015. The Affair (2011).

The Affair by Lee Child (2011).

        

The Latest from Jack Reacher series (10^th, exactly).

After all those years, 

still 

ABSOLUTELY THE BEST THRLLER OUT THERE, PERIOD.

NO COMPARISON. NO PEER.

          

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layers. – Jack Reacher.  Ex-Mp (military cop). After retiring from Army, Reacher decides to explore the country he serves for 13 years yet never visits. Since then, he walks, hitch hiking and bus-riding the entire country. 

He just draws an imaginary line on the map in his head and just follows the line visiting whatever cities in between.

He has no address, no ID excepts an expired passport, no luggage except a portable toothbrush. When he needs to change the clothes, he just discards whatever he is wearing and buys a new one. Because of these, even if his troubles bring him all around the state, even Europe, he is virtually invisible from any kinds of system and radar.

He is born and raised in Marine Corps bases all around the world with his brother Joe who used to work for Treasury but was killed during the counterfeit investigation (“Killing Floor (1997)”). Reacher of course takes care of the guilty party by literary burns them down to complete ashes.

Reacher is the top Mp during his service in Army. He could be a high ranking officer (he wins numerous medals for his works), but he has no ambition and his definition of right and wrong quite often conflicts with the one military follows and that slows down his promotion (he was demoted couple of times).

He has a body of Terminator (6’5”, 250 pounds of pure muscle-fighting machine ), a brain of Sherlock Holmes (never stop calculating or observing) and a mind of Brawler (a killer instinct). When he faces his enemies which normally are hideously bad peoples, he doesn’t just get rid of them. He meticulously (Holmes), completely destroys them (Terminator). And pisses on their graves (a brawler).

Reacher generally dresses up like a bum and he knows how scary 6’5” 250 pounds muscular giant could be to others, so he normally just keeps quite, never speaks up unless necessary and always polite to others and smiles a lot when he tries to hitch hike to the next location.

He also has an internal clock which tells him exact time of the day so he doesn’t need a watch.

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lace. – Every Reacher book contains at least one structures either building or factory  or underground bunker which is built with outrageous design or extraordinary scale.

Together with bunch of hideous villains (yes, Lee Child knows his BAD GUYS), they are here to showcase Reacher’s amazing ability to adapt and conquer his surroundings.

In this book, it is vast land of Mississippi, and a gigantic locomotive which literally shakes ground with its power once every midnight.

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lot. –Since Reacher is the narrator for the most of the series, and he is man with little  word, the pace is fast, steady and brisk.

Here’s the outline of the storyline for this book.

1.      A girl is killed in a small town in Mississippi. Since it happens near the Maine base, Garber, Reacher’s boss who runs MPs, sends two MPS for investigation. One for the inside Army base to investigate soldiers, the other for the outside to deal with civilians. And Reacher takes undercover-job to look into the murder from civilian side.

2.      It gets really complicated once Reacher finds out the prime suspect is not just a powerful captain but also extremely well connected with Army and politics.

3.      Soon, strings of conflicting evidences are piling up, militia with surplus-army guns are flooding into the area, local tugs are trying to muscle in, and one of the BEST ENTERTAINMENT begins!!

Lee Child knows how to build up the tension.

Better than anyone out there.

And there is reason for that. Because he creates outrageously larger than life character JACK REACHER, he needs fantastically difficult challenge/adversary to go with it. And in order for the story to work properly, it needs a huge build-up and out of this world kind of climax. And Lee Child has been delivering both ever since his firsts book called Killing Floor (1997).

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erdict. – The story of Reacher is basically a spaghetti-western in 21^st century. 

  Just like Eastwood or Bronson or Django, he visits the random town with the troubles and solves them by mostly blowing them away spectacularly and leaves the place without trace, moving on to the next stop.

If you are traveling or vacationing or really tired and want to read something to put your mind away from everything, this Reacher series is possibly the best solution for that.

Simply put, The Best Entertainment money can buy.

One more thing. I just read a horrendous rumor on the net saying that out of all the actors, Tom Cruise is signed to play the Reacher in upcoming movie. I am not against the short guys but, he is what? 5’6”? That’s about a HEAD shorter than Reacher!! Do these guys ever read the book?

I hope to all mighty God this is NOT happening. Like Harry Bosch, some books are best left alone. If only Hollywood producers understand that….