Product Description

You do not mess with the Special Investigators! The events of 9/11 changed Jack Reacher's drifter life in a practical way. In addition to his folding toothbrush, he now needs to carry photo ID to get around. Yet he is still as close to untraceable as a human being in America can get. So when a member of his old Army unit manages to get a message to him, he knows it has to be deadly serious. The Special Investigators always watched each other's backs. Now Reacher must put the old unit back together. Someone has killed one of them, and he can't let that go.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2376 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 528 pages

Daily Mirror
Child is a great storyteller, building plots that, although
complex, are as compelling as they are ultimately logical...another
sure-fire hit.

Yorkshire Evening Post
The twists come thick and fast...and the surprise developments are
genuinely unexpected...Child, as always, delivers.

Guardian
It's his hero, hyper-tough ex-US army special investigator Jack
Reacher, who keeps me coming back for more...never a dull moment.

Customer Reviews

Another Good Jack Reacher Story!
In Bad Luck And Trouble, Jack Reacher gets a coded message for help, from a member of his old army unit. A member of the old unit has been found dead in the desert, and a number of others seem to be missing.

This story varies slightly from other Reacher novels, as Reacher is working against the bad guys, with the help of a few of his former colleagues, and not by himself.

I found Reacher's army colleague's interesting, and I was rooting for them all the way, even though we do not learn too much about their characters, or past, other than there were all once very close. It was good to see Reacher's character working with other people, though, in searching for clues, making plans, and putting those plans into action.

However, I thought the bad guys were very one-dimensional, and not really fleshed out, at all. For me, this made the ending something of an anti-climax. Overall, though, an enjoyable read, as always, but not the best in the series.

Bad luck if you're expecting a lot from this one
On the plus side, I did find myself wanting to read this as fast as possible, but on the minus side, a part of that was me hoping that the book would get better.

It is not bad, but it is tremendously mediocre. The plot is fine - tough man Reacher re-unites with 3 of his former group of 8, the other 4 having been knocked off by someone obviously very evil. The writing is however dull, and the characters don't even come up to scratch as the super smart, super skilful former military heroes that they are supposed to be. Maybe it's because they're getting old, or maybe it's because Lee Child is getting older and more tired ...

Conclusion: Lee Child has sent Reacher on much better adventures than this one

A Well Written Brain Candy Read
Lee Child is an Englishman living in the US. His main character is Jack Reacher, a former military policeman-turned loner who "walks the Eath" in the US, with trouble usually following not far behind.

In this book Reacher learns a member of his former platoon has been found dead outside Las Vegas, so he gets his old investigative unit together to find out what happened to the guy.

The story doesn't bear much hard analysis (a middle-East terrorist and his cronies might or might not be up to something), but Child writes this sort of stuff so well that it isn't until later that you notice that the Reacher and his gang come up with the much needed clue at exactly the right time to advance the plot.

Don't get me wrong, this isn't a work of littery genius, so if you're looking for a book that'll change your life or the world you live in, this isn't the book for you. If, however, you want a book that'll be involving or take your mind off things for a couple of hours, you could do a lot worse than this book (Simon Kernick for example), especially if you're a guy (it is "guy fiction" if I'm honest).