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Without Fail (Jack Reacher #6)
by
Lee Child
A covert group of assassins has the Vice President of the United States in their sights. They've planned well. There's just one thing they didn't plan on: Jack Reacher.
Paperback, 416 pages
Published
February 26th 2008
by Jove
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I bought this book when Cody's - historic, tragic Cody's as anyone in the Bay Area knows - was going out of business. It was 40% percent off, and I was casting about for the type of book that would magically unlock the keys to moving plot forward and making pages turn since, ahem, I was having some slight trouble in that regard. I don't know if I learned anything in the craft dept other than that Jack Reacher is an awesome badass, stone-cold professional, crafty and smart hero who actually made ...more
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3 ½ or 4 stars, can’t decide. Reacher didn’t beat up as many thugs as I would have liked, but I still enjoyed it.
STORY BRIEF:
Someone is threatening Armstrong, the newly elected Vice President. Froelich is in charge of the Secret Service team protecting him. She used to date Reacher’s brother who told her about Reacher’s talents and abilities. She hires Reacher to test her security and then to help with the current threat. Reacher hires one of his army buddies to help.
...more
STORY BRIEF:
Someone is threatening Armstrong, the newly elected Vice President. Froelich is in charge of the Secret Service team protecting him. She used to date Reacher’s brother who told her about Reacher’s talents and abilities. She hires Reacher to test her security and then to help with the current threat. Reacher hires one of his army buddies to help.
...more
Have you heard of Jack Reacher? He's become a favorite among a handful of people I know. We were each introduced to Reacher at one time or another by the same person, who conveniently has almost every book written about Reacher.
Lee Child's brainchild is a gargantuan man, ex-military, a nomad, and deadly (both to enemies and to women). In previous books, he would tell time without looking at a watch. But in Without Fail, he was constantly depending on his watch. Confusing. Also, this...more
Lee Child's brainchild is a gargantuan man, ex-military, a nomad, and deadly (both to enemies and to women). In previous books, he would tell time without looking at a watch. But in Without Fail, he was constantly depending on his watch. Confusing. Also, this...more
Fine 6th Jack Reacher -- Secret Service thriller !!
We have read the entire Lee Child / Jack Reacher series, so obviously we enjoy these action packed thrillers about nice guy, smart guy, ex-MP Reacher. "Without Fail" is no exception, and a fast start -- a near-miss assassination attempt on Vice President-elect Armstrong -- soon leads the Secret Service to haul in Jack to act as a consultant and help them try to penetrate their security surrounding the veep so that they can ...more
We have read the entire Lee Child / Jack Reacher series, so obviously we enjoy these action packed thrillers about nice guy, smart guy, ex-MP Reacher. "Without Fail" is no exception, and a fast start -- a near-miss assassination attempt on Vice President-elect Armstrong -- soon leads the Secret Service to haul in Jack to act as a consultant and help them try to penetrate their security surrounding the veep so that they can ...more
Lee Child- Without Fail (Jove Books 2003) 3.5 Stars
When threats come in against the life of the vice president of the United States, the Secret Service find, but one that they decide to take seriously. Now they are calling upon Jack Reacher, whose deceased brother Joe Reacher used to work with the Secret Service. Jack Reacher must show them the flaws in their security and help them save the life of the vice president before it is too late. The assassins think that they have everythin...more
When threats come in against the life of the vice president of the United States, the Secret Service find, but one that they decide to take seriously. Now they are calling upon Jack Reacher, whose deceased brother Joe Reacher used to work with the Secret Service. Jack Reacher must show them the flaws in their security and help them save the life of the vice president before it is too late. The assassins think that they have everythin...more
Reacher is contacted by his dead brothers ex girlfriend who is now a proectore of the vice president in the secret service.
Handy if you are a thriller writer for your characters to have these sort of contacts.
The vice president is being threatened and the only person that can help is someone outside the organisation..... who better for you to call on than a man you have never met who was nearly part of the family.
If you think it sounds stupid now, wait until y...more
Handy if you are a thriller writer for your characters to have these sort of contacts.
The vice president is being threatened and the only person that can help is someone outside the organisation..... who better for you to call on than a man you have never met who was nearly part of the family.
If you think it sounds stupid now, wait until y...more
If you haven't read any Jack Reacher novels. This is a great place to start. The only thing that stopped this book from getting 5 stars was Child's appalling lack of knowledge about Wyoming.
Near the end of the novel the protagonist, Jack Reacher and a colleague Frances Neagley, are on his way to the fictional town of Grace, Wyoming which is a couple hours north of Casper – a town I lived in for two years. Reacher and Neagley take a plane to Denver and decide to drive to Grace.
...more
Near the end of the novel the protagonist, Jack Reacher and a colleague Frances Neagley, are on his way to the fictional town of Grace, Wyoming which is a couple hours north of Casper – a town I lived in for two years. Reacher and Neagley take a plane to Denver and decide to drive to Grace.
...more
If you've been following my reviews very long you know that I am a HUGE fan of this series by Lee Child. Without Fail wasn't quite as strong as the others I've read thus far.. but still a pretty good read.
A Secret Service agent does the impossible-- she tracks down Jack Reacher (she used to date his brother Joe) She is the head of the security detail for the newly elected Vice-President and she asks Reacher to to examine if her operation is truly protecting the V.P. Reacher shows he...more
A Secret Service agent does the impossible-- she tracks down Jack Reacher (she used to date his brother Joe) She is the head of the security detail for the newly elected Vice-President and she asks Reacher to to examine if her operation is truly protecting the V.P. Reacher shows he...more
While reading this installment of the Jack Reacher series, I remarked to my fiancee that this just might be the best one so far. She lauhed at me, and chided that I have said that for every one that I have read so far. She's right. I probably have.
But, to me, that's the beauty of this series. It's fun to see the progression, not just in Child's plotting but in his writing in general. It would be difficult, I would think, to keep outdoing your own cleverness. That's one of the dangers...more
But, to me, that's the beauty of this series. It's fun to see the progression, not just in Child's plotting but in his writing in general. It would be difficult, I would think, to keep outdoing your own cleverness. That's one of the dangers...more
This is another of the Jack Reacher thriller/mystery/butt-kicker books by Lee Child. A generally fun, easy-to-read series with the protagonist being an ex-Military Policeman who is a loner and one who somehow gets himself in the damnedest scrapes, all of which include brief, intense and ultimately failed relationships with women. This is no different, this time concentrating on an assassination attempt(s) on the Vice-President (I had no trouble visualizing Joe Biden in this role - you'll see). W...more
Reacher is hired as an exercise to see if he can breach the Secret Service protection detail to assassinate the vice president-elect. Of course, he can; in several different ways. That exercise morphs into a real attempt on the vice president-elect's life and Reacher is on hand to uncover the perpetrators. Interesting behind-the-scenes details about the Secret Service. I like what Melissa said, that this book is more about Reacher's brains than his brawn. This installment of the Reacher stories ...more
I'm gradually reading the Jack Reacher books in order, and this is the sixth. After making it through nearly half the extant books, I'd have to say that the other Jack series (Repairman Jack by F. Paul Wilson) is the more consistently entertaining, that is if you don't ...mind a little supernatural horror with your vigilante action. The previous Jack Reacher outing, Echo Burning, was a superb Texas gothic tale. But this one strains credibility in a couple of ways. First, I don't buy the motivati...more
Jack Reacher series. Reacher is tracked down by VP secret service Agent Froelich to do a security audit - see if the VP is vulnerable to attack. Reacher gets assistance from colleague Frances Neagley and they find several easy holes to exploit. Of course, Reacher knows there is an ulterior motive - there is an active threat against the VP. Reacher and Neagley stay on as consultants to unravel the plot against the VP. This is a bit atypical of the Reacher books I have read - not nearly as mu...more
Jack Reacher (famous for “saying nuthin”) works with the Secret Service to foil an assassination attempt on the Veep-elect … scope for an excellent Reacher tale, but this one somehow doesn’t entirely hit the spot. The main problem seems to be excessive “padding”. On the plus side, the characterizations are excellent, and the dark humour pervasive. This is not the very best of Lee Child’s Reacher thrillers, but it’s still much better than most tales in this genre, so well worth a listen. As I’ve ...more
This is another winner by Lee Child. Threats have been made against vice president elect Brook Armstrong and it's up to Reacher and Secret Service agent (and Reacher's late brother's former girlfriend!) M.E. Froelich to figure out who is making the threats and how to keep the VP alive. Interestingly, we never hear about the president elect, only the vice president, but his office is an important plot point, so he must be the vice president. Still, I thought it odd that there was all this f...more
Well, this was a pleasant surprise. It was chosen by someone in our office book club and I thought, ugh, isn't this guy one of those Tom Clancy/Robert Ludlum clones? I was expecting terrible dialogue and a lot weapons porn ("He shouldered the TEK45 version 4.5 missile launcher and snapped in the the specially modified Glockenspiel drone detector, stolen from a former KGB armory in Turkistan") , but it turned out to be a clever, twisty thriller. It reminded me a bit of a Thomas Perry...more
I always forget how much i enjoy the Jack reacher books until I read the next one. The Reacher books read like an above average movie thriller. There are a few moments where you have to wonder, really they would do it like that, but that the roller coaster ride continues.
Make sure you read the Reacher books in order. You have to have already bought into the concept of Reacher as a character to make this book work.
This book is about an assassination attempt on the Vice ...more
Make sure you read the Reacher books in order. You have to have already bought into the concept of Reacher as a character to make this book work.
This book is about an assassination attempt on the Vice ...more
This was good, a definite pickup from the last book in the series. It really started off with a bang. I thought the location descriptions really set the tone. I enjoyed it overall. I thought a little bit passed the halfway point it blended together. I guess that's the risk you run by starting things fast and from the beginning. Everything came together alright I suppose, a bit sad though. It's almost like I had to review this backwards. Normally it picks up as you go along but this was opposite ...more
Reacher helps the FBI figure out who is trying to kill the Vice President of the United States.
I thought the plot was well thought out and plausible, however it was drawn out a little bit too much.
One question I did have with the detail in the book. Near the end one of the assassins tries to shoot Reacher with a Beretta M9 he stole from Froelich's house. The gun misfires apparently because she kept the magazine fully loaded and the spring was worn out. I guess that mea...more
I thought the plot was well thought out and plausible, however it was drawn out a little bit too much.
One question I did have with the detail in the book. Near the end one of the assassins tries to shoot Reacher with a Beretta M9 he stole from Froelich's house. The gun misfires apparently because she kept the magazine fully loaded and the spring was worn out. I guess that mea...more
Another exciting installment in the story of Jack Reacher, a drifting ex-military policeman contacted by his late brother Joe's ex-lover and colleague at the Secret Service to help her determine her detail's vulnerabilities in protecting a Vice President-elect who seems to have attracted some unwanted, murderous attention. Advice turns into involvement in an all-out hunt for a threat that might even be coming from the inside.
As long as I give myself enough time between each book, these...more
As long as I give myself enough time between each book, these...more
Taught thriller, starts off strong and snowballs into an adrenaline-filled blast. Pure popcorn fun.
After taking a book off from it, Child develops Reacher's character a bit by bringing him into contact with people who knew his brother before he killed. Which is nice and commendable, but it's not his strong suit.
Most of the time, he does what he does best: he puts a target in front of Reacher, gives Reacher juuuuust enough info to keep stumbling from one clue to the next...more
After taking a book off from it, Child develops Reacher's character a bit by bringing him into contact with people who knew his brother before he killed. Which is nice and commendable, but it's not his strong suit.
Most of the time, he does what he does best: he puts a target in front of Reacher, gives Reacher juuuuust enough info to keep stumbling from one clue to the next...more
Lee Child is back! I heard about the Jack Reacher series about a year ago and figured I would give "Killing Floor" a try. It had an interesting protagonist, great plot and killer scenes of explosive violence. The next book was almost as good. But from there, things steadily declined. The book before this one, "Echo Burning" was easily the worst -- boring and trite.
In "Without Fail", Lee Child returns to form. Jack Reacher returns, this time to defe...more
In "Without Fail", Lee Child returns to form. Jack Reacher returns, this time to defe...more
This is a good one. I categorize this as an "airplane read" because it is the small sized paperback that fits easily into your carry-on and its a good one because it is fast paced and interesting so you can keep on reading it for hours when flying across country. Jack Reacher is a larger than life hero and there is the complementary woman to play rough, tough girl hero across from him. If you want meaningful literature, stay away from this one but if you want lots of action and ...more
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Great quick paced read. I'm not reading them in order per se, but I did start with book one The Killing Floor and the library only had this one available, which was lucky in a sense because from book one this novel melds directly from The Killing Floor. This novel reads like a movie to me. I can't really picture who would play Jack Reacher, but the 2 women in the book I can see played by Jeri Ryan and Jolene Blalock. The way the author describes them in the book, gives me mental pictures of them...more
Not bad, probably the least ridiculous of the Reacher books I've read. Child has an annoying tic of having characters (almost always Reacher, really) announce that they've figured something out, but some other character announces that there isn't time to hear this 10 seconds of essential information because of some other pressing matter. Then, of course, some event occurs related to said information, and more excitement ensues. So, sure, it's as predictable as any action movie, but that's why...more
A young Secret Service approaches Reacher with a strange request. She wants Reacher to kill the Vice President. The reason for the request is to see whether all the the security measures that she has put in place to protect the newly elected V.P. are perfect. The one major detail that she doesn't let Reacher in on is that a team of accomplished assasins already have the V.P. in their sights. Their problem is that they don't know about Reacher. A fast paced thriller that shows the seedier side o...more
After the dullness of Echo Burning, Lee Child makes up for all that with the next in the Jack Reacher series, this time helping out the Secret Service to save the life of the vice president-elect. Of course, it's never as simple as it sounds, and as well as the intrigue, Reacher has two women vying for his attention: The Secret Service agent who contacts him, who also used to be his brother's girlfriend, and his old Army colleague Neagley.
I love Neagley. I've read these books out of or...more
I love Neagley. I've read these books out of or...more
Dopo gli sfolgoranti primi libri dell'autore Lee Child che ha creato il personaggio di Jack Reacher (un ex ufficiale della polizia militare statunitense, un vero duro), l'effetto fiume della sua vena creativa in piena si era via via prosciugato fino ad arrivare a essere un misero torrentello.
Non dico che in questo libro c'è proprio un ritorno al vecchio e apprezzato stile con le mirabolanti trovate precedenti, ma possiamo rispolverare il personaggio per ridagli quella patina di luce...more
Non dico che in questo libro c'è proprio un ritorno al vecchio e apprezzato stile con le mirabolanti trovate precedenti, ma possiamo rispolverare il personaggio per ridagli quella patina di luce...more
Jack is approached by a woman who wants him to assasinate the Vice President. The catch - she's an old friend of his brother and she works for the secret service. She technically wants him to review her security measures to insure that the Vice President is safe while they review an ongoing and real threat that may be coming from within their own division. Reacher brings in an old military team mate and they make quick work of punching holes in the current security.
Meanwhile, th...more
Meanwhile, th...more
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Lee Child was born in 1954 in Coventry, England, but spent his formative years in the nearby city of Birmingham. By coincidence he won a scholarship to the same high school that JRR Tolkien had attended. He went to law school in Sheffield, England, and after part-time work in the theater he joined Granada Television in Manchester for what turned out to be an eighteen-year career as a presentation ...more
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“They found out about him in July and stayed angry all through August. They tried to kill him in September. It was way too soon. They weren't ready. The attempt was a failure. It could have been a disaster, but it was actually a miracle. Because nobody noticed.”
—
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