Book Review - Bad Luck and Trouble by Lee Child
Category Book Review
I *finally* got to the top of the hold list for the latest Lee Child novel, Bad Luck and Trouble. While I enjoyed the further adventures of Jack Reacher, this one didn't quite grab me as much as the earlier ones...
As usual, Reacher is drifting from place to place, carrying nothing more than his passport and a toothbrush. When he goes to an ATM to get some cash, he notices that the balance is $1030 higher than it should be. Reacher deduces that it's not a fluke, and that it is really a request for assistance, a 10-30 in police call code. He tracks the deposit down to a former special investigator team member, and thus starts on a mission that reunites him with his former colleagues. But not all of the team is represented, as four of the original eight have been murdered and/or are missing. As the team reassembles, others are waiting and watching the group, for reasons not clear in the beginning. As the fates of the missing team members are discovered, Reacher has to figure out what they might have known that cost them their lives. All they have to go on are seven pages of a spreadsheet with seemingly random ratios. When they actually *do* figure out the meaning of the numbers, avenging the deaths of their friends becomes secondary to what really needs to be done.
This installment of the Reacher story has more background and color about Jack than any other previous novel. From that standpoint, it was great to learn a bit more about what drives and motivates him to live the lifestyle he does. I think the initial "gathering of the team" took a bit longer than I expected, and as such the story seemed to stall out a bit early on. Once they connected the dots and figured out what was up, then I was hooked and had to finish it up before I did anything else. But I didn't have the normal "must keep reading" feeling from page 1.
Regardless, it's still a good novel, and Reacher fans will enjoy it. And it's good to know that Child is already hard at work on the next one...
I *finally* got to the top of the hold list for the latest Lee Child novel, Bad Luck and Trouble. While I enjoyed the further adventures of Jack Reacher, this one didn't quite grab me as much as the earlier ones...
As usual, Reacher is drifting from place to place, carrying nothing more than his passport and a toothbrush. When he goes to an ATM to get some cash, he notices that the balance is $1030 higher than it should be. Reacher deduces that it's not a fluke, and that it is really a request for assistance, a 10-30 in police call code. He tracks the deposit down to a former special investigator team member, and thus starts on a mission that reunites him with his former colleagues. But not all of the team is represented, as four of the original eight have been murdered and/or are missing. As the team reassembles, others are waiting and watching the group, for reasons not clear in the beginning. As the fates of the missing team members are discovered, Reacher has to figure out what they might have known that cost them their lives. All they have to go on are seven pages of a spreadsheet with seemingly random ratios. When they actually *do* figure out the meaning of the numbers, avenging the deaths of their friends becomes secondary to what really needs to be done.
This installment of the Reacher story has more background and color about Jack than any other previous novel. From that standpoint, it was great to learn a bit more about what drives and motivates him to live the lifestyle he does. I think the initial "gathering of the team" took a bit longer than I expected, and as such the story seemed to stall out a bit early on. Once they connected the dots and figured out what was up, then I was hooked and had to finish it up before I did anything else. But I didn't have the normal "must keep reading" feeling from page 1.
Regardless, it's still a good novel, and Reacher fans will enjoy it. And it's good to know that Child is already hard at work on the next one...
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