In Too Deep: A Reacher Novel By Lee Child

A good though somewhat complex story, but I’m still wondering, how much longer old man Reacher can continue with his rough and tumble life style. Maybe Lee and Andrew need to be looking at Major Reachers previous history?

I have been worried that turning the reins of the Jack Reacher franchise over to Lee’s son Andrew would change the hero, but that is not the case here. I was not disappointed at all, and recommend this book to any Reacher fan. Our hero is in good hands for another generation.

Light Spoilers Follow

Reacher is disabled throughout the entire book and is never operating at more than 60% of his operational capacity. The story seemed to be a “small” one at first, both in subject and geography, but it escalates to the kind of problem that Reacher was created to solve towards the end so hang on. He has a sidekick, and both are searching for justice–the courthouse kind–which is unusual for Reacher. Naturally, not killing bad guys the first chance you get can (and does) cause other problems. No good deed goes unpunished. This might be the lowest body count of any Reacher book, but he gets the job done in typical Reacher fashion despite the disability.

The best twist of the book in my opinion is that Reacher who is big AND smart and routinely plays to the bias where people think big guys are all muscle and no brain, completely is blinded to the fact that other big guys can be just as smart. Thus, he unknowingly labors under the same general bias as others. This is a good reminder that we all have a blind spot–even when we know we have a blind spot.

As a recent widow, the thought of romance at 73 is about as impossible as Reacher’s falling into the most impossible situations and surviving. But he just keeps on solving some of the most challenging situations the world has ever had. I confess my most difficult problem was the first person portraying him. His description did not meet my expectation. Like the story lines , the character is more in line with recent actors but an element of romance just makes his stories better but not perpetual violence . I read it today,it’s always captivating to read and conclude with great endings. Stop by some time Reacher😘

The quality has declined markedly since the brother joined the writing team. I like to read series with continuing characters and I’ll keep reading this one but it isn’t what it once was. If you’ve never read a Reacher book, don’t start here.

One Reacher characteristic continues – the erroneous details. Once again we have no mention of a beard although he’s still traveling with a toothbrush and not a razor. Skipping past the subplots that do nothing but make this longer than a short story, we have some confusion about gold. A standard bar of gold weighs 27.4 pounds so the boxes we’re told weigh 50 pounds would contain 2 bars, not 24, The boxes are put on a plane that is small enough that the pilot asks how much the passengers weigh but can transport 720 gold bars. Do the Child’s lack an editor or are they playing a game with their readers?

Te langdradig en teveel uitwijdingen.
Ook veel onwaarschijnlijk heden. Waarom zou reacher zich er in het begin mee bemoeien.
Zeer vreemd

It was slow in the beginning, but with just a few more twists and turns, than usual. A good read though, just like all of them are.

Another joint venture by Lee Child and his brother. Fortunately, this time, a larger part of the actual writing seems to have been done by Lee. His laconic, precise style is unmistakable. Andrew does his best to emulate it, but does not quite succeed. But there is noticeable improvement compared to his earlier efforts.
The story is as satisfying as we would expect, with a few clever twists and interesting challenges for Reacher. All in all it’s a nice book. Recommend especially to Reacher fans.