Rating: 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.
Rating: Summary: disappointing Review: This is the first book by Lee Child that I have read. Although the plot was quite intriguing in the beginning, it soon fizzled out as the novel went on. There could have been a lot more character develpment especially where Reacher was concerned. Although I am aware that this is a 6th Reacher novel, as a first time reader i was hoping to get a good feel for the character and develop a connection to him. I did not. He seemed very 2 dimensional without much depth of character. I love excitement and unexpected twists in a book, and sadly I didn't find that here. It was rather difficult to get through. By the time i got near the end of the book, I really didn't care "who-dunnit". In a word...boring!
Rating: Summary: This Book Sucks Review: This is the last Lee Child book I buy in hardcover. His main character has dialog that makes Star Wars look like Citizen Kane. The plausibility of the plot is near zero. After Killing Floor (truly an amazing novel), all of Lee Child's books have been a disappointment - and not in a relative sense. Avoid this.
Rating: Summary: Bad Guys Almost Won Review: This mystery is written with intelligence, knowledge and compassion. The bad guys have a reason to be bad. Of course they overdo it. And the good guys are very human, not robot or killing machines.At the center is Brook Armstrong, newly elected Vice President waiting for the inauguration. And then arrives a threatening letter, intercepted by the Secret Service. Stuyvesant, the leader for the job of finding those who keep threatening Armstrong, puts M. E. Froehlich in charge. At age 35, she is a seasoned investigator. But she does accept the help of former agent Jack Reacher and his helpmate Neagley; she is now a private detective. The human factor is Froehlich who used to be in love with Joe, Ranchers older brother. But Joe dumped her some years ago and is now dead. But his brother Jack looks and acts too much like Joe for Froehlich to ignore it. The threatening letter keep coming in. How are they delivered? Should they be taken seriously? Who on earth could have sent them? Slowly the mystery unravels while Armstrong gets ever closer to getting killed. It is a good book, not your usual sloppy potboiler. I recommend it for relaxation.
Rating: Summary: Fine 6th Jack Reacher -- Secret Service thriller !! Review: We have read the entire Lee Child / Jack Reacher series, so obviously we enjoy these action packed thrillers about nice guy, smart guy, ex-MP Reacher. "Without Fail" is no exception, and a fast start -- a near-miss assassination attempt on Vice President-elect Armstrong -- soon leads the Secret Service to haul in Jack to act as a consultant and help them try to penetrate their security surrounding the veep so that they can plug any loopholes. Using an old Army friend, tough gal Frances Neagley, and teaming up (after hours as well!) with M.E. Froelich, who heads the responsible SS security team, Reacher is soon puzzling over hand delivered messages and video tapes before the more proactive action gets things heated up. That Froelich is an ex-lover of Jack's now deceased brother Joe only adds to the intrigue and gets Jack more involved emotionally than usual. Before it's over, a wild movie-like SUV chase out in Montana snow country finally leads to the real perpetrators. And who will get who in the end?
The Reacher series is loaded with clever plots, non-stop action and thrills. Rarely a dull moment keeps paging turning quickly; and Child's satisfying endings, often involving vigilante justice on the part of our hero to set things straight, rarely fail to please. While the premise of this one seemed a little less plausible than his other novels, Child's inside look at the Secret Service served as a good foil for Reacher. We wouldn't mind seeing more of his sidekick Neagley in future books; and as usual, this story just leaves us anxious for the next Jack Reacher outing!
Rating: Summary: Excellent Review: We need more Jack Reacher types in this country since the younger generation turning out to be a bunch of sissies. After reading this book, Lee Childs became another one of my favorite writers. If you like suspense this is a must read
Rating: Summary: THIS IS THE BEST IN THE "JACK REACHER" SERIES!! Review: When Lee Child wrote the KILLING FLOOR several years ago, I new that his first novel was so well written that it was going to be a difficult book to surpass. Though I continued to buy his novels in hardcover whenever they came out, I found myself more disappointed than amazed at their quality. ECHO BURNING won me back over and made me eager for the next one in the series. I'm extremely happy to say that Mr. Child's newest novel, WITHOUT FAIL, is the best in the "Jack Reacher" series. Not only did the author manage to grab my attention in the first chapter, he kept me anxiously reading during a day-and-a-half period of time while I was at the bus stop, during my breaks at work, and into the wee hours of the morning at home as sleep beckoned me. I finished the book with a big, silly grin on my face, saying a silent "thank you" to Mr. Child for writing such an excellent novel and for providing so much fun. WITHOUT FAIL brings Jack Reacher back as a private consultant to the United States Secret Service. A serious threat has been made against the newly elected Vice President, and the head of his protection detail, M.E. Froelich, believes that there's a possibility the threat is coming from inside the Service. She uses her previous relationship with Jack's late brother, Joe, as a lure to get our ex-military policeman to help her investigate the threat and hopefully to prevent the Vice President from being assassinated. Jack, knowing that two heads are better than one, calls in his own Army friend, Frances Neagley, to assist him in tracking down the potential killers and to watch his back. Together, they quickly begin to find flaws in the protection detail around the Vice President and realize that there's no way they can actually stop someone from killing the government official. Their only course of action is to anticipate the moves of the would-be assassins and to attack first. What Jack doesn't anticipate, however, is that he will fall in love with his dead brother's former girlfriend, which only adds to the problems he has to solve before the bodies start piling up. Though WITHOUT FAIL is low on action, the story line more than makes up for it with its multi-layers of suspense that keeps the reader speculating as to whether or not the threat to the Vice President is coming from within or outside of the Secret Service. We also learn more about Jack's brother, Joe, and their relationship with each other. Jack comes alive in ways that make him seem more human and gives us a greater understanding of why he's such a loner. With an inside look at how difficult it is for the Secret Service to protect a politician, WITHOUT FAIL delivers in every way, leading us to an ending that will satisfy even the harshest of critics. If you enjoyed the other "Jack Reacher" novels, then you're going to love the newest edition to the series.
Rating: Summary: Reacher is Unstoppable!! Review: When Reacher is hired to review security measures for the Vice President (In a most unorthodox way) Reacher fans know that they're in for a wild ride! Between working with the secret service, fending off assassins, and falling in love with his late brothers ex-girlfriends, this book packs enough twists and turns to have a die hard fan screaming for more. For new readers, I suggest starting at the beggining of the series, but you'll still be able to grasp the concepts of this book if you don't. Enjoy!!
Rating: Summary: Another awesome adventure by Child Review: When the newly elected Vice President's life is threatened, the Secret Service runs to nomadic soldier-of-fortune Jack Reacher (Echo Burning, 2001, etc.) in this razor-sharp update of The Day of the Jackal and In the Line of Fire that's begging to be filmed. Why Reacher? Because M.E. Froelich, head of the VP's protection team, was once a colleague and lover of his late brother Joe, who'd impressed her with tales of Jack's derring-do as an Army MP. Now Froelich and her Brooks Brothers-tailored boss Stuyvesant have been receiving a series of anonymous messages threatening the life of North Dakota Senator/Vice President-elect Brook Armstrong. Since the threats may be coming from within the Secret Service's own ranks-if they aren't, it's hard to see how they've been getting delivered-they can't afford an internal investigation. Hence the call to Reacher, who wastes no time in hooking up with his old friend Frances Neagley, another Army vet turned private eye, first to see whether he can figure out a way to assassinate Armstrong, then to head off whoever else is trying. It's Reacher's matter-of-fact gift to think of everything, from the most likely position a sniper would assume at Armstrong's Thanksgiving visit to a homeless shelter to the telltale punctuation of one of the threats, and to pluck helpers from the tiny cast who can fill the remaining gaps because they aren't idiots or stooges. And it's Child's gift to keep tightening the screws, even when nothing's happening except the arrival of a series of unsigned letters, and to convey a sense of the blank impossibility of guarding any public figure from danger day after highly exposed day, and the dedication and heroism of the agents who take on this daunting job. Relentlessly suspenseful and unexpectedly timely: just the thing for Dick Cheney's bedside reading wherever he's keeping himself these days. Book-of-the-Month Club/Literary Guild/Mystery Guild selection; author tour
Rating: Summary: The Day of Jack Reacher Review: While Frederick Forsyth's "The Day of the Jackal" is the classic assassination thriller, Lee Child hits another home run with "Without Fail", a page turner with all the technical accuracy of `Jackal" and the extra dose of adrenaline one would expect from Lee Child. Child's hulking loner Jack Reacher certainly has the mind of an assassin, and in "Without Fail", he is contracted by Secret Service agent M.E. Froelich to audit the security for the Vice President of the United States, the target of a threatened assassination. Froelich happens to be the former lover of Reacher's older brother, Joe, the former Treasury Department agent killed in action years before. What follows is an extremely credible portrayal of the US Secret Service and the challenges they face in protecting the holders of our highest public offices. As with all Child/Reacher novels, this one is well researched rich in detail. But just as the detail begins to hint at tedium, Child metes out another measure of plot twist, keeping the reader anxiously waiting for the next installment. Lee Child is a true student of pace, understanding the fine balance between plot development and action. Reacher's no-nonsense perspective on justice, crime and punishment is faithfully intact, but in "Without Fail", we meet Reacher's female equivalent, the formidable and lethal Frances Neagley, an ex-Army buddy of Reacher's. Like Child's hero, this is an austere, blunt, and powerful novel, ultimately predictable but never disappointing along the way. Entertainment in print simply does not get much better than this.
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