61 Hours, by Lee Child

This Reacher novel has a new gimmick, but one that doesn’t work all that well. An omnipotent countdown runs throughout the novel (hence the title), with most chapters ending on a sentence like, “Thirty-seven hours to go.” I think the idea was to build suspense, but it felt artificial and forced to me. I also thought the identity of the inevitable traitor was entirely too obvious—usually Child does a much better job of obscuring this sort of thing.

That said, I quite enjoyed it. The main puzzle was interesting and the long-distance relationship Reacher builds with the new commander of his former unit hinted at a fascinating new ally in future books. The ending brought another first to the Reacher novels: a cliffhanger. Considering the next book has already been released the fate of Reacher isn’t in doubt, but how he escapes...

First Sentence:

Five minutes to three in the afternoon.