One Shot

May 23, 2005
The final sentence of Child's ninth suspenser (after The Enemy
)—"Then he could buy a pair of shoes and be just about anywhere before the sun went down"—is quintessential Jack Reacher, the rugged ex-army cop who practically defines the word "loner" and kicks ass with the best of 'em. In the book's gripping opening, five people are killed when a shooter opens fire in a small unnamed Indiana city. But when ex-infantry specialist James Barr is apprehended, he refuses to talk, saying only, "Get Jack Reacher for me." But Reacher's already en route; having seen a news story on the shooting, he heads to the scene with disturbing news of his own: " done this before. And once was enough." Nothing is what it seems in the riveting puzzle, as vivid set pieces and rapid-fire dialogue culminate in a slam-bang showdown in the villains' lair. (And what villains: a quintet of Russian émigrés, the stuff of everybody's worst nightmares, led by a wily 80-year-old who makes Freddy Krueger look like Little Lord Fauntleroy.) As usual, Child makes the most of Reacher's dry wit, cut-to-the-chase psychology and stubborn taciturnity—in short, this is a vintage double play for author and leading man. Agent, Darley Anderson
.

February 1, 2005
Accused of five murders in what looks like an open-and-shut case, the bad guy fires his last shot: he wants to speak to Jack Reacher.

Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2005
Jack Reacher has been doing his best to live off the grid, but his past as a military policeman keeps coming back to bite him. This time the biter is a former Gulf War sniper accused of killing six civilians in an unnamed Heartland city. Despite mountains of evidence, the accused claims he's innocent and says enigmatically, "Get Reacher." But why? Reacher, it turns out, has every reason to want the man convicted. Soon enough, though, Jack finds himself working for the defendant's attorney, who happens to be the DA's daughter. As he did in last year's " The Enemy" , Child combines detail-building procedural style with an all-systems-go thriller narrative, but this time the mix doesn't quite emulsify. In " The Enemy" , the procedural elements held our interest, but this time we feel like Child is keeping the reins on his story, like a jockey rating a horse that's begging to run. Child finally uses the whip--and the finale is a doozy--but it's a bit too little too late. Still, even a slightly off-stride Reacher can run away from most of the competition in the thriller sweepstakes. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)

October 3, 2005
While reader Hill has proven himself to be an all-purpose narrator with a 200-plus audiography, his specialty is interpreting suspense and crime fiction like this bullet-paced thriller. Written lean enough to make Hemingway seem chatty, the ninth novel to feature the resourceful ex-military cop Jack Reacher begins with a bare-bones description of an unemotional sniper prepping for and carrying out a mass slaying in the business area of an unnamed Indiana city. The killer's dispassion is chilling, and Hill, who has narrated the author's previous titles, matches the mood with an objectivity that raises the goose-bump level even higher. When Reacher, one of fiction's more reticent heroes, arrives on the scene, Hill provides him with a brusque, confident, properly manly voice, but adds a note of wariness that subtly suggests the adventurer's cynical nature. This tops a gallery of smart audio portraits, each with his own identifiable accent. Child has purposely designed the novel to move forward unfettered by stylish flourishes, and Hill follows that plan, concentrating mainly on increasing the pace as the story speedballs to its satisfying conclusion. Simultaneous release with the Delacorte hardcover (Reviews, May 23).

Starred review from March 15, 2005
When a sniper coolly picks off five victims in Indiana, forensic evidence points incontrovertibly to ex-army man James Barr, who denies his guilt and calls for Jack Reacher -an odd choice given that the former MP investigated a similar crime committed by Barr in Kuwait 14 years earlier. Then just hours after being jailed, Barr inadvertently disses a fellow inmate, is beaten into a coma, and suffers amnesia, complicating the case. The more Reacher investigates, the more removed he finds Barr to be from the crime. Both the evidence and the police chief are too perfect, and a puppet master who will sacrifice innocents to remove Reacher from the scene seems to be pulling the strings, with help from an inside man. Child has written another taut thriller with plot twists and tension to the very end; fans will be torn between reading slowly to prolong their pleasure or skimming quickly to see how Reacher makes it out alive. Superlative suspense fiction by a master. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 2/1/05; see Q& A with Child on p. 70. -Ed.] -Michele Leber, Arlington, VA

Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.