Better Off Dead, Lee Child and Andrew Child, authors; Scott Brick, narrator

The only thing I can say for sure about this novel is that Jack Reacher was almost a caricature of himself. As usual, the man who travels alone and without creature comforts, with no mode of transportation but his legs, finds trouble everywhere he goes. He is the superhero of superheroes. However, this book felt disjointed and Reacher never really became the real Reacher, rather he was like Spiderman, bouncing back without any consequences from each violent encounter. All of the characters remained enigmas and disconnected. Their reason for being was never really evident. They just appeared to open or close a scene and then disappeared. There was too much violence and brutality with descriptions that were unnecessarily explicit. Some were grotesque. It was as if the authors wanted to push the envelope from the ridiculous to the sublime as the story became less and less plausible. Even the superb narrator could not save this book. I think that Lee Child should go back to writing books by himself. Let his brother write in this genre in his own way. Let him choose his own characters or let them create a new one together, but don’t destroy Jack Reacher with overactive plots and characters requiring the suspension of disbelief. This book had too much dialogue and far too much description and explanation that seemed only there to fill the pages. The plot consistently changed and that made it difficult to follow. Was the book about a terrorist, a weapon of mass destruction, a personal, petty vendetta, or misdirection so that one was constantly forced to ask if the real terrorist would please stand up. Who was telling the truth? Even in the end, it was hard to know who was the real culprit and who, if anyone, was innocent. Was someone, who was innocent, falsely blamed, actually framed, but really evil, as well. Was someone wrongly accused of building weapons of mass destruction, of terrorism? Were there really such dangerous weapons being built? Do the wrongdoers get punished? Who actually escapes besides Reacher? I am forced to ask once again; will the real Jack Reacher please stand up!