Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #606 in Books
• Published on: 2000-02-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 544 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Ex-military policemen Jack Reacher is lying low in Key West, digging up swimming pools by hand. He is not best pleased when a private detective starts asking questions about him, but when the detective, Costello, turns up dead with his fingertips sliced off, Reacher realises it is time to move on. Soon (as in Child's two previous excellent thrillers Die Trying and Killing Floor) Reacher is up to his neck in lethal trouble involving a vicious Wall Street manipulator, a mysterious woman (of course) and the livelihood of a whole community. Even the fate of soldiers missing in action in Vietnam is stirred into the brew. But this is not a book by one of the new breed of US thriller writers: Child prides himself that, as an Englishman, he writes American thrillers that are utterly convincing in milieu and toughness of action, without a trace of English sensibility. This new one is no exception-- every bit as lean and compulsive as its predecessors, it also builds on the freshest aspect of those books: Reacher may be a tough, epic hero, but he always remains human and vulnerable. Here's one for that long plane or train journey.

Synopsis
Digging swimming pools by hand in Key West, Florida, Jack Reacher is as tanned and as fit as he's ever been. A local girl says he looks like a condom filled with walnuts. Being invisible has become a habit. He doesn't want to be found. So when a private detective comes nosing around and asking questions, Reacher is not pleased. Especially when he later finds the guy dead. With his fingertips sliced off. Why was he so determined to find him? What does the vicious Wall Street honcho Hook Hobie have to do with it? And what about the reappearance of a woman from Reacher's own troubled past? "Tripwire" is a taut, nailbiting adventure which once again stars Lee Child's irresistible hero, the maverick former military policeman Jack Reacher.

From the Back Cover
Digging a swimming pool by hand in Key West, former military policeman Jack Reacher is not pleased when Costello, a private detective, comes nosing around asking questions about him. Determined to keep out of trouble, Reacher conceals his identity. But when he finds Costello dead with his fingertips sliced off, he realizes it is time to move on - and move on fast. Yet two questions worry him: who was Costello's employer, the mysterious Mrs Jacobs? And why is she determined to find Reacher? Moreover, who is Hook Hobie, the vicious and amoral manipulator in a Wall Street office who preys on other people's assets?

As Reacher follows the trail, it becomes clear that the stakes are high: the livelihood of a whole community; the fate of the soldiers missing in action in Vietnam; and, not least, the reappearance of a woman from Reacher's own troubled past with a key to his destiny.

Customer Reviews

Reacher at his best
This is classic Lee Child, when the Reacher formula was still working at its very best. The serial protagonist is at his peak in this novel, probably the best in the ever expanding list of Reacher stories. The story begins with Ex-military policemen Jack Reacher is lying low in Key West, digging up swimming pools by hand, and we get one of the best descriptions of what Reacher looks like and really thinks in this novel, unlike some of the others were we are left to imagine the big man. He is not best pleased when a private detective starts asking questions about him, but when the detective, Costello, turns up dead with his fingertips sliced off, Reacher realises it is time to move on. He ends up in lethal trouble involving a vicious Wall Street manipulator, a mysterious woman (of course) and the livelihood of a whole community. Even the fate of soldiers missing in action in Vietnam is stirred into the brew.
Child prides himself that, as an Englishman, he writes American thrillers that actually sell well in the US, a rare breed indeed This new one is no exception-- every bit as lean and compulsive as its predecessors, it also builds on the freshest aspect of those books: Reacher may be a tough, epic hero, but he always remains human and vulnerable. It`s a great formula for thriller lovers, and if you enjoy this Genre, the Harry Bosh books by Connely, Dan shepard stories by Stephen Leather and try the Soft Target trilogy by Conrad Jones.Here's one for that long plane or train journey.

Very good except......
An excellent thriller, tense, many twists and turns, but Lee Child rests his story on old stereotypes and easy characters. The main complaint I personally have is that yet again we have the demonisation of a disfigured man as the bad guy and the healthy white guy, as always, the hero. Maybe some day a gifted writer like Lee Child may come up with a reversal of roles and actually make a 'deformed' character the hero and the all white macho male the villian. I wait in great anticipation :-)

Nowhere near his best...
I think this is the third Lee Child book I've read and it is by far the worst, mainly because it's kind of boring. Not an awful lot happens, the "twists" stand out a mile, not a lot of deduction happens and by far the worst crime, one interesting subplot peters out rather than merging with the main plot in the finale.

Read it if you're a completist, but don't start the Reacher series with this, as you won't continue with it. Killing Floor and The Hard Way are both much better.