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The Jack Reacher Thread

Monkeyboy

By Monkeyboy
in Arts & Literature

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hughes

hughes

Posted
Posted

Oh yeah. My biggest "what the..." moment with that book is

An anecdote about a soldier being raped and murdered in prison, it references a coroners report that in one night he was raped 50 times and had several pints of semen in his stomach. I mean why stop there, why not a million times? Why not a gallon?

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Monkeyboy

Monkeyboy

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Getting back into these now. Just finished the fourth one, The Visitor.

Book and Jack Reacher film spoiler...

The central mystery is kind of similar to the Jack Reacher movie (based on One Shot), except it's multiple murders in a bath full of paint rather than a rapid execution of five people with a sniper rifle.

Again, thanks to the Kindle search, we can get the full lowdown on how many heads were nodded, and how many shoulders were shrugged throughout the course of the story.

The Visitor
Page count: 502
Nodding of heads: 445
Shrugging of shoulders: 124

Massive head nod count for this one.

2
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Monkeyboy

Monkeyboy

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The only ones I haven't enjoyed were "The Visitor" and "Without Fail".

Agree about The Visitor. I'm reading Echo Burning now, and already I'm enjoying it a lot more. The Visitor just seemed so long winded, with hardly any action. Part of the central mystery I figured out quite early in the book as well.

I think my favourite so far has been Die Trying.

The stuff with the sniper rifle is all sorts of amaze.

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Plissken

Plissken

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Posted

Echo Burning is one of my favourites. The whole Reacher thing works when it is confined to a small space out in the middle of nowhere and the nearest police are an hour away. I think it is what makes 61 Hours, Worth Dying For and Nothing To Lose work so very well.

Lee Child is doing a brief signing tour.

September 15, 2013

Bloody Scotland

5:00 PM

Bloody Scotland Int’l Crime Writing Festival

Lee in conversation with Peter Guttridge

Albert Halls, Dumbarton Rd

Stirling, Scotland FK8 2QL

Tickets: Available in person, by phone (01786 27 4000) or email ONLINE

Info: Bloody Scotland

September 17, 2013

WHSmith

12:30 – 1:30 PM

5/7 Foregate Street

Chester, UK CH1 1HH

Tel: 01244 321106

Waterstones

7:00 PM

91 Deansgate

Manchester UK M3 2BW

Tel: 0161 837 3000

Tickets: £5 or £3 with Waterstones card

waterstones.com

September 18, 2013

BBC Breakfast

8:15 – 9:15 AM

BBC1

bbc.co.uk/programmes

WHSmith

12:30 – 1:30 PM

3/7 Lands Lane

Leeds, West Yorkshire

UK LS1 6AW

Tel: 0113 242 2505

The Simon Mayo Show

6:00 – 6:30 PM

BBC Radio 2

The Simon Mayo Show

September 19, 2013

WHSmith

12:30 – 1:30 PM

56 High Street

Guildford, Surrey

UK GU1 3ES

Tel: 01483 576217

September 20, 2013

WHSmith

3:00 – 4:00 PM

Terminal 3

Heathrow Airport

Tel: 020 8759 6536

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Mercury

Mercury

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Posted

Echo Burning is one of my favourites. The whole Reacher thing works when it is confined to a small space out in the middle of nowhere and the nearest police are an hour away. I think it is what makes 61 Hours, Worth Dying For and Nothing To Lose work so very well.

Echo Burning and Nothing to Lose are my two favourites for the reason you highlight. They obviously aren't realism heavy to start off with but it makes it more obvious when he is in somewhere like New York.

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Monkeyboy

Monkeyboy

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Didn't realise there was a new one out! Not that it matters. I only finished book 10 (The Hard Way) a while back, which I thought didn't go anywhere for the longest time. It was an interesting set up, a lot of padding in the middle, and then an action scene at the end, which basically amounted to Reacher...

opening a barn door, running around the other side of the barn, then blowing the bad guy's head off when he came out to see who had opened the door! It was like some early 90s FPS!

Anyway, anyone read the John Puller books by David Baldacci? Total rip off of the Reacher character, but still quite enjoyable.

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JoeK

JoeK

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Well, after an age I got around to watching the film yesterday. Enjoyed it a fair amount and thought it worthwhile to give the book(s) a go...

 

Definitely not the usual thing I read, but it's great :) . Can't put it down at the moment!

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Monkeyboy

Monkeyboy

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I'm about 75% through Gone Tomorrow, which is now building towards the climactic action scene. I do think later Reacher books seem a bit flat. You get a fair amount of action at the beginning, then a huge amount of meandering with little to no action, and then a big scene or two near the end. I don't know why Child's middles seem to have gotten so flabby. I'm sure they used to be more interesting.

 

Oh, and Child has found a new word!! Along with nodding, and shrugging, people seem to "hustle" down the street a lot. :)

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Ork1927

Ork1927

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By chance I forgot to take a book for the bus this morning - grabbed a paper and found Lee Child was doing a talk in Waterstones this evening.

 

So, a very interesting hour q&a covering Tom Cruise (nice guy/done a good job bar his size/he reckons he could have blocked the casting, but didn't think it was a big deal/now it's been a nightmare dealing with the 'shitstorm'); 

 

The freedom and limitations of writing Reacher.

 

His process - my question was how long it takes him to write each book (80/90 working days).

 

His Reacher short stories are being collated into a single book plus a new one he has got to write by the end of this year.

 

And I know the name of the last book and how it ends (maybe).

 

Was going to ask for Night School for Christmas from the wife, but now I have a signed copy in my hand.....

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Plissken

Plissken

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Finished it.

 

Spoiler

Total number of people killed by Reacher: 1

Which tells you what you need to know.  It is an interesting plot, but the big mystery is solved halfway through and then it becomes a character-based story.  Quite well written, in that you care about what happens.

 

Also: There is a huge massive plot hole.  I think Child was aware of it, but couldn't work a way around it at all.

 

Spoiler

The whole thing falls apart if just one character at any time walks through the open back door of the laundromat.

 

 

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