Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #737 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.

From the Back Cover
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?

About the Author
LEE CHILD is British, but after he was made redundant from his job in television, he moved with his family from Cumbria to the United States to start a new career as a writer of American thrillers. He now divides his time between France and New York. All his novels feature the maverick Jack Reacher, and all have been international bestsellers.

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 any of the five Soft Target series by Conrad Jones Blister (Soft Target Series).Here's one for that long plane or train journey.

Near flawless thriller
I've read most of Lee Child's thrillers and this is my favourite. The story is compelling, with plenty of twists and mysteries to unravel. The villain is exceptionally threatening. There are plenty of minor characters to identify with, so every reader can think "what would I do if that was happening to me?" I also found Child's tough-guy hero Jack Reacher more rounded and convincing in this book than in eg Killing Floor or Persuader. All in all, a tremendously good read.

Downside: avoid if graphic violence and torture disturb you.

This is how 'low brow' thriller writing should be done...
Jack Reacher novels are always pretty good. Child's got a knack for keeping what are essentially quite similar stories fresh and interesting.

Here, however, he turns it up a notch and delivers probably the finest Reacher novel I've read.

While the novel is not going to win any awards for great literature, the so called heavyweights like Dan Brown and Michael Reilly could take a leaf out of Lee Child's book when it comes to penning a good thriller.

The story begins when a man sent to find Reacher by a woman Jack's never heard of turns up dead behind a motel in Florida with his fingers cut off. Reacher's curiosity is piqued and he journey's to New York to find out why the man had to die, and what it has to do with him.

His search brings him face to face with his own past, and with Victor `Hook' Hobie.

Hobie is far and away the best villain to feature in any Jack Reacher novel I have read so far. A man with a secret that he will go to any lengths, no matter how brutal or sadistic, to protect. For the first time, you feel that Reacher has met an adversary worthy of the name, and as the book winds towards its climax, it grabs hold of you and won't let you go.

An essential read for Child fans and a great book in its own right to keep the Reacher virgin entertained, I honestly can't recommend this book enough.