The Sentinel, Lee Child and Andrew Child, authors, Scott Brick, narrator
A power failure in a small town rocks the equilibrium of its citizens. Phones fail, computers freeze, information is lost. It was at this time that Jack Reacher had fortuitously hitchhiked there from Nashville. He had just solved a problem for a pair of musicians who didn’t get paid when he fell into another kettle of fish. He spied a young man in what looked like a predicament, and, on the spot, he decided to intervene to prevent Rusty Rutherford from being kidnapped. Instead of being praised for the effort to save this stranger, Reacher and Rusty were arrested and thrown in jail. The thugs escaped.
It turns out that Rusty was the IT expert in town. He was being blamed for being unable to prevent, or repair, a Ransom Ware attack that had shut down all communication services. The sheriff was only too happy to put him in jail. Everyone in town had turned their backs on him even though he had tried, unsuccessfully, to get the town to upgrade their technology before this attack.
There is a powerful man with a hidden malignant past, who is behind this attack. His contacts are foreign agents who use barbaric methods to extract the information they need. They need something from Rusty, but he has no idea what they want.
What is the Sentinel. What is Cerberus? Can either be effective tools to prevent or reverse a cyber warfare attack of devastating proportions? Who has those programs? Who wants them? What could an enemy do with a weapon that could destroy communication if there was no antidote for the virus, but the one they controlled? Which enemies would like to gain control of such technology? What lengths would they go to, and what people would they employ to achieve such power. That is the real threat that Jack Reacher stumbles upon when he rescues Rusty. Rusty is persona non grata, and now, so is Jack Reacher. He has been told, not politely, to leave town or face the consequences.
The FBI, Russia, Germany and heinous political philosophies are at play. Evil people want to accomplish great evil, and it is up to Reacher to stop it. Always exciting and full of adventure, Jack Reacher does not disappoint, but the novel is less than perfect and may leave the reader a little confused as to the plot. Nevertheless, the story captures the reader’s attention, regardless of the confusion, since there is always the hope that the morass will clear.