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A review by ind24
The Hard Way by Lee Child
5.0
The übermenschlich hero of Lee Child's books is a one-man wrecking crew, hurling bad guys into the darkness with breathtaking efficiency. Jack Reacher is this devil, a whirlingly destructive creature, without gravitas. Or, actually , soul. Yes I accept, that one can hardly find, in the entire corpus of the work, a single sentence worthy of independent admiration. But put them together, one by one and page by page, and I am consumed, not by admiration exactly, but by something much more powerful-- the desire, the rage, to know what is going to happen.
In this crime fiction, it all began with someone opening a car door and driving off. Reacher witnesses this innocuous event, paying it little attention while spending time in New York City. When called upon to answer questions about the man he saw, Reacher soon realizes that he may have witnessed part of an elaborate ransom payment. A woman and her daughter have been kidnapped and Reacher is hired by the distraught husband to help bring them home at any cost. While working with his temporary employer, he soon learns of the man’s sordid and criminal past, which may play a role in the larger kidnapping rationale. The further he digs, the less Reacher thinks of this as a simple swap of money for live bodies.
Reacher, almost like in his every other book, applies some combination of tactical brilliance and brute force. The utmost pleasure is in Reacher’s moment of introspection in the millisecond before the action occurs: his silent consideration of the variables of physics, geometry, and psychology that comprise a violent encounter. Just working out the sequence and the angles is a tour de force of split-second calculation.
Love for Reacher is an awkward, weird sort of love. When I am rooting for Reacher I am well aware of the fact that Lee Child has now written more than twenty Jack Reacher novels, this being the tenth in the series. In each, Reacher kills roughly a dozen people—which means, if you do the math, that he’s murdered somewhere north of two hundred people in the course of his lifetime in fiction. All with a fair amount of forethought and deliberation and more than a little relish—he is, technically speaking, a serial killer. He’s not pointing toward a more civilized tomorrow. He’s leading us back into the wilderness, with the reassurance that our psychopaths are bigger and stronger than the bad guys’ psychopaths. He's my hero of lawless fantasy: a world where the institutions of civility would melt away and all we would be left with was a hard-muscled, rangy guy who could do all the necessary calculations in his head to insure that the bad guy got what he had coming.
This tenth installment is a fantastic blend of suspense, mystery, thriller, and a slight touch of romance, all rolled into one amazing story where surprises seem to lurk around every corner. What makes this book extremely interesting is not only the unpredictable plot but also the way the author keeps readers invested in the characters. The suspense and enormous tension are built up throughout the entire story which are sure to keep the readers on their toes, and of course, on the edge of their seats, as well.The prose is clear and concise all through, no place for ambiguity. The writing style is a little odd with short sentences, mostly just stating the facts.
If you’re looking for a book with shocking revelations that keep you turning the pages faster than lightning, then pick up this one. You’ll definitely get a great deal of enjoyment and excitement out of it!
In this crime fiction, it all began with someone opening a car door and driving off. Reacher witnesses this innocuous event, paying it little attention while spending time in New York City. When called upon to answer questions about the man he saw, Reacher soon realizes that he may have witnessed part of an elaborate ransom payment. A woman and her daughter have been kidnapped and Reacher is hired by the distraught husband to help bring them home at any cost. While working with his temporary employer, he soon learns of the man’s sordid and criminal past, which may play a role in the larger kidnapping rationale. The further he digs, the less Reacher thinks of this as a simple swap of money for live bodies.
Reacher, almost like in his every other book, applies some combination of tactical brilliance and brute force. The utmost pleasure is in Reacher’s moment of introspection in the millisecond before the action occurs: his silent consideration of the variables of physics, geometry, and psychology that comprise a violent encounter. Just working out the sequence and the angles is a tour de force of split-second calculation.
Love for Reacher is an awkward, weird sort of love. When I am rooting for Reacher I am well aware of the fact that Lee Child has now written more than twenty Jack Reacher novels, this being the tenth in the series. In each, Reacher kills roughly a dozen people—which means, if you do the math, that he’s murdered somewhere north of two hundred people in the course of his lifetime in fiction. All with a fair amount of forethought and deliberation and more than a little relish—he is, technically speaking, a serial killer. He’s not pointing toward a more civilized tomorrow. He’s leading us back into the wilderness, with the reassurance that our psychopaths are bigger and stronger than the bad guys’ psychopaths. He's my hero of lawless fantasy: a world where the institutions of civility would melt away and all we would be left with was a hard-muscled, rangy guy who could do all the necessary calculations in his head to insure that the bad guy got what he had coming.
This tenth installment is a fantastic blend of suspense, mystery, thriller, and a slight touch of romance, all rolled into one amazing story where surprises seem to lurk around every corner. What makes this book extremely interesting is not only the unpredictable plot but also the way the author keeps readers invested in the characters. The suspense and enormous tension are built up throughout the entire story which are sure to keep the readers on their toes, and of course, on the edge of their seats, as well.The prose is clear and concise all through, no place for ambiguity. The writing style is a little odd with short sentences, mostly just stating the facts.
If you’re looking for a book with shocking revelations that keep you turning the pages faster than lightning, then pick up this one. You’ll definitely get a great deal of enjoyment and excitement out of it!