Rating: 
Summary: A tale of murder, investigation, duplicity and integrity.
Review: This is a mystery with so many historical and social undercurrents that you must be very knowledgeable about the atmosphere of the times to understand them all. The setting is New Year's Day in 1990 and they are giddy times in Europe. The German people are smashing the hated symbol of the communist conquest of Eastern Europe, the Berlin Wall, to pieces. For all practical purposes, the Cold War is over and the Western democracies are victorious. However, military people who are paid to think ahead are not altogether happy.
The political changes in Europe means that the massive armored divisions the American military keeps in Western Europe are no longer needed. Therefore, the American military needs to drastically rethink and retool in order to be able to respond to the new conditions. As is always the case when there are drastic changes, there are those who are opposed and those who see the opportunity for personal and professional advancement. This climate leads to ruthless actions, and in this case, the trail leads to senior MP Jack Reacher.
A general dies of a heart attack in a seedy motel, apparently in the midst of a dalliance with a prostitute. Reacher is called in to investigate the case, and there are many unusual features. The general went well out of his way for the dalliance and his briefcase is missing. Since the general was involved in strategic planning, the briefcase most likely contained very sensitive materials. The plot quickly thickens when the general's wife and a gay soldier are both brutally murdered. Shortly after that, the commander of the elite Delta force is also found murdered in what presents the appearance of a drug deal gone wrong.
There are many twists and turns to the plot, and the solution is an interesting one in that the culprits are the obvious ones, but the path to the conclusion is not obvious. It involves the army looking after its' own and attempting to avoid scandal, the presence of gays in the military and the politics of military downsizing. It turns out that the motivation for the murders involved all three themes.
As a subplot, Reacher's mother dies in the story. After her death, an old French disabled veteran hands him a box containing material showing a side of his mother that he never knew. She was involved in the French resistance in World War II as a child, posing as the relative of downed Allied airmen so that they could be smuggled out of France and rejoin their units.
This is a gripping tale. I thought I knew who the culprits were early in the book. I was right but wrong about the reasons and the circumstances. Reacher is the ultimate tough guy, able to easily take on veteran barroom bouncers and Delta force members. However, he is also smart and possesses a great deal of integrity. At the end, he sacrifices his rank to protect the memory of a man who sold him out rather than lie.
Rating:
Summary: Retro Reacher
Review: "The Enemy" is Lee Child's eighth Jack Reacher novel - and a prequel to the previous seven. It is New Year's Day 1990, and it is Major Jack Reacher now, an officer in an elite unit of the military police, recently and abruptly reassigned from Panama to acting Provost Marshall of North Carolina's Fort Bird. A visiting General is found dead of an apparent heart attack in a sleazy motel with by-the-hour rates. Not long after that, the same General's wife is found bludgeoned to death in her rural Virginia home, setting the course for an arcane path of treachery reaching the highest levels of the Army. In the search unravel the mystery, Reacher must deal with deceitful Army bureaucrats and Delta Force commandos out for revenge, while grappling with the imminent death of his ailing mother."The Enemy" is more a police mystery than the standard Child suspense/thriller fare, but the results are more than satisfying. While it lacks some of the force and adrenalin of some of Child's earlier works, it does fill in some of the background on Child's reclusive hero. We learn much about his French mother, and in her find clues to Reacher's stoic sense of honor and commitment. Reacher's brother - Joe - is like younger brother Jack in many respects. Conversations between Jack and Joe are about as animated as Lincoln and Washington chatting on Mt. Rushmore. The plot - a rather convoluted tale implying high stakes politicking to determine who's on top in the Army following the inevitable post-Berlin War force reductions - is thin and implausible. But not to worry, for as with all Jack Reacher tales, the plot needs merely to be a passable backdrop in which Reacher can show off his martial and mental talents. In short, "The Enemy" is another fast moving installment from Lee Child, sure to please fans of both mystery and suspense genres.
Rating:
Summary: CSI-Style Crime Solving with a Military Background
Review: "The Enemy" is the eighth book in the Jack Reacher series, but being a prequel, it's still a fine place to begin to cut your teeth on this fascinating albeit terminally unlucky protagonist. It happened to be the first Reacher book that I read and it's been a great primer for the older books in the series.
The book will be of obvious interest to anyone who's into the whole CSI-wherever mania. The backdrop of the U.S. military at the functional crossroads of the fall of the Berlin Wall is an interesting one that I haven't seen explored before in this sort of thriller.
Reacher's experiences in this book also go a long way toward explaining and justifying his cynical worldview and tenacious pursuit of right over wrong that otherwise might seem to be a bit of overkill when considering only the other books in the series. The author made a great choice in providing this prequel as a framework for the rest of his protagonist's life.
Best of all, the book is just plain well-written. The subtle mark of good writing is that its flow makes it virtually transparent to the reader. I find that I have to force my way through so many other lesser authors' stilted verbiage and clumsy narrative; this is not the case with "The Enemy". I've read many other people complain about the rat-a-tat-tat style of brief stream-of-conscious phrases that Child employs. While there probably is too much of this convention in earlier Reacher books, it's not so here. The incomplete thoughts and unfinished observations here only serve to give credibility to the first-person voice he employs.
The story is a true page-turner a la Harlan Coben when he's on his game. While it does lag a bit past the halfway point, the story wraps with a conclusion that is exciting without being over-the-top, interesting without being implausible. It's more than you get from the vast majority of thrillers out there right now.
"The Enemy" is a highly-recommendable piece of suspense/detective fiction and an excellent starting point in the series of Jack Reacher novels.
Rating: 
Summary: Not that good
Review: Have read ever Childs book, liked them all, especially Reacher. This plot seemed a bit convoluted to me. Wholesale transfers throughout the service with a master plan of deceit and deception.
Did not seem plausible to me but I may be wrong. As a result I did not care for the book or the plot.
Rating: 
Summary: Classic Reacher
Review: I have been a fan of Reacher since The Killing Floor - The Enemy definitely lives up to everything you would expect from the monumental workings of Lee Child - in a word - SWEEEEET! I found The Enemy faster paced then the last two in the Reacher series, and full of more twists and turns than usual. Oh - to have more characters like this tough cookie out there - tough, intelligent, sexy as hell - a thinking man. Reacher rocks! I cannot wait to read the next novel up - One Shot.
Rating: 
Summary: Boring Read
Review: I have read all of the Reacher books. I liked them because they were a mixture of mystery and action. This book has very little in action, almost non-existant, and the mystery was far fetched. I struggled to stay awake for this one. I hope his next is better.
Rating:
Summary: Engrossing!
Review: I have read all the Jack Reacher books by Lee Child and was somewhat dubious about what I call a prequel to the current Reacher. Well, I'm no longer dubious. This book works, and is an engrossing insight into what makes Reacher tick. What a great read!
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Summary: Military Malfunction
Review: I like Jack Reacher, but not when he is in the army chasing the murder of a two star general with staff working against him, he going AWOL facing court martial. For the female readers like me the entrenched reading of army details gets very tiresome, and on many pages I find myself bored. What is the twentieth century's signature sound? Lee Child asks. I know the answer, because I was a child in WWii Germany, it's definitely the slow drone of an aero engine in the sky. No, he says, it's the squeal and clatter of tanks tracking on pavements. Not to my knowledge, but what do I know about military life? The language is good but the endless attempts to ferret out who swung the custom made crow bar and why? I am on page 317 now and still clueless. 76 pages more to go in a malfunctioning military environment.
Rating:
Summary: An Excellent, Gripping Read
Review: I picked up Lee Child's The Enemy based on a number of recommendations, but not really knowing what the novel would be all about. The Enemy is an excellent thriller/mystery and I can see why Child's Jack Reacher series has so many followers (but don't understand why there aren't more). This is an excellent, well-written novel, with enough plot twists to keep you interested, some out of left field, some you may figure out on your own, but none that will disappoint. The novel opens on New Years' Eve 1989. Jack Reacher is an MP who has just been reassigned to an army base in North Carolina, and investigates the death of a general in a motel nearby. It looks like a heart attack, but things aren't adding up. Other, seemingly unrelated deaths and Reacher's got to figure it all out. The ending is both satisfying and plausible. Very well done. Enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Alpha male with a conscience
Review: I've read all eight Jack Reacher novels. The Enemy is not the best of the books - that would be Persuader - but if you enjoyed the others you'll certainly like this one also. You know exactly what you want from a Jack Reacher book and you always get it, which is more than you can say for many popular crime series. Unlike the rapidly deteriorating John Sandford or James Patterson books, Lee Child knows that readers like Jack Reacher just the way he started out - an alpha male with a sense of fairness, but no time to indulge in tricky deep character development. The Enemy is a 'prequel' to the other novels - Reacher is still in the army, a young MP and rising star in the elite 110th investigative unit. Being in uniform doesn't seem to cramp his characteristic style that much - he still resists authority and does what he likes in pursuit of justice, helped by the best kind of female sidekick - attractive, talented and emotionally undemanding. The Enemy does not entirely live up to its promises - the falling of the Berlin Wall adds surprisingly little symbolism or color to the book - it's like, in a far off land some wall is coming down, now lets get back to the story here. The plot seems repetitive in the middle, with a lot of driving here, there, back and back again for Reacher to glean obscure clues that he doesn't deign to share. We get interesting insights into Reacher's family, although he seems very flat about some quite momentous discoveries & events. But, that's what he's like, and that's what we like. Reading this book right now (May 04), it's impossible not to wish there were a few real life Jack Reachers - decent guys with a conscience, but tough as guts - to fix matters up in Iraq...
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