One Shot: (Jack Reacher 9)

This is the first time I have read any of Lee Child's books and I have to say I am really impressed. I assumed as this was made into a film that it would be the introduction to Jack Reacher. I found out that Lee Child tends to write his books as a standalone and jumps backwards or forwards in Reacher's life and every story could be self-contained, so I am not worried about buying them in publication date order. As a first book I was a little intimidated as it is 495 pages of medium size print. As a compliment to Childs style the pages seem to fly by. I am a slow reader and I was on page 300 before I knew it.The story without giving too much away. A lone sniper kills five people during rush hour. The police manage to solve the case extremely quickly, the captured man just has one request he wants Jack Reacher. They have not met for 14 year, and given the circumstances of their last meeting Jack Reacher should be the last person James Barr should want anywhere around. The first problem with that is you don't find Jack Reacher unless he wants to be found. Luckily or unluckily he has unfinished business with Barr. What follows is a thrilling investigation in to a case that as far as the police are concerned is closed. Reacher's style of investigating is more nose to the grindstone, interviews/interrogations, and deduction rather than computer analysis, which I have to say I prefer. There is not as much action in this book as I expected maybe that will change in the movie version.Really good book making use of technology and good old detective skill. By the end of the book I wanted it to be longer. I will definitely read another Lee Child's book, just got to decide which one.

I watched the film "Jack Reacher" before reading any of the books - Had it of been the other way round, I probably wouldn't have watched the film.I bought "Never Go Back" with "Killing Floor" at half price almost on a whim. I started with "Killing Floor" and am currently on "The Affair" having bought every one of the series and have pre ordered anything not yet in print.Why? I found that the character was so believable AND readable plus in each of the books I found Lee Child had inserted and described in such absorbing detail, small almost irrelevancies that were as good to read as the main storyline that they became, not just fillers as other authors insert, but real and very readable. I can't praise the series enough - each and every book has really brought back my love of reading - "Thank you", Lee Child - brilliant!!

Why o why Lee did you let that midget play our beloved Jack.I am sorry to say I watched the movie first and then read the books, which I have to say tainted me reading one shot. Thankfully the book is different enough for me to enjoy it and block the image of Tom Cruise trying to be Jack.The story of one shot does suit a movie epic and it is very gripping with all the "get Jack Reacher" suspense.Good well thought out bad guys, nice sub plots and reacher doing what he does best.My overriding message is please read this book as a separate entity to the movie and you will enjoy it and you will be pleased to hear that most of it is night and day different to the film, however the general plot is broadly the same.Just say to yourself ten times Tom Cruise is not Jack Reacher and all will be fine, and he will return to the giant thug with brains in no time.

It's an excellent read despite the fact that I predicted the basic outcome of the book and even some of the finer concluding details.Perhaps it was deliberate and certainly a measure of the quality of the writing that, although I was sure the plot was going from A to B, I wanted to know how he was going to get there and enjoyed seeing the plot unfold as I predicted.I suspect it was deliberate - I am not usually that good at predicting plot lines.Worth reading, but given this is a huge series, suggest you start at book 1 - the books are 99% stand alone, but some background information builds through the series.

Like all Jack Reacher books to date the action starts off slowly and the plot thickens, culminating in six innocent victims being massacred on their way home from work. Nothing is what it appears and once again the action is fast paced and unrelenting. The Police and DA believe they have it in the bag, but as usual with Lee Child's very readable books, they do not. Again I could not put this one down and have started his next book, the Hard Way already!