Rating: 
Summary: VERY clever opening -- ultimately disappointing
Review: I've read all of the Reacher Series. "Die Trying" was my first, and Reacher and the plot intrigued me. I went back and read the earlier one, "Killing Floor," and enjoyed it, too. In fact the first four were well above average for the genre. Reacher is an implausible, comic-book-hero type character. He gets into lots of interesting scrapes and intriguing situations -- always involving a beautiful young lady several years his junior with a very active libido. The books are action-packed but sometimes smothered in detail. The later books (especially "Echo Burning," his weakest) seem even slower and less engaging. My advice is to start at the beginning and read until you no longer want to know what happens next. Yes, I'm through with Reacher. John Sandford, Michael Connelly, Robert Crais, Nelson DeMille, James Lee Burke, Janet Evanovich, Robert Parker's Sunny Randall, and Jeffrey Deaver are keeping me entertained.
Rating: 
Summary: REACHER IS THE HOOK
Review: The latest Reacher novel is similar yet different from the previous six novels. Lee Child is able to write with a flair while using a spare number of words to convey the story. The success of the Reacher series is Jack Reacher. If you like Jack Reacher, you are a big fan of the books. Almost every negative comment about any Reacher novel concerns a particular dislike of the character. Ironically, what some readers dislike about Reacher; his coldness, superman ability and attitude are considered strong points by Reacher supporters. If Child continues to write Reacher novels, the character will eventually challenge Spenser as the top fiction strong man.
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Summary: We know he's a killer, but he's OUR killer.
Review: Jack Reacher is the prototype guy whose military career taught him that it's okay to kill people and hasn't been able to get over it. In real life, we try to throw such psychos in jail. Reacher's saving grace is that he kills only bad guys. Lee Child writes engrossing novels about Reacher, but they're a guilty pleasure because of their premise that it's okay to use a homicidal vigilante to straighten out your problems or misjudgments. This idea is not unique to Lee Child's books, but Reacher seems singularly unaffected by slaughter. In the hands of a less skilled writer, Reacher's amorality would just be a joke. In the current book, Reacher demonstrates his versatility by dispatching a houseful of thugs, using firearms, rocks, neck holds, and chisels. Despite the fatalities, I'm sure that I'll pick up the next Reacher novel, however.
Rating:
Summary: Not the best in the series, but enjoyable
Review: I'm a hugh Reacher fan, testoterone overload and all, but this time around his story wasn't as compelling. It was good, it was interesting, just didn't grab me as usual and take me on that roller coaster ride I've come to expect. I never really came to care about the characters in the story. I only cared about Reacher getting revenge for Dominique. This particular story and other minor tidbits made the story satisfactory to me. Can't wait to see what Reacher does next.
Rating:
Summary: Some people wait for the next Harry Potter
Review: Some people wait for the next Harry Potter, devouring it the moment it appears and then waiting, impatiently, for the next. I wait for the next Jack Reacher. Lee Child does so many things well that I would need many more words than the 1,000 permitted to do them justice, but suffice to say that he is the absolute master of tension and suspense (with or without car chases), he has one of the most interesting protagonists currently in the game, he has a better knowledge of ordnance than Q and he has a highly skilled sense of place, particularly for an Englishman from Cumbria concentrating on the nooks and crannies of gothic, backroads America. PERSUADER finds Jack in a chance encounter with an old enemy. The thrust of the novel then becomes the neutralizing of this enemy through a relationship with an intermediary. Child quick-cuts between the horror of the past and the impending justice of the present, so that we travel two roads, the first appalling in its evil, the second delicious in its payback. The timing is perfect, the execution precise. I wouldn't rank one of Child's books above the others because they are all uniformly strong. He had it right from the beginning and he never disappoints.
Rating:
Summary: JET PROPELLED ACTION
Review: With the publication of his initial Jack Reacher thriller this author made it clear that both he and his protagonist were forces to be reckoned with. Lee Child's early promise is abundantly fulfilled in his seventh Reacher adventure. As readers of earlier works in this series know Jack Reacher is a former Army cop who travels like a turtle - his home is on his back as are his possessions. He has no family, and has made no promises. What he does have is a penchant for facing down big time trouble. A chance encounter on a Boston street more than rekindles memories, it sets them on fire as Reacher sees an old enemy he believed to be dead. It's been some ten years but he hasn't forgotten the one who apparently got away with murder. The jig is now up, and it's time to pay the price. But, what price is Reacher willing to pay for bringing the guilty to justice? Jet propelled action from cover to cover and realistic dialogue propel this can't-put-down thriller. - Gail Cooke
Rating:
Summary: Robert Ludlum in waiting?
Review: I loved "Killing Floor" and have recommended it to circa 100 people by now. But each subsequent Jack Reacher novel has been a disappointment. It almost seems like Lee Child ran out of gas. "Persuader" is not bad but it lacks credibility. Lee Child seems to have set an ambitious pace. He produces one book every year or so. Lee, please slow down. Don't become another Ludlum !!!
Rating:
Summary: Good escapist fiction
Review: See book summary above. Lee Childs' Reacher novels never disappoint me. I agree the main character (Jack Reacher) is not very personable, but he is likeable and he always gets the bad guy. This you know from previous novels and this is also what makes it good escapist fiction. It gives you a good feeling when the bad guys go down.
Fast-paced and a lot of action. A novel you'll finish quickly. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: ALMOST PERSUADED
Review: The indestructible Jack Reacher is back for another adrenaline rush in this well-written entry in Lee Child's series. Reacher is the incredible Hulk without the green skin; he's Superman without the cape; he's Conan the Barbarian for the twenty-first century; he's destined to become a movie star. (Hugh Jackman would be a good choice). At any rate, they don't come much bigger or bolder or tougher than Jack Reacher.
This man continues to be an anchorite, hiding from the world, taking on different jobs that he somehow falls into. This time he's out to nail a man he thought he had killed ten years earlier; a man who cold-bloodedly murdered a woman he cared deeply about---Dominique. The flashbacks to this time work well interlaced with Reacher's current dilemman. He's got the FBI behind him, but "off the record" as the FBI [messed] up when they sent one of their agents in undercover.
I like Reacher, though--even though he's sometimes extremely unemotional, he has his tender moments; I also like the return of Roy Lindell, a character from previous novels, whose presence allows us to see a more human side of Reacher.
This is a punishing book, filled with despair, violence, and some tense scenes. Child uses "Dragnet" like dialogue at times, but it works well in his books.
RECOMMENDED.
Rating:
Summary: Lucky #7 in Reacher series will rocket up bestseller lists
Review: PERSUADER is the seventh entry in Lee Child's terrific series featuring ex-military cop Jack Reacher. This one differs from those which preceeded it as PERSUADER is told as a first-person narrative; which Child's fans may find a bit difficult to get used to at first.
PERSUADER has Reacher rescuing kidnapped college student Richard Beck, held for ransom as part of a drug deal planned by his father, a powerful drug lord. After hearing Richard's account of being brutalized by the thugs, Reacher utilizes his formidable skills and sets out on a one-man vendetta to exact revenge on the young man's attackers. Reacher is somewhat assisted by local cop Susan Duffy, with whom he predictably becomes romantically entangled- which of course leads to her life being jeopardized as well.
Child scores another winner with PERSAUDER, which like all the other Reacher books is well researched, well written with plenty of action and interesting characters. However, there was one scene in the book that actually made me feel a bit queasy (which is a rarity) in which Reacher kills one of the villains by slowly inserting a chisel into his brain. Aiiee! Sure, the guy was a scumbag, but loyal readers will know that in previous books Reacher was a bit more restrained than that. PERSUADER is still a great read and ought to add more fans to Child's large readership. One question, though: When is Hollywood going to make a feature of KILLING FLOOR? There's a definite movie franchise here.
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