Everything starts somewhere. . . .For elite military cop Jack Reacher, that somewhere was Carter Crossing, Mississippi, way back in 1997. A lonely ...
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Jan 24, 2012
Terri
rated it: 
Let me say first that I will always choose to listen to a Jack Reacher novel instead of reading it simply because I am so impressed with the talent of Dick Hill in bringing the series to life.
The Reacher series is a favorite of mine, and I'm not sure exactly why, since I am not a fan of vigilante justice. I suppose, though, that the lone, mysterious stranger who rights wrongs and stands up for those who cannot stand up for themselves is something of an archetype. Unlike many characte More...
The Reacher series is a favorite of mine, and I'm not sure exactly why, since I am not a fan of vigilante justice. I suppose, though, that the lone, mysterious stranger who rights wrongs and stands up for those who cannot stand up for themselves is something of an archetype. Unlike many characte More...
Oct 31, 2011
S.L.
rated it: 
I pre-ordered this book and am dying to start but I promised myself I would get all my work done first. Don't worry, I'm sure I will be reviewing by this weekend!
Warning - I love all his books and can't imagine this one being any different!
Update: Well, I finished reading this book and had to think hard about what to write for a review. I love Jack Reacher and I love all of Lee Child's Books but is this the beginning of the end? Is Child tired? Yes, Reacher was Reacher More...
Warning - I love all his books and can't imagine this one being any different!
Update: Well, I finished reading this book and had to think hard about what to write for a review. I love Jack Reacher and I love all of Lee Child's Books but is this the beginning of the end? Is Child tired? Yes, Reacher was Reacher More...
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Jan 24, 2012
Tijanailich
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I've been a Jack Reacher fan for years and usually enjoy Child's novels, always finding some basic humanity in the themes of the lone MP against great odds and a corrupt system.
While this novel is well-crafted and has a complex plot narrated in Child's terse style, I did not care for Jack Reacher in this story. Too much unwarranted killing and too little compassion make the main character seem as malevolent as the bad guys he is after.
This version is an audio book narrate More...
While this novel is well-crafted and has a complex plot narrated in Child's terse style, I did not care for Jack Reacher in this story. Too much unwarranted killing and too little compassion make the main character seem as malevolent as the bad guys he is after.
This version is an audio book narrate More...
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Dec 09, 2011
Susan
rated it:
LEE Child Sells Out
I love Jack Reacher so much and I feel like Lee Child has just sold him out for money. It is so offensive that Child sold the screen rights to Tom Cruise so he could play Reacher. It didn't seem to matter that Reacher is a foot taller and a hundred pounds heavier just to name two obvious reasons he's so obviously miscast. And now it seems like Child is writing the book to support Cruise's portrayal. He usually mentions Reacher size frequently but in this book it's ju More...
I love Jack Reacher so much and I feel like Lee Child has just sold him out for money. It is so offensive that Child sold the screen rights to Tom Cruise so he could play Reacher. It didn't seem to matter that Reacher is a foot taller and a hundred pounds heavier just to name two obvious reasons he's so obviously miscast. And now it seems like Child is writing the book to support Cruise's portrayal. He usually mentions Reacher size frequently but in this book it's ju More...
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Feb 21, 2012
Kevintipple
rated it: 
It began long ago in the multiple award winning debut novel Killing Floor. 16 novels later the backstory of why Jack Reacher, US Army MP, left the service is finally told in The Affair.
It is 1997 and there is a problem in Mississippi. Somebody killed the very beautiful 27 year old Janice May Chapman in Carter Crossing. The problem for the military is the fact that quite possibly somebody from the nearby army base, Fort Kelhem, might be involved. Army Rangers, two different elite compan More...
It is 1997 and there is a problem in Mississippi. Somebody killed the very beautiful 27 year old Janice May Chapman in Carter Crossing. The problem for the military is the fact that quite possibly somebody from the nearby army base, Fort Kelhem, might be involved. Army Rangers, two different elite compan More...
Feb 01, 2012
Finally the Reacher back story! I've been a fan since the beginning and always eagerly await the release of a new Jack Reacher book. The 16th edition provides the story of how Jack came to leave the army and begin his lone wolf vigilante existence. Aside from the fact that he's still in the army this one's plot doesn't deviate much from most of the others. Jack blows into a Podunk town, uncovers evil, meets and beds a beautiful former military/law enforcement female who's almost as tough as he
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Jan 28, 2012
Mitch
rated it:
When I picked this book up, at the store and read the blurb, the main attraction for me to have the desire the book was that it was in the context of 1997; in which the year I was born.
The plot of the story very strong and excellently constructed, where it tells the mystery of a cut-throat murder of a young woman in Mississippi, just after military forces arrived back from Kosovo under the suspicion of the murder. The book sets the journey throughout the investigation and the bizarr More...
The plot of the story very strong and excellently constructed, where it tells the mystery of a cut-throat murder of a young woman in Mississippi, just after military forces arrived back from Kosovo under the suspicion of the murder. The book sets the journey throughout the investigation and the bizarr More...
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Jan 25, 2012
Seattle Mystery Bookshop
rated it:
After a couple of books with what I thought had major problems, Lee Child is back in form for The Affair (signed copies available). Perhaps it is due to this being a prequel, that is, in a way, a smaller story, a narrower focus, more of a whodunnit. Hard to say.
But this story takes us back to Reacher’s final case as a military investigator, back in the Spring of ‘97. There’s been a murder outside a ‘secret’ military base and he’s sent to get into this small Mississippi town to look fo More...
But this story takes us back to Reacher’s final case as a military investigator, back in the Spring of ‘97. There’s been a murder outside a ‘secret’ military base and he’s sent to get into this small Mississippi town to look fo More...
Jan 25, 2012
Melinda
rated it:
First, I was confused. The story is a flashback, but for some reason I had a hard time catching onto that. I remember feeling irritated because I couldn’t figure out exactly where, in time, we were. Then I was hooked, as the story settled into the flashback and I figured out this is where Reacher began. This is his backstory, how he came to be. Why he travels so light. The whole of it. There’s more to come, I know, but this is where it all started. I have to say, it was quite fun delving into th
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Jan 19, 2012
Jane
rated it:
Mostly solving a mystery. It’s fun because it’s Reacher.
STORY BRIEF:
Books 1 to 15 in the Jack Reacher series flow in chronological order. All of them are set after Reacher left the army in March 1997. This book 16 goes back in time and is set in March 1997. It describes Reacher’s last investigation as an MP before he left the army.
A woman is murdered in a small town in Mississippi. The Kellum army base is nearby. They army is hoping that the murderer is not a More...
STORY BRIEF:
Books 1 to 15 in the Jack Reacher series flow in chronological order. All of them are set after Reacher left the army in March 1997. This book 16 goes back in time and is set in March 1997. It describes Reacher’s last investigation as an MP before he left the army.
A woman is murdered in a small town in Mississippi. The Kellum army base is nearby. They army is hoping that the murderer is not a More...
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Jan 07, 2012
J.D.
rated it:
What can you say? It's a Reacher novel. You already know the rough outline of what's gong to happen: Jack rides into town, finds corruption and menace, kicks asses, finds a strong confident woman in terrible danger from the forces of said corruption, kicks some more asses, violently sets things right, rides out. The End. And somehow, it never gets old. It's a classic formula, made interesting by the variations Lee Child works with it.
This time, the book is set just before Reacher's e More...
This time, the book is set just before Reacher's e More...
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Dec 31, 2011
Bix
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If you’re already a fan of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series, like me, I don’t have to tell you much about this book except that it holds its own with the best of them (Tripwire, One Shot, and Bad Luck and Trouble, imho). If you haven’t yet discovered Child’s thrillers, this would be a good place to start (if you don’t necessarily want to work through them in order), since the events take place prior to those in most of the series – The Enemy being the other “prequel” to date.
The year More...
The year More...
Dec 02, 2011
LaDonna
rated it:
Wow! I must start by saying I've loved Jack Reacher since I picked up the first Lee Child book I came across, which happened to be the prequel, The Enemy. I quickly caught up on all the others and have looked forward to each new addition to the Reacher legacy. It is probably also worth noting that I am also a fan of Sandford's, albeit a newer convert. I have had quite a literary love affair recently with "that f@#%ing Flowers", and have commented in my reviews of those books that
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Nov 29, 2011
Ann
rated it:
His writing can be repetitive, but Lee Child knows how to structure and pace a book; combine that technical knowledge with a strong plot and this book is hard to put down. The tough, super-competent Jack Reacher is a super-hero fantasy character, of course, along the lines of Jason Bourne. What makes hin engaging is the purity of his ethcial code; the reader can always trust him to be one step ahead of the other manipulative characters in the book (not to mention the reader). And the reader c
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Nov 13, 2011
Tim
rated it:
Lee Child's most recent Jack Reacher thriller sends his famous character back in time to where he developed many of the quirks that made the other books in the series so enjoyable. This novel is set in 1997, and Reacher is still an Army MP with the rank of major. The Army is changing, downsizing in the interlude between the end of the Cold War and the beginning of the War on Terror. Three murders of beautiful women have occurred in a small town in Mississippi, which is located near an important
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Nov 10, 2011
Ilsa
rated it:
I can go as gaga as the next person when it comes to an author I admire. (If Stephen King walked into this Starbucks this very second, count on me to spill my coffee all over him. I would gaze from afar. If I got too close, I'd gush.) So, anyone following my tweets whilst I was overseas knows that I found myself always one step ahead of or behind Lee Child. I mean it. While in Dublin, I wandered into a little bookshop to sign stock only to discover that Child had been there a bare hour bef
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Nov 07, 2011
David
rated it:
This Jack Reacher novel might well be read at the start of things, rather than in sequence (it is number 16 in the series). It is set in 1997, as the reader is often reminded, and gives us the context for Reacher's separation from the Army, -- followed by his thumb-out-on-the-highway career of bringing justice to the dark land of America. Reacher is certainly a superhero, not merely an everyday polymath with muscle, and appropriate self-confidence (as a superhero must). Unlike other Reacher s
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(2 people liked it)
Nov 01, 2011
Julie
rated it:
Awww Jack Reacher, I swore that if you ended up in another small town walking this way and that way, that we would have to break up for good. I mean Boyfriend, we know that it would be a cheaper movie to make, but can't you just go to a city every now and again? The only saving grace that you went to this small town in 1997, and you were still in uniform, sort of, and so I enjoyed that little distraction. Your author kept mentioning in the last two books about the incidence in your past that
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(4 people liked it)
Oct 29, 2011
Eric
rated it:
This one was just okay.
It's the long ballyhooed story that explains why Reacher left the Army. Reacher is dispatched to Mississippi to investigate a murder, with the understanding that what he finds out may be so sensitive that the Army may want to keep a lid on it. What seems like a single murder becomes a case of serial killing. Adding to the confusion are cover-ups which lead to other killings.
Novels about serial killers often rely on salacious examinations of the abnormal More...
It's the long ballyhooed story that explains why Reacher left the Army. Reacher is dispatched to Mississippi to investigate a murder, with the understanding that what he finds out may be so sensitive that the Army may want to keep a lid on it. What seems like a single murder becomes a case of serial killing. Adding to the confusion are cover-ups which lead to other killings.
Novels about serial killers often rely on salacious examinations of the abnormal More...
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Oct 22, 2011
T.
rated it:
The Affair begins with Reacher striding into the Pentagon 'in 1997' finishing up his last official assignment in the army PD.
Past Reacher isn't much different from the hulk we've come to know and love, although his circumstances are much changed. Rather than a solo vagabound pummeling through bad-guys, Reacher 97 is a beast confined by politics, army rules and chain of command.
The Affair's story perhaps superior because of this - rather than setting up the typical 'here's More...
Past Reacher isn't much different from the hulk we've come to know and love, although his circumstances are much changed. Rather than a solo vagabound pummeling through bad-guys, Reacher 97 is a beast confined by politics, army rules and chain of command.
The Affair's story perhaps superior because of this - rather than setting up the typical 'here's More...
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Oct 15, 2011
KarenC
rated it:
Much better written than Worth Dying For, but not as high tension as 61 Hours. An interesting look back at a younger Reacher, although he behaves as we have grown to expect through the previous 15 books. But he's still a great character with a clear code and you just know he'll get to the bottom of the case before the end of the book.
Well written in Child's usual spare prose. There are sections that are more reminiscent of a newspaper reporter style than a novelist. The plot is well-craft More...
Well written in Child's usual spare prose. There are sections that are more reminiscent of a newspaper reporter style than a novelist. The plot is well-craft More...
Oct 14, 2011
N.V.
rated it:
In the 16th Jack Reacher book, Lee Child returns to Reacher's military days. This story is set in 1997 and details the betrayal that led to Reacher's separation from the military. Arranged chronologically, this book fits neatly between The Enemy (another military flashback tale) and Killing Floor (#1) and gives the reader some new information about how Jack Reacher became the man he is today.
Child is an amazing thriller writer--one of my favorites ever--but there are times when his fo More...
Child is an amazing thriller writer--one of my favorites ever--but there are times when his fo More...
Oct 13, 2011
Randy
rated it:
I usually get the new Jack Reacher novel as soon as it comes out but I was so ticked off about Tom Cruise being cast as Jack in the soon to be filmed "One Shot" that I held off for awhile. This is the worst casting since Peter Weir screwed up Master and Commander by casting Russell Crowe as Jack Aubrey and Paul Bettany as Stephen Maturin. Cruise isn't a good enough actor to play the 6' 5", 250 lb. specimen that is Lee Child's creation—Jack Reacher. It used to be fun to think about
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Oct 11, 2011
The first dozen pages of Lee Child’s newest Jack Reacher book lays everything out in precise detail, as one would expect from Reacher, and from Mr. Child, as he enters the Pentagon on March 11, 1997, on what is to be “the last day I walked into that place as a legal employee of the people who built it.” Reacher, the recipient of a Purple Heart and a Silver Star, is at this point in time 36 years old, and a major in the US Army Military Police. He is given a delicate undercover assignment follo
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Oct 07, 2011
Jack Reacher knows what he's doing, a la Slotkin's Gunfighter Nation. Lee Child does too. This is the 16th novel in the Reacher "series" -- it's sort of a series, sort of a set of standalones -- of adventure/crime novels. This one might be my favorite.
It's often a criticism to call an author's work "formula" but it's more like comfort for Child's reader. The loner entering a dysfunctional space, finding a tough and resilient and very attractive lone female (with w More...
It's often a criticism to call an author's work "formula" but it's more like comfort for Child's reader. The loner entering a dysfunctional space, finding a tough and resilient and very attractive lone female (with w More...
Oct 07, 2011
Jonathan
rated it:
Just finished one of my absolute favorite author’s latest suspense thrillers, Lee Child’s The Affair. Although it is the last in his oeuvre of 16 Jack Reacher novels, it is really the first novel in the series, although it is the second chronologically, with one e-story being even earlier. Jack Reacher is a retired Military Police Major who, as a military brat, always lived overseas while growing up with his U.S. Marine Corps father. So when he has to retire early, he travels throughout the c
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Oct 06, 2011
Sally
rated it:
Probably one of the best Reachers for a while, especially after the disappointment of the last two, supposedly linked books, which weren't linked at all. In The Affair we go back to Reacher's last days in the military police, right up until the day he leaves the army forever. There's a hint of what's to come later (chronologically speaking) in The Killing Floor with mentions of Jack's brother Joe.
He's sent undercover to investigate the brutal death of a young woman. The army wants hi More...
He's sent undercover to investigate the brutal death of a young woman. The army wants hi More...
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Oct 03, 2011
Paul
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“The Affair” by Lee Child, published by Delacorte Press.
Category – Mystery/Thriller
Lee Child takes us back to where it all began. The Jack Reacher story begins in Carter Crossing, Mississippi in 1997. Jack, a member of the Military Police, is assigned as an outside observer in a murder. The murder of a young girl outside a military base has Reacher looking for information. He has been told to go undercover and try and defuse the situation. Unfortunately he runs into the More...
Category – Mystery/Thriller
Lee Child takes us back to where it all began. The Jack Reacher story begins in Carter Crossing, Mississippi in 1997. Jack, a member of the Military Police, is assigned as an outside observer in a murder. The murder of a young girl outside a military base has Reacher looking for information. He has been told to go undercover and try and defuse the situation. Unfortunately he runs into the More...
Oct 02, 2011
Kathy
rated it:
I had been waiting for this book and I have not been disappointed. Lee Child is an excellent writer and I love the character that he has created, Jack Reacher. In this book, we travel back to 1997 to discover why Reacher left the army that was his home for so many years. Not only is that mystery solved for devoted followers but we are also taken on another wild ride of twists and turns in a wonderfully plotted mystery. The reader is taken into the world of a small town in rural Mississippi w
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Sep 30, 2011
gert
rated it:
ok, i recognize that some may find this latest reacher novel lack the excitement/suspense of some of the earlier books. but.... i disagree. i think what we're reading is a clarity to the character that took this long to reach. which is a wee bit ironic, since this book's story actually pre-dates the earlier books. (except for the short story just released. but that wasn't so hot, so i'm choosing to pretend it doesn't exist).
this is the genesis of reacher - the first time he bought 'd More...
this is the genesis of reacher - the first time he bought 'd More...
