Lee Child's Jack Reacher series is really, really, good. Reacher is both tough and smart. However, this time he's more tough than smart, which is okay, but the mystery looming in the background (the type of cargo coming to the bad guys) is so obvious that as a reader, I felt my intelligence was being insulted to even attempt to conceal it.

Reacher is really like the drifter cowboys of the western novel genre. He drifts into a Nebraska town and discovers a fuedal-like system where one family controls the area and everyone fears crossing them. In fact, this particular story reminded me a lot of an old western novel (and great Randolph Scott movie) "The Name's Buchanan" (authored by Jonas Ward). Reach stumbles onto an injustice and quickly becomes a fly in the oinment to this family and the violence ensues.

Don't get me wrong.. I enjoy Reacher's toughness... but Child's writing is at its best when there is a strong, intriguing mystery.. and lately- he seems to have moved away from that in this series. Reacher is no longer required to be smart.. just tough enough to duke it out with the baddies and there are lots of bad guys in this novel. In fact, too many. After awhile, the reader is wanting to move to more reolution and less fisticuffs.

I'm still a fan of Reacher.. but buying him as a new book rather than finding him in a used bookstore or used from Amazon is probably a thing of the past for me. I'm hoping Child can go back to Reacher's roots and write a story that is more thriller than slamfest.