A Review By Keith Smith

Suicide bombers are easy to spot. They give out all kinds of tell-tale signs. Mostly because they’re nervous. By definition they’re all first-timers.

There are twelve things to look for. No one who has worked in law enforcement will ever forget them.

New York City. The subway, two ‘o’ clock in the morning. Jack Reacher studies his fellow passengers. Four are OK. The fifth isn’t.

Well, the jacket blurb got my attention. I had never read any Lee Childs before. I wanted some easy bed-time reading, so despite its more than 500 pages I gave it a go. And was I pleased! It was dark, fast-moving, up-beat, and very ‘Raymond Chandler’ish. The hero Jack Reacher is a larger than life character in the Mens Action Story style, quick on the uptake and full of one-liners. Here’s a quick sample…..

FBI, I thought, closer to cops than paramilitaries. They didn’t show me ID. They just assumed  I knew what they were.

‘We need to talk to you’ the left-hand guy said.

‘I know’ I said.

‘How?’

‘Because you just ran through traffic to get here.’

‘Do you know why?’

‘No idea. Unless it’s to offer me counselling because of my traumatic experience.’

The guy’s mouth set in an impatient scowl, like he was ready to bawl me out for my sarcasm. Then his expression changed a little to a wry smile and he said ‘OK, here’s my counsel. Answer some questions and then forget you were ever on that train.’

‘What train?’

When I said larger than life, I meant sometimes unbelievable. But then that’s all part of the fun, just as it is in James Bond. For the duration of this adventure, you can suspend disbelief, and really go with the flow..the fast, very fast plot, the archetypal American characters, the dark streets, the violence, and the underlying humour. Is it tongue-in-cheek? Possibly, possibly not. But then Lee Childs is, I found, and was astonished, from Coventry. A local writing American cop novels, up with the very best of them. Amazing!