Product Description

Suicide bombers are easy to spot. They give out all kinds of tell-tale signs. Mostly because they're nervous. By definition they're all first-timers. Riding the subway in New York at two o'clock in the morning, Reacher knows the twelve giveaway signs to look out for. Watching one of his fellow-passengers, he becomes sharply aware: one by one, she ticks off every bulletpoint on his list. So begins the new heartstopping new thriller starring today's most admired action hero, the gallant and enigmatic loner Jack Reacher.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #34342 in Books
• Published on: 2009-04-23
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 448 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Lee Child has steadily accrued one of the keenest groups of admirers for any contemporary thriller writer – and the reason is easy to discern. In such gritty and authoritative novels as Tripwire, Killing Floor and Die Trying, Child established his tough itinerant protagonist Jack Reacher as a key modern hero, with a taciturn, hard-boiled appeal that has not palled over many books (though some have queried Jack’s transformation from a man who triumphed -- with difficulty – over insuperable odds – into a nigh-invulnerable super-hero). But the narrative grasp of the author remains absolutely iron-clad, and there are the stunningly drawn American locales that are so notably impressive from an English author.

In the latest outing for Jack Reacher, Gone Tomorrow, Child’s resourceful hero is travelling in New York City, observing his fellow passengers on the subway. He’s aware that suicide bombers are easy to spot – they’re usually nervous, and (as he wryly notes) by definition they're first-timers. As an ex-law enforcer, Jack notices that of his five fellow travellers, one is distinctly giving out the signals that spell danger. Grand Central Station is approaching – will Jack act and save lives – including his own? But… what if he's wrong?

This high voltage situation is the arresting curtain opener here, and the tension is screwed tighter, as Jack Reacher is pitched against the one of the most challenging threats he has come up against. Gone Tomorrow has all the dynamism of Child’s earlier work; spruced-up, super-charged and showing no sign of age. --Barry Forshaw

Review
Has the switchback plotting and frictionless prose that are Child's trademarks...always a pleasure. --Guardian

Review
Among the most popular crime novels right now - they're good fun and super-tense...One of his best.

Customer Reviews

Far from Jack's best but big improvement on last novel
As someone who has devoured all of Lee Child's books about the maverick crusader Jack Reacher I was hugely disappointed with last years novel " Nothing to Lose " which I thought was merely a tired rehash of previous stories. Had this franchise had run it's course ? not on your Nelly !, Gone Tomorrow is a vast improvement with Jack waging a one manned battle against some heavyweight bad guys ( and girls ! ) on the streets of New York.
A welcome return to form with a tight and well structured storyline not Jack's best adventure but still a great read and miles better than most other contemporary thrillers
Get it read !!

Lee Child is back in form
The first and best news is that Lee Child is back in form with "Gone Tomorrow". While not the all time best Reacher novel that I have read, this is a more than satisfactory addition to the series. It involves some truly unpleasant villains, a politician with a deeply guarded secret, a missing son and plenty of tension. One thing I love but also find quite disconcerting when I'm reading a Reacher novel is the way that he deliberately seeks out and provokes the bad guys. It's so much the opposite of the way that I would behave that I find it quite nerve-wracking to read. And in this book, he does it a LOT.

It starts with Reacher on a New York subway in the small hours of the morning. He spots a woman, Susan Marks, whose behaviour meets every criteria for a suicide bomber. She's not. But she is a woman in trouble. Reacher can't help Susan, but he can't let the matter rest until he finds out what was behind her state of mind and finds the people who drove her to that point. Although at various times he recruits her brother and a friendly police officer as allies, essentially this is Reacher taking on the bad guys on his own.

The first half of the book is all set up and it's quite gradual. Reacher is a little slow off the mark: there are a couple of revelations that seemed pretty obvious to me, but which take some time to emerge. On the other hand, I wasn't sure for quite some time who the villains would turn out to be, which I enjoyed. In the second half, Reacher goes after the villains: this half is dead exciting and includes some of the most graphic descriptions of violence that I remember Lee Child writing.

There is one central implausibility: Reacher is told repeatedly that he'll be in deep trouble if he finds out a particular secret. But when he does find it out, suddenly it doesn't seem to matter that he knows. Child also leaves a couple of key plot elements unresolved. And the obligatory roll in the sack feels just that: out of place and only there because it's expected. However, at the end of the day these are just annoyances, not critical flaws.

Unusually, this book is written in the first person (as if Reacher is narrating): only three other Lee Child books have used this. It's not my preference given that Reacher is such an enigma, but it works fine. It's a great read: enjoy!

Number 13 - unlucky for some
Here's what the press had to say about GONE TOMORROW:-

'You'll be left with a thumping heart and a racing pulse' (Evening Standard)
'The master of suspense and action is back on scorching form' (Shortlist magazine)
'Child's an expert at ratcheting up the tension'(Los Angeles Times)
'Jack Reacher books are good fun and super-tense' (Heat)
'One of the most suspenseful sequences Child has written yet' (Newsday)
'This is the summer's best thriller' (Minneapolis Star-Tribune)

Well, I disagree with all of the above. For me, this thirteenth Reacher novel was tedious, lacking any sense of thrills or tension and I couldn't wait to get it over and done with. The only thing I have learned to expect - or hope for - with a Jack Reacher story is full-on action, and this latest escapade didn't have anywhere near enough of it. That's because there's very little else to compensate. Reacher as a character is devoid of personality and lacks much in the way of vulnerability so that no matter how impossible the odds, the reader knows he's going to come out on top. So if he's going to have a pseudo-James Bond outing, please can we have regular and high-calibre action? There just isn't any other reason to buy or read a Lee Child novel, so if the action's missing, there isn't much point in reading it at all.

Large parts of this novel read like a cartoon, other parts give the impression of a video game. The cartoon-like atmosphere is caused in large part by the very short sentences, I could imagine the dialogue appearing in balloons above the characters' heads. The video game I was reminded of was Max Payne, although that had a lot more action.

And I felt less than impressed with the action when it did appear, which included Reacher shooting unarmed men in the back and killing women with his bare hands. If Reacher is supposed to be some kind of tough-guy hero, he doesn't seem to be the kind that I want to read about. He was never going to die in this tale, because the entire story was told in the first-person, and that removed much of any element of danger. Further than that, I was less than convinced as to why Reacher would get involved in the whole affair. He witnessed a death on the subway but that is where it could easily have ended; instead he chose to become deeply immersed in a deadly game of political pursuits, and ended up being chased by the NYPD, the FBI and the Department of Defence. In between what little action sequences there were, the endless conversations and dialogues served as little more than padding and added as good as nothing to the story in terms of tension or suspense.

I think you would have to be a dyed-in-the-wool Jack Reacher fan to truly enjoy this. I'm open minded, I can take him or leave him, and after this particular episode, I think I'll leave him. As a story it's just about passable, neither bad nor good but for me lacking in any sense of emotional involvement with insufficient action to make up for that. Low on suspense, low on tension, and a long way away from being this summer's best thriller.