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The Killing Floor (First published
1997) |
Read an Excerpt |
From its chilling opening page, you know all is not well in Margrave,
Georgia. The sleepy, forgotten town hasn't seen a crime in decades, but
within the span of three days it witnesses events that leave everyone
stunned. An unidentified man is found beaten and shot to death on a
lonely country road. The police chief and his wife are butchered on a
quiet Sunday morning. Then a bank executive disappears from his home,
leaving his keys on the table and his wife frozen with fear. The easiest
suspect is Jack Reacher - an outsider, a man just passing through. But
Reacher is not just any drifter. He is a tough ex-military policeman,
trained to think fast and act faster. He has lived with and hunted the
worst: the hard men of the American military gone bad. When authorities
learn the first victim was someone from Reacher's past, and he cannot
convince them of his innocence, his patient self-defense becomes a raging
crusade of revenge. With two cops who believe in him - a thoughtful black
detective and a woman named Roscoe - he closes in on a ruthless
conspiracy hiding behind Margrave's rural charm. But closing in on him is
a team of killers so careful and efficient they are almost invisible.
Step by step, the two teams circle - waiting to see which will be the
first to walk onto the killing floor.
(Source: Publisher)
_____
"The opening of Lee Child's gripping thriller is classic. Stranger Jack
Reacher walks into Margrave in Georgia and within five minutes the
small-town cops try to pin a murder on him. They don't even let him
finish his breakfast. What these hick law enforcement boys don't know is
that Reacher is no ordinary John Doe. A lifetime spent in the army, much
of it in action overseas and with the military's own police, has taught
him plenty. So when it comes to action, Jack more than knows how to take
care of himself. And when the going gets rough, he can - and does - show
that he can be the roughest." Stuart Gilles, Manchester Evening News,
June 27, 1997
"Killing Floor is the best thriller I've read for years." New
Statesman, July 24, 1998
"An American tough guy who
is a stranger in small-town Georgia is arrested for murder... [a]
stunningly dynamic book.", Daily Mail, August 15, 1997
"Killing Floor is a well
put-together first novel...set in America's Deep South, the book races
along, spattering blood and body parts on the way, with the hero, a
super-tough ex-military policeman, contributing his share of corpses as
he unravels a conspiracy in which almost no one he encounters can be
trusted.", Sunday Telegraph, July 20, 1997
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Die Trying (First published
1998) |
Read an Excerpt |
 In
a quiet Chicago suburb, a dentist is attacked in his office parking lot
and forced into the trunk of his Lexus. On a sidewalk downtown, Jack
Reacher and an unknown woman are abducted in broad daylight. Wordlessly
and without warning, two armed men - confident and rehearsed - hustle
them into the same sedan. Then Reacher and the woman are switched into a
second vehicle and hauled away. Reacher and this mysterious woman are
caught between a group of men holding them for an impossible ransom and
her colleagues, who will risk everything - even their lives - to save
her. With only their wits and mutual trust between them, she and Reacher
must escape an ingenious wilderness prison and the grasp of a man
hell-bent on revenge. (Source: Publisher)
"[Jack Reacher] is, quite
simply, the best companion any woman could have on a dangerous journey."
"I was turning the pages so quickly in an effort to keep up with the
twists and turns of the fastest plot I've come across in ages. For this
novel really is what most publishers claim all their thrillers are: it's
unputdownable. The action is so fast there's hardly time to breathe and
the whole ends with a nailbiting race against time to save thousands of
innocent people from a brutal mass murderer. This is a truly brilliant
romp of a book with a real feel-good factor." Broadway Ham & High,
April 10, 1998
"Jack Reacher is an
ex-military policeman, the sort who meets terror with a shrug, tragedy
with the tiniest flick of jaw-muscle and copes with hours of brutal
confinement by doing intricate mental arithmetic." Sunday Express, May
2, 1999
"Die Trying brings
back the redoubtable yet romantic hero Jack Reacher, whose fast-paced
misadventure begins on a bright summer Chicago street... Cunning and
explosive, it's a thumping good read." Time Out Magazine, June 10,
1998 |
 
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Tripwire (First published 1999) |
Read an Excerpt |
 Jack Reacher washes up in the Florida Keys with his savings running
out; he spends his days digging pools and his nights as the bouncer in
the local strip club. But a private investigator intrudes upon his
tropical refuge, seeking Reacher out. When he discovers the PI's lifeless
beaten body lying in the street, Reacher heads north to determine who is
trying to find him and why.
Tracing the dead man's trail to New York,
Reacher discovers the PI was working for Reacher's former commanding
officer, mentor and close friend Leon Garber. Reacher teams up with
Garber's daughter Jodie, a sharp Wall Street lawyer, to find out why Leon
needed Reacher's help and they find themselves embroiled in a
life-threatening search for the truth - and the deeper they dig, the more
dangerous and twisted their path becomes.
In this third novel
featuring Jack Reacher, author Lee Child masterfully intertwines the
domains of the underworld and the bureaucracy of the U.S. Army. Reacher
and Jodie uncover 30 years of deceit - and their love for each other - in
a thriller that reaches its heart-stopping, plot twisting climax on the
88th floor of the World Trade Center. (Source: Publisher)
"A fast-moving, violent
and gripping mystery with a very bad baddie, and a tough, pragmatic hero
in Jack Reacher. Over three books [Child] has racked up the tension and
it is paying off handsomely." The Telegraph - May 15, 1999
"Reacher is unusual among
modern thriller protagonists, being a straightforward hero - tough,
handsome, brave and decent. This is refreshing, because the idea of
morality as something which can only ever be equivocal and relative has
become one of contemporary fiction's most tedious clichés." Morning
Star - June 7, 2000
"Lee Child burst on to the
thriller writing scene with [Killing Floor] and this, his third,
establishes him in the premier division. It's a sparkling,
character-driven yarn. Taut, with more than a touch of sweet romance,
this is dangerously compulsive, so be warned - don't start it at bedtime
or you'll be up all night finding out what happens next." Manchester
Evening News
"Give the Author a Hug"
"The thrills grow fast and furious as Lee Child shoots up the premier
league of thriller writers." Driffield Post, March 21, 1999 |
 
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The Visitor also known
as Running Blind (First published 2000) |
Read an Excerpt |
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 It's
tough being a high-flying woman in the Army. Very tough. When Sergeant
Amy Callan and Lieutenant Caroline Cook are found dead in their own homes
- in baths filled with Army-issue camouflage paint, their bodies
completely unmarked -- Jack Reacher is under suspicion. He knew them both
-- and he knows that they both left the Army under dubious circumstances,
both victims of sexual harassment. A former U.S. military policeman, a
loner and a drifter, he matches the psychological profile prepared by the
FBI, and is arrested by ambitious Special Agent, Julia Lamarr.
But when the body of another woman, Sergeant Lorraine Stanley, is
discovered, killed with similar precision, Reacher is released. Everyone
fears there is a serial killer on the loose. But the FBI have strong
persuasive powers, and before long Reacher finds himself heavily involved
in the murder investigation. What have these women got in common and why
is someone out to do them harm?
Women are dying. Women who have nothing in common except the fact they
once worked for the military. And they knew Jack Reacher years ago. How
and why these women are in danger baffles the elite FBI team working the
case. There is no trace evidence. There are no obvious links among the
victims. The bodies have no fatal wounds, and few distinguishing marks.
And the killer has entered and exited their homes like a summer breeze.
Are these the perfect crimes? And what is the motivation behind such
deadly care and precision? There is only one certainty: A new kind of
killer is at work, one so calm and cautious that even the brilliant Jack
Reacher is left running blind. (Source: Publisher)
"Jack Reacher's back. And
neck-deep in trouble again. Child, a crime writer supreme, writes with a
style that is friendly and accessible..." The Independent, January 23,
2000
"Though Reacher is a tough
character, used to violence and action, it is his ability to use logic
and reason that are most important... The novel is a serial-killer
thriller with a traditional puzzle at its heart. And the mysteries of the
plot, the who and why and how-dunnits keep us hooked, trying to work it
out before all is revealed. A great page-turner." Manchester Evening
News, May 5, 2000
"Child rewards ... with
tight plotting, pace and high mileage." The Guardian Weekly, May 4,
2000
"Oh, the thrill of the
chase! This is an excellent thriller of the Patricia Cornwell variety.
Gripping and well constructed ... impossible to put down." The
Express, London edition, April 22, 2000 |
 
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Echo Burning (First published 2000) |
Read an Excerpt |
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Hitching rides is an
unreliable mode of transport. In temperatures of over a hundred degrees,
you're lucky if a driver will open the door of his air-conditioned car
long enough to let you slide in. That's Jack Reacher's conclusion. He's
adrift in the fearsome heat of a Texas summer, and he needs to keep
moving through the wide open vastness, like a shark in the water. The
last thing he's worried about is exactly who picks him up.
He never expected it to be
somebody like Carmen. She's alone, driving a Cadillac. She's beautiful,
young and rich. She has a little girl who is being watched by unseen
observers. And a husband who is in jail. Who will beat her senseless when
he comes out. If he doesn't kill her first.
Reacher is no stranger to
trouble. And at Carmen's remote ranch in Echo County there is plenty of
it: lies and prejudice, hatred and murder. Reacher can never resist a
lady in distress. Her family is hostile. The cops can't be trusted. The
lawyers won't help. If Reacher can't set things straight, who can?
{Source: Publisher)
"The best mystery I have read
this year: best written, best plotted, best in just about every way. Here
place is a living character, compelling, central to the twists and turns
of the plot and to the moral issues with which Reacher must deal. Texas
has never been captured in quite this way before." Boston Globe
"Reacher proves a good man to
have around when you're frightened and helpless and in desperate need of
someone to kill your husband. Child uses the forbidding landscape of West
Texas as both a metaphor for Carmen's sense of desolation and an excuse
for Reacher's pragmatic brutality. But Child writes with more than his
knuckles. His words are spare, but well chosen; the action is violent,
but well calculated; and the ingenuity of the plot is especially well
suited to a cool character like Reacher, who always thinks before he
strikes." Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review |
 
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