Fun escape. Tough, smart, macho man. You need to suspend disbelief a little.

STORY BRIEF:
A private detective comes to Florida looking for Reacher. He is killed by two thugs who are also looking for Reacher. Reacher goes to New York to find out who wanted him and why. He learns his close friend Garber wanted his help to find out what happened to a missing soldier in Vietnam. Garber recently died. His daughter Jody helps Reacher with this. A vicious one-armed man is torturing and killing people, mostly for money.

REVIEWER’S OPINION:
This is book 3 in the series. So far I find them entertaining. I finish one and want to do the next. The main thought I had after reading this, which was kind of a problem was: Reacher is smarter than I am, so I’m not supposed to think of things that he hasn’t thought of. For a good part of the story, I was thinking X was a possible answer, but Reacher never once considered X. I was disappointed that he didn’t consider that. It was out of character.

I had one other problem. Heroine does something stupid which gets her in the hands of the bad guy. But because most of the book was entertaining, I’m not going to complain too loudly.

This didn’t have as much of the Die Hard/Rambo feeling as the first two books. This one is more about investigating and solving the mystery. But there are a few fun tough macho guy scenes which are my favorite parts. The ending was good, but I would have liked more suffering, squirming, or something for the bad guy.

THE SERIES:
Although not required, I’d recommend reading book 1 first “Killing Floor.” I liked it better, gave it 4 ½ stars.

NARRATOR:
The narrator Dick Hill was very good.

DATA:
Unabridged audiobook reading time: 14 hrs and 42 mins. Swearing language: I don’t recall any, but maybe moderate. Sexual language: none. Number of sex scenes: three told not shown. Setting: 1999 mostly New York City, with various other U.S. locations. Book copyright: 1999. Genre: mystery suspense thriller. Ending: Good.