The Midnight Line: Fast paced, hard hitting 5 star Jack Reacher Novel
#1 New York Times bestselling author Lee Child comes back with a clenching new massive thriller featuring Jack Reacher, one of this century’s most authentic, enticing pop-fiction heroes.
The Midnight Line is not a standard Jack Reacher tale. Alternatively, Reacher, a ex - Army MP major, puts on his Military Police hat and does some significant sleuthing from the opening scene where he finds a West Point class ring in a second hand shop in Rapid City South Dakota to his investigation to find the original owner of the ring in Wyoming. Reacher is a West Point grad himself and knows that few that manages to graduate of the Point would give up their ring unless something bad had happened to them. He decides that maybe he can help the owner of the ring and immediately starts gathering insights to recognize this fellow West Pointer. Of course, as the story develops, a simple lost and found case becomes risky as Reacher creates enemies in the oxycodone and fentanyl drug trafficking business. Reacher must use all his expertise to protect life and limb.
It doesn’t take Reacher very long to get to Wyoming, where he thinks he may find the seller of the West Point ring. I was much fascinated by Lee Child’s ability to paint extraordinary word images of the places Reacher visits in Wyoming. I never thought of Lee Child as a fine writer – I do now. Wyoming came to life for me in the pages of this novel thanks to Lee Child's writing skills. Furthermore, Reacher teams up with a former FBI agent who is also searching for a missing person and the conversation between Reacher, the agent, and other characters in the story is sharp, clear, credible, and often interesting.
The Midnight Line is a police step-by-step, something like a Harry Bosch novel by Michael Connelly. I am speculating some readers are going to be disappointed that there is less violent action in The Midnight Line than in a common Reacher story. For me, I liked this switch of pace and direction and was pleased with the new more cerebral Reacher, a man well educated and careful. Don’t get me wrong, when mayhem is needed, Reacher is up to the job! When we finally get to the end of the story, Lee Child ties up all the details nicely and leaves us with a feeling of fulfillment that all loose ends are remedied as Reacher heads off for some new experience.
I may be in the minority, but I like this new Reacher and I think that Lee Child has used all his skills as a writer and story teller to his best advantages. However, Reacher fans are going to have to wait; the novel will not be released until November 7, 2017. The Midnight Line looks like a best seller to me and I highly recommend it without reservation to Reacher fans. 4.5 stars.
Up-date: The more I think about it, the better I like this new Reacher novel. My wife is reading it now and she thinks it is fantastic; she is a severe mystery tale buff. Five stars.
