In Too Deep, Lee and Andrew Child, author; Scott Brick, narrator.
Jack Reacher has been injured severely and has no memory of how it happened. When he awakened from an unconscious state, he could not move and was in great pain. He discovered that he was also handcuffed to a gurney and had no idea how he got there. Reacher did not know that he had been in a terrible car accident or that the driver had been killed.
Darren Fletcher, a wanted gangster, had captured and restrained Reacher. He wanted to know why Reacher was with his now dead friend. Gibson who had been the driver of the car when it hit the tree, had not survived. After Reacher manages to breaks free from Fletcher, Ivan Vidic, the man who had pulled him out of the car wreck, helped him to escape. He said he also wanted to escape. He no longer trusted his associates or the Russians they were dealing with. He made Reacher an offer of great riches if he would help him. He needed someone strong to open a safe at its vulnerable point. Reacher was nothing, if not strong, and he realized that something fishy was going on, so he played along with Vidic and agreed to help him. Vidic took Reacher to a sleazy motel to hide him for a couple of days until he got his plan more organized.
Shortly afterward, he is almost killed by a woman, Detective Knight. She comes to his room to confront him, because she has mistaken Reacher for someone else, a cold-hearted criminal, Zach Cane, who murdered her father, Dennis Knight. When the two talk, the error is realized, and Reacher agrees to help her. It turns out that Cane is connected to the very gangsters that had captured Reacher. Those same men and a woman, Paris, were wanted by the FBI. They had planted an agent in their group, and they thought he had been compromised and killed. Who was Gibson, and what had really happened to him?
As the novel continues, secrets about the planted FBI agent are revealed. Then it is revealed that the man who rescued Reacher is not who he pretends to be at all. He is actually scheming, together with the woman named Paris, to not only steal money, jewelry and art works from a wealthy Russian Oligarch, but they plan to steal it all from their associates as well. Neither of them has respect for the living because they have their sights set on fabulous wealth. Vidic has come into possession of a manuscript that describes a brand new weapon, a weapon of mass destruction. He plans to sell this valuable information to the highest bidder. There is no defense against this unknown weapon, so it will threaten the national security of the entire world. Finding it and stopping them is of the utmost importance.
As usual, Reacher is like Superman, surviving traumatic and violent events, always leaving his attackers unconscious or dead, always escaping any repercussions. As the novel twists and turns, it grows more and more violent and even more difficult to figure out who is the real villain. Was the man believed to be an FBI agent made by the thieves? Did they deliberately murder him? Why was Reacher captured? Why did anyone kill Knight’s father? Who was Albatross?
Be prepared to suspend disbelief, at times, as Reacher survives the unsurvivable situations. It is often convoluted and the dialogue sometimes becomes inane. Still, it is exciting, and even with the over the top twists and turns that occur too often, it is a good beach read or plane read. It would also be great for a long train ride. It won’t tax your brain, but it will keep it occupied and entertain it.