Jack Reacher… Lee Child, Andrew Child, The Secret, Scott Brick, narrator
Jack Reacher is one of my favorite characters. Marching through life to the beat of his own drummer, vigilante-like, he is always on the side of might makes right. This book was no different, and it sped along at warp speed. An old, secret military project between Russia and the United States, to develop antidotes to bio-weapons, or perhaps to create one with no antidote, took place in India, in the late 1960’s. Suddenly, more than two decades after it ended in what should have been ignominy, it had suddenly come back to bite the participants. One by one, they were dying, supposedly from natural causes, but somehow too frequently and suspiciously not to arouse questions surrounding their deaths. During the time of the biological experiments, when disaster struck with the escape of a lethal gas, a scapegoat took the fall for the deaths that occurred, and the story was whitewashed.
As few clues arose to identify the possible killer, and more participants died, a small task force was assembled by the Secretary of Defense in order to find out if their deaths were actually homicides and not accidental or suicides. Jack Reacher and a few others were brought in to investigate the possible crimes. They were ordered to find the culprit involved, to bring possible names and suggested theories to him ASAP. He wanted this issue settled or there would be Hell to pay.
To be honest, while I really liked the book because of the constant action, there were too many threads to keep an accurate track of developments. It began with compromised weapons and moved on to corporate intrigue, secret labs, sudden violent and unusual deaths, corrupt government, business and military officials, etc. There was over the top violence, and I often had to suspend disbelief as the murderer/s seemed too clever by half and Reacher a bit too prescient, often making scenes seem very implausible. Yet, somehow, by way of the author’s explanations, they also seemed possible. Also, the conclusion, which seemed to justify the murders because of heinous behavior on the part of others, seemed a bit irrational.
Still, the story is really creative and the characters are all very interesting as they develop. In very circular fashion, the ultimate reason for the disaster and the revenge that followed, was revealed. Almost single-handedly, my hero succeeded. I am hooked and can’t wait for the next Reacher novel. The narrator, Scott Brick, really helped make the book move along with the appropriate emphasis in every scene.