Former British TV producer turned bestselling author Lee Child has never been more popular. With the “Reacher” TV series into its second season (and a third on the way) vast new audiences have discovered the compelling series of novels, which are now up to 30, with more on the way. It’s not difficult to see why. Jack Reacher is a simple man, living off the grid. He has no home, no car, no possessions other than a toothbrush, a passport, and the clothes on his back — which get thrown away on a regular basis, their replacements purchased at thrift stores.
Although tortured and complicated heroes make for interesting reading, there’s something to be said for the no compromises simplicity Reacher brings. Each novel in the series is essentially the same: Reacher hops off a bus in Nowhereville USA, encounters a problem, which quickly turns deadly and spirals out of control. There’s no shortage of action — Reacher can punch, kick and shoot his way through 400 pages with the best of them — but he also has a keen eye for minutiae, a calculating brain, and a willingness to take as many calculated risks as necessary to get the job done.
Which brings us to “The Affair,” aka Reacher #16. This one is a prequel novel, set back in the late 1990s. Reacher is still a major in the US Army, a military cop who has yet to become the roaming nomad we’ve come to appreciate. Sent to — you guessed it — a small town, the only purpose of which is to service the needs of a nearby army base, Reacher teams up with the local sheriff in order to investigate a string of murders which may be more than they seem (because they always are). Unlike most Reachers, “The Affair” is written in the first person, putting the reader inside the protagonist’s head. Child’s dialog and prose is as crisp and razor sharp as ever, and after a slow burn setup, the book takes off and never looks back. I blazed through the second half in under a day, as the stakes continued to mount. Child is a master of misdirection, and throws in red herrings, twists and turns liberally, all leading up to an ending that I didn’t see coming.
The change in style isn’t a detriment at all. The first person narration works every bit as effectively as the typical third person that’s employed in most of Child’s novels. With the majority of books in this series, we already know on page one how the book is going to end — the villains either behind bars or dead, and Reacher back on the road, with the status quo basically restored. In this case, we’re getting something slightly different: an up close look into the reasons why Major Jack Reacher became plain old Jack Reacher, transitioning from a career working for Uncle Sam to the wandering hobo-like ronin of the main line of books.
If mostly fast paced, well thought out thrillers are your jam, “The Affair” is well worth your time. As for me, no sooner had I put the book back on the shelf than I was taking down #17 — “A Wanted Man,” which takes us back to the main chronology of the series. Time spent in Reacher’s company is rarely wasted.
