Gone Tomorrow: (Jack Reacher 13)

This started strongly with a bloody & intriguing opening in the New York underground. The finale was the usual satisfying, brutal comeuppance for the bad guys (and badder girls): Reacher takes on 19 vaguely middle Eastern terrorists, the NYPD & the feds. If you think this is a tall order, you don't know Jack.Unfortunately, I found the middle a bit of a slog. Lots of glutinous extraneous detail to wade through such as New York's topography, and the comparitive weakness of modern spot welding vs. overlapping flanges (I kid you not). I feel like I walked every inch of the Big Apple with our hero, as well as all those buses, trains & Crown Vic car rides. Just tell us what happens next!The author's probably earned more since I started writing this review than I make in a month, so I'm sure he'll survive this criticism. Don't worry Lee, I'll be back with Jack for the rest of the series. I'm sure there are more evil schemes to stumble across, more empowered modern career women to bed...and more allnight diner coffees to down .

On a New York City subway, Jack Reacher ticks off a mental list. Of the five other passengers on the train, one of them isn’t what she seems. Suicide bombers are easy to spot and this one fits the bill to a tee, but she doesn’t react the way Reacher expects, and that’s only going to lead to trouble.Gone Tomorrow is the 13th in Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series. Child’s earlier books (in my opinion) are more kick-ass and faster-paced than the later ones, and as expected, after an exciting start, the plot slows down a bit. Happily, Reacher gets into his stride and is soon taking out the bad guys with his usual panache. The plot is also quite thought-provoking and throws up some interesting questions about America’s military strategies. So although this one doesn’t have the clout or the page-turning excitement of some of the previous books, as with all the Reacher adventures, you get what you came for and in the end, the character is as entertaining as ever.

I enjoy these books (Lee Child). Comfort reading, I think it's called. When I haven't got one to read I miss it.If you read for fun (rather than for work) I would suggest that you try at least one Lee Child book. Obviously, you won't impress anyone, but you'll be left with a feeling that the good generally conquer the bad.A bit like The Lone Ranger or Bonanza one hundred years ago ... but definitely worth a read.

Lee Child really needs to come up with a new hero. Its not like Jack Reacher is Harry Potter, a hero with one long story arc intended to be spread out over seven books that needed to wrapped up. (and JK Rowling knew when to quit before Harry outstayed his welcome). In fact Reacher has no 'arc'at all, he's the same every time we meet him.To begin with that rigid, uncompromising, unchanging solidity was attractive. Now, thirteen novels in it has become stale. Each book is a repetition of the last one, right down to individual episodic moments. We know circumstance will thrust Reacher into some hidden, convoluted conspiracy, we know there will be several red herrings thrown out there and some blind alleys to be travelled down before the truth emerges, we know Reacher will undertake some perilous physical activities, he will without doubt end up sleeping with a woman he has only just met and it will all end with a big finale where Reacher takes on the bad guys single handed and triumphs.You can tick off all of those items as you read Gone Tomorrow, and you can add in Reacher's dry, no-nonsense approach and his suspicion of authority figures (who as always are mostly ineffectual or incompetent). Only the settings change from book to book, with New York as Reacher's playground this time around.Its all written with verve and pace of course, and as a 'brain in neutral', familiar and unchallenging read it passes the time well enough. It was certainly perfect for my jetlag addled brain after a twelve hour flight to Tokyo. Beyond that however, it offers little to challenge or surprise. As a consequence you find yourself picking holes (and there are many) in the plot, laughing at some of the forced contrivances (how Child explains Reacher's highly concvenient knowledge of the technical specs of New York subway trains is a hootm for all the wrong reasons) and as with the last Reacher novel 'Nothing to Lose' find yourself finding it difficult to suspend disbelief, especially during the rather weak finale.Lee Child has never included a wider back story into Reacher's adventures that he needs to wrap up with one final hurrah. He could therefore simply call it a day for Reacher and focus his undoubted talents on new characters and scenarios. Maybe in a few years he can come back and ressurrect his intinerant hero, refreshed and appealing once more, but on the basis of first Nothing to Lose and now Gone Tomorrow, Jack Reacher has exhausted his potential and needs a good long rest.

Another great Lee Child book with twists and turns at every chapter. Lee Child never ceases to amaze with his story telling. The reason I have not given this 5 star which Lee Child books usually deserve is he is just getting a tad nasty with explicit descriptions of torture. While I can appreciate that this kind of torture goes on in the real world, I really did not want to read about it in my living room.My 75yr old mother and I swap similar books and she read this one before I did. After asking her what she thought about it (and we are Lee Child addicts!)she said it was "okay, but I didn't like what they did to the taxi driver" and after reading it I have to agree. I recently was lucky enough to go to an "Afternoon with Lee Child and his brother" which was a chat a book signing. So, I have just read his brother's book as well which has a similar torture scene depicted and it is kind of putting me off them both - which is a shame as the whole series is truly brilliant.