseful...The kind of daylight-noir setting that Jim Thompson loved. Child builds tension to unbearable extremes."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"An explosive nail-biting climax."--Library Journal

About this edition

• Publisher: Bantam Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0593046595
• ISBN 13: 9780593046593
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400