by
3.93 of 5 stars
Jack Reacher is back.
 
The countdown has begun. Get ready for the most exciting 61 hours of your life. #1 New York Times... read full description

reviews

Aug 19, 2011
Jeanette rated it: 3 of 5 stars
I'm going with 3.5 stars on this one. There's only one reason I can't nudge it up to 4 stars, which I'll explain at the end of the review (with plenty of advance warning.)

Jack Reacher novels fall into two categories. One is the big city, ABO, non-stop action, heavy violence thriller such as Gone Tomorrow. The other is the small town, slower-paced, watching and waiting type---more mystery than thriller. 61 Hours is in the second category, although it does get pretty exciting later More...
9 comments like (7 people liked it)
Aug 17, 2011
Mandy rated it: 4 of 5 stars
(Disclaimer: This review is written by someone who is a huge Lee Child/Jack Reacher fan. I will try and not let the bias creep in too much. Having said that, this book did not disappoint and I dare you to read it and find otherwise.)

The clock is ticking....61 hours….enough time for Reacher to become fully embroiled in another action-packed adventure….you betcha!

61 Hours is Lee Child’s latest book, the 14th for the Jack Reacher series. Reacher is an ex-military police More...
0 comments like (4 people liked it)
Mar 19, 2011
J.D. rated it: 5 of 5 stars
I had to laugh. Those of us in the thriller game talk about building suspense with the "ticking clock": a hard deadline that the characters are up against. If they don't make it, all is lost. So what does Lee Child do? He imbeds an almost literal ticking clock in every chapter, ending each one with the reminder that there are "X hours to go." It's such an obvious device that it's like the magician showing you how the trick is done, but it still works-- you still gasp and chuc More...
1 comment like (9 people liked it)
Dec 28, 2010
Maddy rated it: 4 of 5 stars
PROTAGONIST: Jack Reacher
SETTING: South Dakota
SERIES: #14 of 14
RATING: 3.5

In the fourteenth book of the Jack Reacher series, our peripatetic adventurer finds himself on a bus filled with senior citizens that has just slid into a ditch in snowy South Dakota. It will be a few days before a replacement bus will be able to continue their journey, so everyone on the bus is taken into the homes of the inhabitants of Bolton, SD. As you might expect, Reacher is not spen More...
0 comments like (5 people liked it)
Mar 12, 2011
Adam rated it: 3 of 5 stars
After reading 61 Hours, I'm left with one burning question. Does Jack Reacher ever brush his teeth?

Lee Child goes into a lot of detail about how his hulking protagonist drifts around the United States with literally no possessions -- not even a backpack -- and how he buys a new set of clothes every week and throws away the old set. But does he ever brush his teeth? Does he bathe? Does he shave? If he doesn't shave, does he have a beard? He's not described with one.

If Chil More...
6 comments like (3 people liked it)
Aug 17, 2011
John rated it: 4 of 5 stars
What can I say? This manly-man stuff rarely moves me but I am still a TOTAL sucker for Lee Child and his nigh-unbelievably perfect protagonist, Jack Reacher.

He ups the ante in this one by almost making the COLD of the January Dakotas a character unto itself.

While not as good as my favorite from him (Bad Luck and Trouble) this one should stand among his best.
0 comments like (3 people liked it)
Aug 17, 2011
Casey rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Oh yes another fine Jack Reacher book from Child. I couldn't put this one down. I bought it the day it was avalible and finished it three days later. 61 hours is a typical Jack Reacher book with little differences. For instance there wasn't any romance with a female. There was the MP that he spoke to on the phone and liked her voice but there wasn't any contact between the two. I loved the setting of this book, small town, dead of winter, pretty much locked down in the middle of nowhere. Another More...
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Nov 10, 2010
Keri rated it: 4 of 5 stars
Typical Reacher, although in this book he uses a lot more brain power than usual instead of those whole chicken sized fists of his to subdue the baddies. Reacher ends up on a tourist bus that crashes in the deep winter of Wyoming. So begins the countdown of 61 hours, because Reacher might have been in a crash, but he has stumbled into a whole mess of trouble, just like always, but never of his making. Can Reacher discover who is behind the plot to kill a witness and what secrets is this small pr More...
0 comments like (2 people liked it)
Aug 17, 2011
Dewey rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Lee Child at his best. Jack Reacher is stranded in a small South Dakota town due to a snowstorm and as usual manages to find his help is needed. A little old lady witness to a drug deal is being protected from being killed by a Mexican drug lord is the basis of the novel. Jack assists the local Police Department protecting her and investigating the usual murders that seek out Reacher. This is one of my favorite Jack Reacher novels. The pacing was good, high suspense, some surprises. Loved More...
0 comments like (3 people liked it)
Feb 04, 2012
Frank rated it: 4 of 5 stars
This was another page-turner in the Reacher series. In this one, Reacher is on a bus going through South Dakota in the middle of the winter. The bus is involved in an accident and Reacher is stuck in a small town with a lot of problems including a motorcycle gang selling meth and a potential murderer about to strike the town. Well, needless to say, Reacher gets involved in what turns out to be an epic climax. I don't know if Child was thinking of ending the series with this book (given the endin More...
Jan 29, 2012
Eric rated it: 3 of 5 stars
In the sense that there's a very very bad man who you can't wait for Reacher to pulverize, this book fulfills the promise of any good Reacher tale. Child even manages putting 6'5" Reacher up against a 4'11" opponent and making the odds a bit more even than you'd expect.

But there are a few deal-breakers here in terms of plausibility, giving rise to some disbelief I could not suspend. First one: There's a key witness who can potentially take out a criminal cartel in a small C More...
Jan 22, 2012
Jodi rated it: 4 of 5 stars
Lee Child has done it again! He has created another book in the Jack Reacher series to thrill his fans. Reacher an ex-military cop finds himself in the midst of another life or death situation; this time in South Dakota in the middle of a blizzard.

Jack Reacher is a man with no ties, a drifter who has no destination in mind going wherever the road takes him. In this the 14th book of the Reacher series we find him on a bus that is full of seniors on a tour across state. While driving More...
Jan 15, 2012
Jane rated it: 3 of 5 stars
Not enough action. Reacher did some unsmart things. Incomplete ending. But, because I like hanging out with Reacher it was ok.

STORY BRIEF:
Reacher is on a bus. Due to winter weather he is stranded in Bolton, S. Dakota. Local police are guarding an elderly woman who witnessed a drug deal. Reacher decides to help protect her.

A biker gang has been living near Bolton in an abandoned army compound. The police believe they have been selling drugs (meth). The biker More...
2 comments like (1 person liked it)
Jan 07, 2012
Barry rated it: 3 of 5 stars
Jack Reacher is a wuss! And Lee Child watched Fargo! Our trusty hero is west of the Mississippi again – which means that Lee Child has to describe a place that he can’t possibly fathom. This novel, set in frozen South Dakota, is the meteorological flip-side of the searing heat of west Texas in Echo Burning. As true Englishman in New York, he populates these inhospitable wastelands with simple but decent country yokels dominated by people bent mean by the hellish weather.

The frozen More...
Dec 03, 2011
Dlora rated it: 4 of 5 stars
I really enjoyed the characters in this novel, both the assistant chief of police and the endangered witness to a drug transaction. He's earnest and willing to learn and she old-fashioned and principled; Reacher is drawn to helping them both. Having hitched a ride on a tour bus, he gets stranded in a little town in South Dakota when the bus crashes in the middle of a snow storm. I was fascinated with the details about the cold and how it affects daily life. Lee Child described it well enough tha More...
Oct 15, 2011
Joe rated it: 4 of 5 stars
. After a near fatal bus accident, former MP, Jack Reacher, finds himself stranded in South Dakota. But Reacher wouldn't be Reacher if he didn't find himself in the middle of trouble. I don't know whether trouble follows him or the other way around.

On the surface it appears as if a local biker gang has set up a meth lab at an abandoned military installation built during the cold war. The local law enforcement is less than top notch and Reacher steps in and helps. It goes much deeper th More...
Oct 04, 2011
Jack rated it: 4 of 5 stars
Lee Child kicks butt! He has created a real oddball loner hero named Jack Reacher [note: I was not influenced by the similarity in name], a former Army Military Police officer who comes across crimes which he helps solve. I was so caught up by 61 Hours that once I finished it, while I was yet again traveling, I ducked into a bookstore in Martinez, California, and bought another, One Shot, which turned out to be the one just before.

Child’s writing is gritty and his style is, in his own More...
Sep 04, 2011
Robin rated it: 4 of 5 stars
Here's a funny thing…

In my copy of Bad Luck and Trouble, it gives Jack Reacher's birth date as 1960 in the profile data at the front of the book. But in my copy of 61 Hours, published three years later, we just get 29 Oct – no year.

It seems that the publishers fear the mighty action hero – here on very good form – might be showing his age at 51 years old. He certainly looks past his best going by appearances – terrible old clothes, shaggy hair (in Bad Luck…) and here he spend More...
Aug 06, 2011
Amanda rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Total page-turner. Lee Child has a talent for really grasping the reader and making you never want the book to end. He's another one of those authors that has me drooling for their next book (he joins French, Cronin, King, among others). I know a great book when I get to the end and am so upset its over that I go back and read the last chapter. I did that with this book. Having a military background myself, I find all the references even more enjoyable.

I don't want to say much More...
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Aug 05, 2011
Kelly rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Attended a book reading for this book with the author. He was kind enough to meet every attendee at the end, shake hands, sign any book he authored and pose for a photo with you, it was a great experience and I look forward to his latest book "The Affair" coming out in September 2011!!

I've read a lot of "series" books with a recurring character and after some time, many of them become very predictable and, while they're still fun, they just lose something. This More...
Jul 18, 2011
Tony rated it: 4 of 5 stars
Lee Child- 61 Hours (Dell Books 2010) 4.25 Stars

When the bus that Reacher is on crashes in South Dakota, Reacher finds himself stuck in the middle of nowhere. Tension seems to be rising in the small town of Bolton as the police face off against a drug ring. When he finds a little old lady being threatened for what she has seen, he knows that he cannot let it go. Now he finds himself stuck in the middle of something he has no business being involved in.

This was a little bit o More...
Jul 11, 2011
johane rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Jack Reacher. He’s a rebel and an ex-military cop, a lover and a drifter; he’s a bone-breaker and the bad guys’ worst nightmare! At six feet five and a man of independent means he can afford to stand up for his principles. He carries no baggage and looks for no trouble but trouble always finds him ….
This time Jack Reacher is stranded on a bus which crashed in a snowstorm in South Dakota. Little did he know he is about to get caught up in the middle of a confrontation between the bad guys More...
Mar 13, 2011
Michelle♥ rated it: 1 of 5 stars
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here
0 comments like (4 people liked it)
Mar 12, 2011
Angela rated it: 4 of 5 stars
The perfect hero, Jack Reacher, the drifter who travels light and doesn't look back, quick-thinking, wise, smart, tough, no-fear guy with an army background finds himself on a bus in South Dakota in the middle of a blizzard. Reacher has hitched a ride on a bus tour of senior citizens. When the bus crashes, he finds himself in Bolton, the location for a recently built prison. A crooked lawyer conducts some shady business at the prison and then skids on the slippery road, sending the bus crashing More...
Mar 02, 2011
Maryann rated it: 4 of 5 stars
Another great thriller from Lee Child. Jack Reacher gets better and better with each story. The book is set in South Dakota in the middle of winter and a horrible blizzard. I had to put on extra sweaters just to keep reading. I've been to SD in a blizzard and it is no fun.

Reacher gets stuck in SD when the tour bus he is riding on breaks down near a small city and everyone is stuck until the weather clears. The local police department is protecting a witness who is going to testify at t More...
Mar 02, 2011
Melissa rated it: 4 of 5 stars
I read this one pretty quickly as I had many hours to kill on an overseas flight. Reacher is hitchhiking through South Dakota when the tour bus he is on hits ice and crashes and he ends up in a small town in the dead of winter unable to get out of town due to storms. The town has a federal prison and all the things that come with it - extra jobs, tourists in the form of visiting relatives, and a witness who is being protected so that she can testify against what will be the town's, even the stat More...
Feb 21, 2011
Linda rated it: 2 of 5 stars
The nomadic Jack Reacher hitches a ride on a tour bus in South Dakota, only to have it skid off the road during an intensifying blizzard. The town folk put up the stranded travelers in their homes, but the police can't provide immediate assistance because of a riot at the new local prison. When one of the cops learns of Reacher's background in law enforcement, they recruit him to provide protection for a key witness in an upcoming drug trial. In a departure for author Child, much of the 61 hours More...
1 comment like (3 people liked it)
Feb 20, 2011
Jim rated it: 3 of 5 stars
Lee Child writes well paced, exciting stories and this is another good one. The book begins with Jack Reacher and a busload of senior citizens stranded in a South Dakota town in the middle of winter. The local police force is stretched thin, trying to cope with a murder, a severe winter storm, and guarding an important witness. A background check on Reacher by the police reveals his time as an M.P. and this in turn prompts the assistant chief of the department to ask for his help.

More...
Feb 09, 2011
Seizure Romero rated it: 2 of 5 stars
I haven't read all the Jack Reacher novels. I liked Bad Luck and Trouble and Gone Tomorrow, so I thought I'd try a few others. They're fun; there's bad-ass action, the writing is pretty good, and Child throws little tidbits of random (but usually relevant) information in the story to keep it interesting. Unfortunately, it looks like Child is starting to go the way of David Baldacci: these later books seem to be about 100 pages too long. Too much fluff. This book has 383 pages. I knew who the ins More...
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Dec 30, 2010
Richard rated it: 1 of 5 stars
I have been a big Lee Child fan over the past few years. However in my opinion this was the slowest most painful reading experience i have had in a very long time. The Reacher character is becoming tired and book after book the author seems to be rewriting the back story so that once you have heard his history once you will see it in every book. This is a plausible point, as not everyone will read all of the Jack Reacher books and they need to learn about the protagonist.
However in 61 Hours More...
0 comments like (4 people liked it)