Tripwire: Jack Reacher, Book 3

Jack Reacher is fictional but you'll wish he was real. And on your side. You'll want to learn more about him, too. Read on, friend.

Lee Child can weave an interesting tale about Jack Reacher but may drive readers who are familiar with proper sentence structure and use of punctuation to the brink. I know that’s the case for me. I purchased the entire Jack Reacher series of books after seeing the first season of the series. I never would have read so many of his books if I hadn’t already paid for them. I have often wondered why, with all the money that Lee Child must have brought in from his writing, he can’t seem to afford a staff who will proofread and correct the many mistakes throughout his books. Same goes for his publisher. I held onto hope with each successive book that he might learn something about writing and make his books easier to read. I hoped, with the addition of his brother on the last couple, that the books would improve but seemed to get only worse. Sometimes, 2 whole pages of back-and-forth banter are written with nothing to occasionally let you know who is speaking, so multiple readings may be needed at times to sort it out. I think almost all, if not all, of the pages have sentences with commas where none are needed, periods where commas are needed, clauses used as sentences, and a new paragraph starting from a clause that belongs in the previous sentence of the preceding paragraph. As I said, hard to read if you understand basic sentence structure. There are often times where I wish Lee had done one iota of research to get facts right. I refer to passages in the stories where it was apparent that Lee Child had no experience or knowledge; I guess, more or less, the writing is off the top of his head. Some problems are: 1: He thinks the flashing emergency lights of vehicles in the western states are the same as in much of the New England states (blue on fire trucks and red on police). 2: He didn’t know what the average shoe size in America is actually 10 ½ (stating it as 9) 3: He thinks a large man like Jack Reacher would have what Lee evidently thinks of as a large foot size of 11, instead of something closer to 14 or 15 (I am 6’1” and wear a 13.) I assume Lee has a small foot. 4: Lee has never been near a fast-moving train, thinking there is violent ground movement when the train is even over a mile away and hurricane force winds near one traveling 60 mph. 5: He seems to think that all gas stations and quick marts sell khaki pants and various shirts, packs of socks, and underwear. 6: Jack Reacher can knock anyone unconscious and very often dead with one punch. I can remember only a couple times when it took two. 7: He thinks face bones will “shatter” from a Jack Reacher punch and can knock out a gorilla or even an elephant. Jack also never has injuries to his hand or elbow from such amazing blows. 8: Jack Reacher’s hands are said to be as large as a dinner plate and his fists as large as Thanksgiving turkeys…really? Yes, his books are hard to read for these and other reasons caused by lack of oversight by his publisher and lack of staff. Please, I hope never to find out he has a staff that lets this stuff through. Good storyteller, other than the lack of research on details and no idea as to sentence/paragraph structure.. Rating would be five for the story.Won't buy future books

Story itself is very good. Mr. and Mrs. Stone are important characters in this book but the ending did not let you know what happened to them. That was very disappointing. There is way too much unnecessary detail. Who cares about reading 2 pages of the adding and multiplication of how a bullet is coming out of the gun and spiraling to its target. A page of the shade of green on a map. It actually takes away from the story.

Once again, I have been lured in by the genius of this author. If you’re a fan of Reacher, like me, you’re hopeful he’s going to prevail but the suspense keeps you on the edge. Another winner from Lee Child!

Good story, a bit too long, but exciting read.

Learn much of Army procedures but no graphic sex and yet a sadistic villain getting what he deserves and gets.

Good read I enjoyed lee child books hope he continues to writeIrony like to have to write a story to review every book

At this point the Jack Reacher Formula is very, very well worn. In each novel he has a love interest. In each novel his primary concern is worry about being 'tied down'. Being tied down is the primary conflict between Reacher and his heroine-of-the-novel. The bad guys are all exceptionally cruel, brutal, and utterly lacking in conscience... but that gives them no depth. Real people aren't that shallow, not even bad guys. Real people have delusions, loves, hates and a lot of irrationality - especially the bad guys. And no matter how 'bad' a real bad guy is, he always has some internal justification why what he does is 'right' - maybe not 'good' but certainly 'right'.As a 24 year Army Veteran my opinion is that Child habitually gets a lot of the militaria wrong. The past he supposes for Reacher is more like that of a French Legionnaire of the 19th century, possibly a 19th C British soldier with regards to the 'where' part of the travel. Officers' are rarely out of supervision. Majors are never the direct subordinate of Lieutenant Generals (that's what Colonels are for), and most certainly never, ever, ever, on a first name basis - even in private. Child gets the promotion schema all wrong - and self-contradictory to boot. The most any personnel connection with power, or individual brilliance can get you is promotion 1 year early - because the process is bureaucratic. If you have a personnel file like Reacher does, you don't get cut from service without a voluntary resignation and a lot of paperwork; the file the reduction board would see would be the same the promotion board saw. Sergeants do not do officers' laundry. In fact no one who ever went to the field or any basic field problem would ever fail to know how to do laundry. And officers ranking higher than lieutenant almost NEVER live in the BOQ (Bachelor Officer's Quarters). But if you're not wading in military experience these inaccuracies probably won't distract much.It appears Child has never struggled with rent or travel and hotel bills. Every military guy eventually knows the following because of TDY (Temporary Duty < 180 days) and PCS (Permanent Change of Station > 180 days): Mortgages are cheaper than rent; Rent is cheaper than a hotel; Motels are cheaper than hotels; buddying-up makes all the above cheaper, and camping, squatting, and mooching are practically free. They also know this: Clothes are expensive - even 'cheap' WalMart/KMart/etc clothes. And if you do physical labor your clothes will be ripe in an hour. If you do physical labor and don't wash your clothes or keep changes, then no one will let you into a clothing store because your stench will drive the other patrons away. They also know this: Clothes saturated with sweat will literally rot off your body and fall apart in a few days, and you can wash your clothes the same way you wash yourself - and at the same time. So, while Child describes these of Reacher's characteristics as 'weird' they're not. They simply don't make sense. Buying clothes every day would cost Reacher twice his lodging and at least 1/3d more than his food. Oh... and people who wander around as Reacher does don't buy bottled water much. The markup is too high. They get a water bottle and refill it from the tap - repeatedly. People who camp or actually do 'just wander around' could tell Child this. But if you are urban or suburban, you may not find the reality that 'wandering around, seeing the country' involves a lot of camping by necessity to be a distraction.No, the main problem is that at least the first three novels are the same book. The characters are shallow. The bad guys are cardboard cutouts. The good guys are so spineless and non-reactive that a guy wants to cheer when they earn their Darwin Awards. When Reacher finally gets his hands on the 'Big Bad Boss Man' it is never much of a challenge. If there's no challenge then where's the beef?Reacher's love interest is always beautiful, intellectually smart, but rather gutless and helpless. And Reacher always 'loves' them enough to die for them - but not enough to live for them. He is so afraid of commitment that he always ultimately runs away. Well guess what? There's a word for that: Infatuation - a mental boner without commitment, and that too is shallow. It gets hard to get through a book if you don't identify with the characters. It is hard to identify with cardboard cutouts.By the way... where are Reacher's buddies? His rivals? At 13 years commissioned officer service Reacher would be a very, very new Major, with two years in rank at most. At about 18 he'd be a Lieutenant Colonel. 17 years if he picked up below the zone. If you work in a community that long you'll have a trainload of friends, rivals, and associates. If that time involved a lot of PCS moves (which come every 18-36 months) then he'd have friends, associates, colleagues, and rivals all around the world. Where are they?

My favourite Reacher book. My 3rd time reading it and it's still as good as the first time. Can't wait for season 3 of the TV show. Steve Buschemi as Hook Hobie anyone?

Gripping as always straight from page one until the breath taking end. Lee Child at the top of his game.

Great read and a good twist in the tale.

Great read, typical Child brilliance

This book was a page turner. The action and the dialogue are both crisp. I appreciate the attention the author pays to the minor characters. I especially appreciate the strong female characters. It can be easy to make secondary characters into caricatures or stereotypes. This was definitely not the case in this book. I would read more of the Reacher novels.