Sunday, April 11, 2010

Die Trying, by Lee Child

Die Trying, by Lee Child

This is easily the weakest Reacher novel I’ve read yet. It has all the action and mystery of the others, but the villain’s motivation simply didn’t make any sense to me. Painted as a typical one-dimensional right-wing militia crackpot, the bad guy kidnaps a young FBI agent as insurance against his plot to secede. This never seemed even remotely plausible and Child didn’t sell it well. That said, the initial hook was great, with Reacher an accidental kidnapping victim, and when the FBI starts to investigate they decide he is the ringleader of the plot which makes every character in the book against him. Combined with a mole in the FBI feeding information to the militia (and Child’s tendency in other books to kill off major characters), the suspense grows right to the final showdown. While still thoroughly enjoyable and exciting, I’m still glad this wasn’t my first Reacher novel.

First Sentence:
Nathan Rubin died because he got brave.

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