Never Go Back, a Jack Reacher Thriller by Lee Child Book Review

Everybody likes the Jack Reacher series. He is the no-nonsense hero of 17 of Lee Child’s action-adventure novels, two of which, including this one, Never Go Back, have been made into movies starring Tom Cruise. Cruise is an improbable pick to play Reacher, but the movies are very good, as are the books. I liked this one better than the last few. The story really pulls you in and the action is non-stop. Reacher, the ex-MP major hitches all the way from South Dakota to visit Major Susan Turner, the new CO of his old unit, the 110^th MPs in DC, only to discover that she’s in jail and some very dark

characters have taken over. Rather than go back out the way he came in and disappear again, (as Reacher would never do) he sticks around, breaks himself and her out of the stockade, and sets off with no money and no resources, not even shoe laces, to take on the entire Pentagon establishment and the FBI.  With Reacher, that isn’t a fair fight. He and Turner travel back and forth across the country to track down a large drug smuggling operation that has been going on right under the Army’s noses. As usual, the action is nonstop and the writing spartan and no nonsense. Lee Child has never seen an adjective he likes or uses. It is all straight nouns and verbs. The only thing that made a big thud with me was the ending. Hiss Boo! I won’t give away plot spoiler, but a big basher like Reacher deserves enemies that rise to his stature, and who he personally bests in the end, not those two guys.

William F. Brown is the author of 8 suspense thrillers with over 500 Five-Star Reviews: Burke’s War, Burke’s Gamble, The Undertaker, Amongst My Enemies, Thursday at Noon, Winner Take All, and Aim True, My Brothers, and The Cold War Trilogy. They are all available on Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, and now on Audible Audio Books. You read about them  and the author’s screenplays and other writing at billbrownwritesnovels.wordpress.com