Maybe my love for Reacher is as simple as thrilling to vengeance

March 29, 2021 7:54 AM

Brandy Jensen on her year with Jack Reacher: Around this time last year, as it became clear I would have to spend some significant time staying in my apartment, I told myself there could be an upside: I could finally get around to reading all the books I had been putting off for one reason or another. Some neglected American classics, the Victorian doorstoppers I skipped over in school in favor of different Victorian doorstoppers, the less famous Russians. I have not read any of those. What I have read is 24 books about an enormous drifter with comically large hands who is good at dispatching bad people. Related: How Jack Reacher author Lee Child improvises his way through writing.
posted by Cash4Lead (73 comments total)

I could have written the first, linked article. Almost exactly. I picked up my first, Reacher book about a month ago and I’ve gone through eleven of them since. I find them satisfying in much the same way. An easy read about an interesting character with some neat, “Ah-ha” crime solving moments thrown in. They aren’t furthering my intellect but I’ll be a little sad when I finish the last one.
posted by pearlybob at 8:26 AM on March 29, 2021 [5 favorites]

I enjoyed both of those articles. Thanks.
posted by Orlop at 8:34 AM on March 29, 2021

Great pair of articles about people spending time appreciating books, the finished product and the process of creation

The author of the second article spent Sept 1, 2014 to April 10th, 2015 observing author Lee Child write a Reacher novel start to finish.

Some time in January, it started to crystallise in his mind and he gave me the Big Reveal. Looking back at my notes, I see that I said to him, in a tone of mixed awe and horror: “You evil mastermind bastard.” I realised that there was a simple mistake I had been making all along. I had been mixing him up with his hero Jack Reacher. Whereas I now realised what I should have realised long before that he was also every single bad guy he had ever dreamed up. All those fiendish plots were actually his. The role of Reacher was to stop him plotting and for all I know taking over the world. Reacher keeps the author in check.

posted by otherchaz at 8:41 AM on March 29, 2021 [10 favorites]

I've heard the latest one, "The Sentinel", which is a collaboration between Lee Child and his brother, isn't so good.

Otherwise they're so addictive.

In another forum we were comparing them to the Famous Five books. Unaging protagonists. Just wandering around randomly when they just happen to encounter baddies running an elaborate conspiracy. Baddies make the awful mistake of trying to mess with them. Plots that look simple but are carefully put together for maximum suspense.

There's slightly less violence in the Enid Blyton version though.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 8:43 AM on March 29, 2021 [2 favorites]

And Tom Cruise is NOT Jack Reacher.
posted by Pablo MacWilliams at 8:43 AM on March 29, 2021 [27 favorites]

I've previously admitted to my taste in fiction being more focused on quantity rather than quality, in that I'll happily read 8k pages of amateur fiction or self published books. However, the Reacher books are pretty good by conventional standards.

Very episodic, though, if your tastes for bulk run towards the epic rather than the abundant. I don't remember anything carrying between books except the main character, and Wikipedia's list of associates has only a handful that show up in more than one book.

I can't think of anything that quite hits the same itch. Repairman Jack? Or long-running mystery novels series? Long low-brow fantasy series tend to have power creep, but Reacher is always unchanging.
posted by Anonymous Function at 8:48 AM on March 29, 2021 [1 favorite]

Somewhere Child mentions that he modeled Reacher on Travis McGee, which always filled in a lot of gaps for me.
The other observation I read somewhere that rang very true was that the books are exactly one hundred pages too long, which prompted me to realized that is often how I read them, with one eye enjoying them thoroughly and the other thinking he could tighten things up here a bit and there too.

I have a list of those I’ve read so I dont buy them twice - I almost never remember the titles (the one of the ex-special forces soldier who is horribly disfigured and retires to run Oxy in Wyoming? Surprisingly heartfelt and compassionate - for the life of me can’t remember the title) but often the first confrontation, inevitably between Reacher and five-ish bad guys.
posted by From Bklyn at 8:50 AM on March 29, 2021 [3 favorites]

The site insists on my sharing email address or some other account, then wants me to verify same. Is this something that won't bite me?
posted by doctornemo at 8:59 AM on March 29, 2021

The site insists on my sharing email address or some other account, then wants me to verify same. Is this something that won't bite me?

The Privacy Notice is right there at the bottom, like it is on most sites.
posted by sideshow at 9:16 AM on March 29, 2021 [1 favorite]

Anonymous Function, there was at least one story arc which extended over several(?) books about Reacher trying to make contact with a woman.
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 9:23 AM on March 29, 2021

I have to enter my email address to read the first article?
posted by jordantwodelta at 9:24 AM on March 29, 2021 [2 favorites]

Just open the article in incognito mode. 60% of the time, it works every time.
posted by nushustu at 9:26 AM on March 29, 2021 [3 favorites]

I like these and my SO picked one up and loved them. She hot the motherlode in out local Oxfam book shop back when they still had Oxfam book shops and picked up the lot second hand. I have kept picking up the new ones. I think they have been getting pretty lazy over the last half dozen. The new one with his brother was lacking some tightness in the descriptive side of things. I probably picked out a couple of things when i read it that seemed a little different in style but can't remember what they were now.
posted by biffa at 9:37 AM on March 29, 2021

The Privacy Notice is right there at the bottom, like it is on most sites.

Sideshow, I found that. I was asking in case people on this thread knew more.

"like it is on most sites" - hey, thanks for the snark! Haven't had any today.
posted by doctornemo at 9:38 AM on March 29, 2021 [4 favorites]

jordantwodelta had the same problem I did. I wonder how widespread this is, and if it should be flagged in post.

nushustu, it worked for me. Thanks.
posted by doctornemo at 9:39 AM on March 29, 2021 [2 favorites]

Good article, offering a nice mix of analysis with the author's own life.

Short sentences + fighting bullies: that's a very appealing formula.
posted by doctornemo at 9:44 AM on March 29, 2021 [1 favorite]

Short sentences + fighting bullies: that's a very appealing formula.

So is that comment:

Short sentences + fighting bullies: the MCU decoded

Short sentences + fighting bullies: a good way to spend an afternoon

Short sentences + fighting bullies: an unexpected romance

Short sentences + fighting bullies: weekly, on Disney Plus

Short sentences + fighting bullies: a guide to effective legislation
posted by LooseFilter at 9:54 AM on March 29, 2021 [10 favorites]

Years ago, I picked up a Reacher book without knowing its reputation and read the first 50 pages, but then put it down, embarrassed to be wasting my time with a trashy thriller. Later, when I saw the good reviews in high-falutin' publications, I started reading - and enjoying - them. I'll try to trust my own judgement more in the future; there's a place for well-crafted entertainment, and if I'm enjoying it, it's well-crafted enough.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 9:55 AM on March 29, 2021 [5 favorites]

I have to enter my email address to read the first article?

I get a hard-paywall on Defector articles. Are other people able to read them without being subscribers?
posted by 3j0hn at 10:04 AM on March 29, 2021 [2 favorites]

When is the middle-brow genre piece worth high-brow attention?
posted by bonehead at 10:05 AM on March 29, 2021

I haven't read any Jack Reacher, but the idea of intending to delve into serious reading only too stumble onto literary comfort food and decide "Fuck it, life is terrible and these are enjoyable" is super-relatable.

I was gonna read the complete works of Dickens on chronological order during the pandemic, but all I did was binge listen to Big Finish's Doctor Who audio adventures. Not sorry, either.

Given that fondness for a wanderer who goes out in search of trouble, and given that my tv watching habits feature a regular chunk of time devoted to shows about people who need punching getting thoroughly punched, I think I could absolutely get into Jack Reacher.

Great article.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:11 AM on March 29, 2021 [8 favorites]

I've enjoyed the teacher books I read though some where around 6-10 I read some in the wrong order and for those there was some arc that got messed up enough that I'd put them down.

What I really liked was the Columboest digging after things that don't make sense.
posted by Mitheral at 10:22 AM on March 29, 2021

I read them with no shame, but they're definitely the junk food of literature.

Not sure if him not getting shot a million times in the course of his adventures or having women throw themselves at an aging drifter with no plans is harder to suspend disbelief over though.
posted by BrotherCaine at 10:25 AM on March 29, 2021 [2 favorites]

For a see also on middle-brow lit getting respect from critics, maybe Barry Eisler's John Rain series. Everybody loves an assassin protagonist right?
posted by BrotherCaine at 10:27 AM on March 29, 2021 [2 favorites]

I read three or four Reacher books several years ago, when I had some time to kill, and found the premises behind them fairly ridiculous. He's a master of all forms of hand-to-hand combat, simply by having been raised as an Army brat; he's in Dolph-Lundgren-in-his-prime physical condition, simply by having once had a job digging out in-ground swimming pools on Key West (supposedly because they can't have heavy equipment on the island, for some reason); despite having gotten several decorations while an officer in the military police, he was discharged due to a reduction in force; he carries absolutely no luggage with him on his random travels across America, because he wants to travel light, except for a collapsible travel toothbrush; and, of course, he keeps running across these criminal situations that only he, Jack Reacher, can deal with.

And then I figured it out. Jack Reacher is the sole survivor/working specimen of the Reacherverse's Super Soldier program, literally bred for it by the military and so exquisitely psychologically conditioned that he is absolutely unaware of his true nature and accepts without question the above preposterous "facts" about his life and background. His mysterious handlers send him to various trouble spots, sending him messages via the transmitter in his "toothbrush", and while he's working he has no memory of the fact that he spends all of his non-mission time working out. I am absurdly proud of this headcanon.
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:36 AM on March 29, 2021 [31 favorites]

Short sentences + fighting bullies: Metafilter
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:43 AM on March 29, 2021 [4 favorites]

This is me but with Dave Robicheaux books.
posted by dobbs at 10:52 AM on March 29, 2021 [3 favorites]

Reacher just seemed like an off-leash cop in the ones I've read, but I would read the shit out of a version of Reacher who wanders around punching cops and pulling off heists.

(I wonder how much Child draws on Richard Stark. Reacher definitely has something of a moralized Parker about him.)
posted by Not A Thing at 10:55 AM on March 29, 2021 [4 favorites]

Short sentences + fighting bullies: a guide to effective legislation

Alas, the opposite is often a guide to that. Cf Lyndon Johnson.
posted by doctornemo at 10:58 AM on March 29, 2021 [1 favorite]

3j0hn, any luck with your browser's incognito mode?

I still don't know if the site will do anything appalling. But I did wade in to unsubscribe from the emails registration wanted to send me.
posted by doctornemo at 10:59 AM on March 29, 2021 [2 favorites]

I always had the feeling that these books were written by a Brit to make fun of American fiction tropes. They are ridiculous in the same way that the US is ridiculous. They are deadpan comedies. Child, like God, is working to an audience that's mostly afraid to laugh. That's my impression, anyway, and it's how I get my fun from them.
posted by Flexagon at 11:06 AM on March 29, 2021 [9 favorites]

The impression I got from the movie was "Hi, I'm Jack Reacher- all women want me and all men want to be me."
posted by InfidelZombie at 11:16 AM on March 29, 2021

Thanks doctornemo, opening in a "Private Window" in Firefox lets me read the article (without any popups asking for an email even).
posted by 3j0hn at 11:44 AM on March 29, 2021 [1 favorite]

I have never heard of these books but I know the space of just totally binging on reading something pulpy, competent, and unchallenging when there is Some Shit Going on. I spent a couple weeks after my mother died just totally binging on Kim Harrison's "Hollows" books (urban fantasy about a private eye witch in Cincinnati). And on a series of animated videos that went into obsessive detail on How To Properly Finger-Pick Speed Metal. I can't imagine sinking that kind of time into either of those pieces of media otherwise, but there I was, staring at this stuff while my brain quite pointedly did not think about this giant gaping wound in my life for a little while. And while part of it quietly, invisibly thought about exactly that.
posted by egypturnash at 11:56 AM on March 29, 2021 [6 favorites]

My dream casting is still Ron Perlman
posted by OverlappingElvis at 12:07 PM on March 29, 2021 [7 favorites]

Regarding paywalls, if you are a Firefox user (as I am), there's a plug in called "Bypass Paywalls" that works like charm all over the interwebs.
posted by Bill Watches Movies Podcast at 12:16 PM on March 29, 2021 [1 favorite]

I am curious.. Anyone read their share of Reacher, and wish to make comparisons with their experience of e.g. Brunetti or Robicheaux? I'm thinking of the time it took for you to suddenly lose interest in the formula.. I've enjoyed Donna Leon's (Venice) Commissario Brunetti books and James Lee Burke's (Louisiana) Dave Robicheaux series, to name a couple. Did Child's Reacher hold up comparably? I enjoyed a couple of Craig Johnson's Longmire books before the formula sort of collapsed for me.
posted by elkevelvet at 12:18 PM on March 29, 2021

One trick I’ve found for managing prolonged depressive episodes is a dogged commitment to the pursuit of whims. It can be tremendously difficult to convince yourself to do the dishes, or take a shower, or read a book, so when a moment arrives where you feel even the smallest spark of desire to do something rather than nothing you should drop everything else you had foolishly planned and attend to it.

Thanks for the great post, Cash4Lead. I am a big fan of escapist fiction. I think people who are snobbish about it probably don't need that particular flavour of escape as much as and others sometimes do. I loved how the essay was about so much more than the Reacher books and also called BS on the stuff that was nonsense. I've read a fair number of these books and I will read more, as well as similar one by different authors when the need arises. When the need arises, I need a mental escape and these folks often deliver.

I loved Dick Francis books for the same reason but I have read all of the originals more than once. Super formulaic and a reliable read until they weren't.
posted by Bella Donna at 1:21 PM on March 29, 2021 [2 favorites]

I wanted to like these books, but I read 1 1/2 and couldn't get any further. The whole paint in the bathtub thing had so many logical holes. So many.

But: I would love suggestions for other books that scratch this itch for people.
posted by The corpse in the library at 1:25 PM on March 29, 2021

Bella Donna, I can't think of Dick Francis without conjuring images of all the Alistair MacLean novels that used to populate the tabletops and shelves at the house. Thanks for that! My parents were voracious readers of both authors.
posted by elkevelvet at 1:39 PM on March 29, 2021 [1 favorite]

But: I would love suggestions for other books that scratch this itch for people.

Richard Stark holds up really well, because Donald Westlake had the luxury of taking a decade-plus break when he started to lose interest. Ace Atkins' Quinn Colson books are similarly good, probably because, thanks to the Robert Parker estate, he can write himself a mortgage payment whenever he's so inclined. Michael Connelly is hit or miss for me, but Bosch is a great character.

C.J. Box has had quite a run (like Law & Order: SVU, the ripped-from-the-headlines ones are not generally highlights), and Paul Doiron seems to be at the start-to-middle of something good.

Talking Reacher influences, I will note that Lee Child was a tv director in the '80s and '90s--I wonder if they got The A-Team in England.
posted by box at 1:50 PM on March 29, 2021 [3 favorites]

The whole paint in the bathtub thing had so many logical holes.

Was that a Jack Reacher book? It was so fucking creepy! I listened to the book as an audiobook on a flight back to Sweden some years ago. It was free and on the entertainment system and the male narrator used a weird-ass lady voice when voicing the killer's dialog. I had not remembered it as a Reacher book because it may had been the first one. None of the other books I read later contained much mystery. Not for long, anyway.

Recently I picked up something that might have been a short story involving a 16-year-old uber independent Reacher who rescues/meddles in some FBI informant case involving a grown-ass woman and I was just, nope. Not reading it. Don't like the short stories (all hat and no cattle, which works for some but not for me) and, apparently, a teenage Reacher is a bridge too far for me.

I loved Alistair MacLean back in the day. Will probably start another Rebus book soon (have only read the first one). I read one Longmire book and realized the character's codependence (solving the crime/rescuing people despite the dramatic cost to his own health/promises to family/whatever) meant that his self-deluded assholery was intolerable. Like, Reacher is bullshit but he has no family so my brain doesn't give a shit. Longmire has a daughter and apparently my mirror neurons (okay, I know it's not that exactly) simply cannot handle Longmire. I just got more and more resentful of the character as the book proceeded. Your mileage may well vary. (I think individual reader quirks are interesting, which is why I went into so much detail about mine.)
posted by Bella Donna at 2:08 PM on March 29, 2021 [3 favorites]

But: I would love suggestions for other books that scratch this itch for people.

Nero Wolfe
Agatha Christie (but mostly Ms.Marple)
Chester Himes
Elmore Leonard (though not many/ enough recurring characters)
George V. Higgins (also not as many recurring characters but such a brilliant voice)
LeCarre
Len Deighton
And the Travis McGee books by John D. MacDonald (though these haven’t aged well and pretty kinda tediously/repulsively sexist)

At the same time as I read the Reacher books in the same groove as the above the above are all generally simply better. The Reacher books make fine background and there are some sweet set-pieces and the odd clever twist, but I’ve never thought about them much afterwards and certainly not as much as I’ve thought about any of the above authors.
posted by From Bklyn at 2:19 PM on March 29, 2021 [5 favorites]

But: I would love suggestions for other books that scratch this itch for people.

I have a huge soft spot for Richard Kadry's 'Sandman Slim' series.
posted by porpoise at 2:21 PM on March 29, 2021 [7 favorites]

Not exactly in line with these, but eminently readable, with finely drawn recurring characters and beautiful mysteries are the Jim Chee / Joe Leaphorn books by Tony Hillerman.
posted by ZakDaddy at 2:26 PM on March 29, 2021 [3 favorites]

If you've read Donna Leon's Brunetti books you may have loved them for the depictions of family life.. the relative absence of gunplay.. playful insights into municipal politics in Venice.. food stuff.. I will say, I absolutely hit my limit at some point after the 5th book or so and the formula was done for me.

In some respects I found the Inspector Montalbano books to be superior, a little less cute? I highly recommend Andrea Camilleri if you are planning your summer reading.
posted by elkevelvet at 2:27 PM on March 29, 2021 [2 favorites]

I've been rereading the Nero Wolfe books on and off since I was about...eight, I guess. A few things haven't aged well (Stout was a liberal of his time, but since that time was like the 1930s, you can imagine the limitations of that), but they're always comfortable to slip into. As a small child longing for autonomy, Nero Wolfe with his own house and his own rules was a dream to me.
posted by praemunire at 2:43 PM on March 29, 2021 [6 favorites]

Dick Francis managed to avoid the worst parts of formula by seldom repeating hero or setting, there's two pairs of books that use the same character and that's it. Sure, there's some aspect of horse racing that comes into every book, but it can be as remote as a painter who uses the distraction of the city over the Melbourne Cup to break into an art gallery to look for evidence.
posted by tavella at 3:16 PM on March 29, 2021

But: I would love suggestions for other books that scratch this itch for people.

Thomas Perry's Jane Whitefield series.
posted by BrotherCaine at 3:44 PM on March 29, 2021

Wot, no love for Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins books? Come for the mysteries, stay for the soul.
posted by tspae at 4:19 PM on March 29, 2021 [3 favorites]

My dream casting is still Ron Perlman

Before the Tom Cruise movies came out, I was thinking Channing Tatum would be pretty perfect. Big dude with acting chops. Tom Cruise was a ridiculous choice, because he's got the acting chops, but Reacher's massive physical presence is central to his character, and Tom Cruise doesn't have a massive physical presence. Now that I think of it, John Cena would be pretty good as well. Those guys aren't particularly tall, but movie magic can make them taller. Perlman would be good for latter-day Reacher...isn't the character around 60 now?
posted by zardoz at 4:56 PM on March 29, 2021 [1 favorite]

I've read one or two. I can readily believe that he's making it up as he goes along, there were periods esp at the start of the novels which had the smell of riffing. Whatever works.

I would love suggestions for other books that scratch this itch for people.

Richard Stark (aka Donald Westlake).

I wonder how much Child draws on Richard Stark. Reacher definitely has something of a moralized Parker about him.

Quite a lot I should think. Not sure I would say Parker isn't without morals. His first outing against the Organization, all he wants is the money they took from him, no more, no less.

I think Westlake/Stark is the better writer. His opening lines are up there with Rafael Sabatini. Mr Child doesn't quite hit the same mark, at least to my mind. But again- I've not read but two or three, so....)
posted by BWA at 5:14 PM on March 29, 2021 [3 favorites]

I liked the Pendergast series. Would I like Reacher?
posted by a humble nudibranch at 5:25 PM on March 29, 2021

Anyone read their share of Reacher, and wish to make comparisons with their experience of e.g. Brunetti or Robicheaux? I'm thinking of the time it took for you to suddenly lose interest in the formula.. I've enjoyed Donna Leon's (Venice) Commissario Brunetti books and James Lee Burke's (Louisiana) Dave Robicheaux series, to name a couple.

I've spent the pandemic with a digital library card, and I've used it for both Dickens and Lee Child (shorter waiting list for Dickens).

Jack Reacher novels are fun until the violence and conservative politics begin to wear on you. It's comic violence, but still. Definitely Lee Child shares genes with Thomas Perry- both of their books get ridiculously improbable. It's competence porn: you wish if you were riding a bus with just a toothbrush you could stop a secret drug company from kidnapping an entire town or whatever. Maybe everyone secretly wants to throw dirty clothes away and just buy new ones.

Brunetti books are good, but there are dozens of them and there's only so many plots in the universe; it's fine to stop at the first 15. They are much more wholesome than the average procedural since Brunetti isn't a divorced alcoholic loner, and the food is excellent.

Dave Robicheaux also suffers from too many books- the first dozen are really excellent, but both he and Easy Rawlings collect symbolic adoptive children who really slow things down. Arkady Renko also collects symbolic adoptive children, but Martin Cruz Smith has kept the blood in that series for an amazingly long time because the symbolism is tied to the continuing history of the Soviet Union/Russia, and they are worth reading in chronological order.

I am fondest of Ian Rankin's Rebus books.
posted by acrasis at 5:41 PM on March 29, 2021 [6 favorites]

I've read most of the series. The quality is a bit variable but overall they are great escapist fiction.

Not sure if him not getting shot a million times in the course of his adventures or having women throw themselves at an aging drifter with no plans is harder to suspend disbelief over though.

Especially given that he isn't always a frequent showerer or clothes changer and spends most of his time getting sweaty in stressful situations. I'm not saying that there aren't people who would be attracted to that funk, but the books do gloss over some of complications.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:25 PM on March 29, 2021 [1 favorite]

Jack Reacher novels feel calibrated as lunch hour fantasies for characters from The Office.

He's always lingering in a diner. He hates office equipment and phones, and can always get someone to explain them to him or just use them for him. Sometimes he has a hot coworker and has what sounds like utterly boring sex with her after zero flirtation or seduction.

He doesn't like driving but when he is behind the wheel, it's not for any normal commute. It's always the ride of his life, ending with the car skidding to a halt with one tire remaining, a corpse in the trunk, and a carefully chosen pistol in the cupholder.
posted by smelendez at 6:28 PM on March 29, 2021 [5 favorites]

But: I would love suggestions for other books that scratch this itch for people.

Harry Bosch
Virgil Flowers
Lucas Davenport
John Rain et al
Dave Robicheaux
Nero Wolfe

Most audiobooks of the first five are excellent (although the first few HB by Titus Welliver are awful). Eric Conger as Virgil Flowers is particularly marvelous.
posted by pjenks at 7:09 PM on March 29, 2021

I thought Liev Schreiber would make a good Reacher.

My daughter tried reading a couple, and said "they're fun, but he's a sociopath!" I like them in small doses, can't read more than one or two at a time.
posted by DowBits at 8:08 PM on March 29, 2021 [2 favorites]

I'm angry at myself for staying up all night to read my one and only Reacher book. It was the same feeling I get when I open the box for just a couple of Thin Mints and don't stop until I've emptied both sleeves.
posted by RakDaddy at 9:28 PM on March 29, 2021 [1 favorite]

Dream casting: Thomas Haden Church

but only if he's still in good shape, and can act smart
posted by goinWhereTheClimateSuitsMyClothes at 9:33 PM on March 29, 2021 [1 favorite]

But: I would love suggestions for other books that scratch this itch for people.

Try the Gray Man series by Mark Greaney, which is about an assassin with scruples. There are ten, best read in order. Google informs me that the first one is being (or has been) made into a Netflicks movie starring Ryan Gosling, which fits.
posted by carmicha at 9:39 PM on March 29, 2021 [1 favorite]

Mr. Carmicha and I recast Jack Reacher all the time. And whenever we see Tom Cruise we channel Lloyd Benson: I knew Jack Reacher. Jack Reacher was a friend of mine. And you, sir, are no Jack Reacher.
posted by carmicha at 9:43 PM on March 29, 2021 [2 favorites]

Lawrence Block's regular mysteries don't really move me, but he wrote a few books about a sort of everyman hitman that I liked a lot.
posted by box at 4:58 AM on March 30, 2021 [3 favorites]

If you're doing audiobooks, the Will Patton Robicheaux books are fantastic. You do not have to read them in order and though I agree his plots can repeat (even some of his sentences), I honestly think he's become a better writer with time so some of the later books are worth reading over the early ones that have similar plots.

If I was going to start with one, it would probably be Robicheaux from 2018. You can listen to the first 3 minutes for free here and then the next 5 mins after that here. If his writing and Patton's narration don't get you with that opening then you probably will not enjoy his books.

I've only read 2 Reacher books, but to my ear, Burke is a considerably better writer than Child.
posted by dobbs at 9:34 AM on March 30, 2021

(I would avoid the most current Burke book, A Private Cathedral, as I thought the plot absurd.)
posted by dobbs at 9:34 AM on March 30, 2021 [1 favorite]

C.J. Box has had quite a run
posted by box
posted by doctornemo at 10:28 AM on March 30, 2021 [1 favorite]

I liked the first Reacher movie, and then tried an audiobook on a 10-hour drive... phew, the writing seemed pretty bad, or maybe the reader really brought it out. There was this woman Reacher was "courting" and the audiobook described her like.. "She had ... great ...eyes, and she wore a ... great ... shirt." Then Reacher goes ahead and tells her she's got ... great .. eyes. That's all the description u get! My SO and I still laugh whenever we hear the word.
posted by fleacircus at 10:53 AM on March 30, 2021

fleacircus: I've read a bunch and listened to one audiobook. It's much better suited for reading, because the whole point of the style is the propulsive plot. From the original linked essay: "Steady and percussive. Short sentences with minimal punctuation. ... Something happens, followed by something else. ... Lee Child is no poet, but the last thing in the world I wanted was poetry." When you're reading 150 pages an hour, the specific wording doesn't much matter.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 11:17 AM on March 30, 2021 [1 favorite]

Lee's in our social circle and I promise he knows that Tom Cruise was ridiculous casting for Jack Reacher. It was no accident that in the first book out after the movie Lee wrote "He was huge, for a start. He was one of the largest men she had ever seen outside of the NFL. He was extremely tall, and extremely broad, and long-armed, and long-legged. ... His neck was thick and his hands were the size of dinner plates."

I worried that using "Jack Reacher" instead of "One Shot" for the first movie's title would make it impossible to recast, but there's an Amazon series in the works, and they've cast Alan Ritchson, who is 6'2" and imposing – still not 6'5" and 250 pounds but a lot closer.
posted by nicwolff at 1:13 PM on March 30, 2021 [4 favorites]

despite having gotten several decorations while an officer in the military police, he was discharged due to a reduction in force;

Yeah, thats one of the mutable pieces of the Reacherverse...the official story is a RIF, but one or two of the books deal with his departure a bit more closely and make it clear he took down (out?) a superior or two along the way (there is something about the dent in his desk and someone's head) and it was more that Reacher needed to be gone before he became embarrassing- not for his sociopathic methods, but because he's just too darn good at exposing corruption.

It might be retcon, or whatever. Don't ask me which books deal with it - when they pop up as potential ebooks for me at the library I often check them out, excited to have a new Reacher book, only to realize about 40 pages in that I've already read it. They are a satisfying treat but don't stick with me long. Which is nothing against Lee Child - he's found a good formula and is working it for all it's worth, and good for him, there are worse hustles to have.
posted by nubs at 11:04 PM on March 30, 2021

I recommend Robert Parker’s Spenser books if you like Reacher.
They are great writing. More descriptive than Child’s Reacher books. The plots make more sense too. The ones published after Parker died aren’t as good. He had a spare style that others have trouble capturing.
posted by Gadgetenvy at 8:12 PM on March 31, 2021 [2 favorites]

Yeah, thats one of the mutable pieces of the Reacherverse

The best part of the Reacherverse is that it's almost entirely and arbitrarily mutable. The only thing consistent about the character is that he says nothing.
posted by OverlappingElvis at 3:01 PM on April 2, 2021

And that he gets at least one (Gladwellesque explainer|aside about one of Lee Child's favorite musicians|one-night stand with someone who probably has PTSD) per book.
posted by box at 8:04 AM on April 3, 2021 [1 favorite]