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Summary: Another breathtaking ride with Reacher
Review: So far, author Child has yet to deliver anything less than a riveting book. Without Fail gives us Reacher in the ultimate urban setting: the heart of the Secret Service in DC. What would, in less capable hands, have been a deadly dull tale of a highly experienced outsider brought in to help the woman in charge of the detail protecting the vice president-elect is, in Child's hands, a fascinating study of how seemingly innocuous pieces of evidence lead from point to point until the reason behind the threats and assassination attempts is revealed.Writing in the spare, tight prose that has become synonymous with Reacher's character--this man who owns almost nothing, lives anywhere, but is not emotionally unencumbered--the plot builds in pitch until it hits a crescendo, literally in the middle of nowhere. Reacher and his associate, Frances Neagley, (former military associate he has called upon for assistance on this job) work together like the proverbial well-oiled machine, and it is pure pleasure to witness how they think, how they deduce, how they calculate odds, risks, plans of action. The author allows the behavior of the primary characters to reveal their inner lives, rather than wasting precious narrative time (and flow) on attempts to explain them from the outside-in. Final words, a half-written letter, the touch of one hand on another all have great import as a result. This is a fine book. Most highly recommended.
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Summary: Did Not Fail!
Review: Mr Child gets better and better. I've read all his novels featuring Jack Reacher and continue to be intrigue. Reacher gets better with every book. I love reading how his analytical mind works and how his confidence in himself and his cohorts never waivers. This is one political thriller that holds you and makes you curious to see what comes next. This book is highly entertaining and is highly recommended. Loved the suspense.
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Summary: Another high octane Reacher novel
Review: I don't know that I read the Reacher novels as much as I am propelled thru them. "Without Fail" is no exception. Lee Child does more with a small cast than just about any writer I can think of. "Without Fail" has that austere, sparse feel that enables the reader to know all the principle characters quite well. Reacher is just a magnificent lead character...a loner, a superbly self-confident avenging arch angel, an idealist with an incorruptible set of ethics...more a presence than a character. With no fixed address and traveling lightly, he becomes a Lone Ranger transplanted in to the 21st century...riding off into the sunset when his mission is accomplished. In "Without Fail" he does (at least temporarily) acquire a couple of Tontos. Impossible to put down, a nifty insider's glimpse of the Secret Service, crisp action, high intensity plot...do not miss "Without Fail." It is Lee Child's best until the next one.
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Summary: NOT UP TO PAR
Review: Lee Child caught my attention with Killing Floor. It is unusual to have a novel become a page-turning story in the first few paragraphs. Since then I have read all of his novels. I was surprised that WithoutFail took nearly 60 pages to even begin to catch my attention. It had it's times of suspense, but overall it wasn't up to par, and the plot was pretty lame. He is still an above-average author, but this book was a bit slow and full of too much detail.
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Summary: Welcome to the School of Suspense
Review: The ancients believed that writers should begin modestly and then work their way through the genres until they attained the skill to attempt the epic form. Lee Child started at the top and he's not coming down from the mountain. His books are marked by a very high and very even level of quality; each can be recommended with equal enthusiasm. He is also one of the hardest working writers in the game, chasing down elusive facts and playing out exotic threads of detail. Check out his riff on the U.S. constitution in WITHOUT FAIL (and the Holmesian homage as Jack explains its importance). And yes, he is an Englishman (from Cumbria), though his subjects, ethos, and protagonist are all American. Like Tim Willocks he is an Atlantic crime novelist, equally at home on either side of the water. For those who may be concerned: relax, they love him in the U.K. WITHOUT FAIL is disappearing from the shelves of British bookstores and Child is commanding major media attention in his homeland. He is big, big, big.
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Summary: Both author and editor need to be beaten.
Review: I have to admit that this book starts off well and does a terrific job of sustaining its momentum throughout the first 80% of the book. Then something goes terribly wrong. The author hands over the writing of the book to a million monkeys pecking away at a million typewriters... Child resolves his mystery with the lamest excuse for wanting to kill a Vice-President ever. It would be like me getting caught knocking over your mailbox when I was a kid and carrying a grudge for thirty years and then deciding to kill your kids for it. It's just that implausible. Readers deserve better and both Child and his editor deserve to be smacked around for the last 20% of the book.
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Summary: Lee Child is dependable
Review: The Jack Reacher novels are one of the best series going right now. The hero is just on the edge of superhuman, but he has the down-to-earth blandness of Clark Kent. A drifter, he is rootless, and yet he has a rich, fascinating history. There isn't a bad Reacher novel (*Echo Burning* is a personal favorite), and *Without Fail* is one of the good ones. Given Amazon's breathless terror of "spoilers," I won't bother with plot details. Check out the editorial reviews for that. I will say that Child does three things here that make this novel memorable. First, he creates a complex thriller plot worthy of the Clancy/Ludlum crowd. Second, he gives Reacher a love interest with great and intriguing psychological complexity and then resolves it in a way that is cruel and true. Third, he provides a thread to the personal side of Reacher's story that has potential to take the character into some new emotional territory. Vague enough for ya? Read this book.
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Summary: The best Reacher yet
Review: This is a good one, placing our hero where you wouldn't expect him to be, behind scenes at the secret service. More a puzzle than an action episode, it is highly satisfying and will leave you wanting more.
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Summary: One Thumb Up (you'll get it after you read the book)
Review: I've read all of the Reacher books and I have to say I put this one up toward the top. I tend to agree with the negative review that The Killing Floor was the most compelling, but Child did that one as a first person narration by Reacher, which makes it almost a different book than the rest of the series. Very interesting that he started the series that way, then switched with Die Trying (of course, Randy Wayne White did just the opposite with his Doc Ford series). In both cases I kinda wish they'd stayed with the original plan. My biggest disappointment with Without Fail was the motivation of the assassins, when finally revealed. And it could have been the timing of the revelation (late in the book) that caused that--established from the get-go I think it would have been more plausible or at least more acceptable. Overall I thought Child did a comparatively better job with levelness of characterization here (is it really valid to talk about character development in a thriller?). Again, the weakest point is with the assassins. Neagley is certainly an interesting creation and Child is missing a good bet if she doesn't turn up again in the future. The plot, too (with a healthy dose of "suspension of disbelief"-right the Secret Service is going to hire some wild man to give them a security audit and when things really get bad the F.B.I. and S.S will happily join arms and skip along to the same tune; wouldn't it be nice?), to me seemed at least on par with and perhaps a bit above Child's other books. The only other complaint I really have is that sometimes Child lets his red herrings lay out in the sun too long and tries to string the reader on a bit too far. But hey folks, we're not talking great literature here-we're talking entertainment and this one certainly did that for me.
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Summary: Jack Reacher Returns "Without Fail"
Review: Jack Reacher, the ex-military cop who travels around the country without real estate taxes or luggage is back! Once again he saves the day without any real base of operations or a staff to call his own. He is just bigger than life and the best fantasy hero yet. Jack's brother, Joe, was a Treasury Dept employee who was murdered on the job. Joe's former girlfriend, M.E. Froelich, is the new head of the Secret Service Detail for the Vice President Elect Brook Armstrong. Froelich is concerned about assassination threats against Armstrong and remembers that Joe had once suggested the only way to check out how good their security was would be hire someone from the outside. Froelich locates Jack Reacher and the story takes off with the suspense as compeling as the previous Jack Reacher books. Jack, as usual, arrives on the job without a change of clothes, but this time he has his dead brother's old clothes to choose from as he begins a working relationship with Froelich that quickly turns into a personal one. The clothes selection lasts about as long as it take Reacher to solve the case. He calls in an old colleague from his military days who just happens to be available to consult on the case. It's farfetched; but it works and the book is a great read. Hopefully Reacher will continue wandering around the United States solving problems and being the central point of books to come.
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