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Persuader

(Jack Reacher #7)

Lee Child (Goodreads Author)

4.10 · Rating details · 72,817 ratings · 2,924 reviews

Jack Reacher lives for the moment. Without a home. Without commitment. And with a burning desire to right wrongs --- and rewrite his own agonizing past. DEA agent Susan Duffy is living for the future, knowing that she has made a terrible mistake by putting one of her own female agents into a death trap within a heavily guarded Maine mansion.

Staging a brilliant ruse, Reache ...more

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Mass Market Paperback, 465 pages

Published May 19th 2009 by Dell (first published April 1st 2003)

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Jun 07, 2017 Alp rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: crime-mystery, suspense, thriller, military, mystery

People were depending on me. I had been beaten many times. But I had never just quit. Not once. Not ever.

This book! OMG, my heart is still beating so fast as though it's going to jump out of my chest! What an adrenaline-pumping ride!

Ok, take a deep breath...

Alright, I will keep this short as I know that there's no way I can write this review without going into detail, in which will ultimately give the story all away. So, no spoilers here.

Once again, Lee Child dazzles me with this top-notch s ...more

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Mar 23, 2010 James Thane rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: crime-fiction, jack-reacher, lee-child

Jack Reacher is often found minding his own business when something happens right in front of him that propels him into another mission. In this case, he's walking down a street in Boston when he sees a dead man--or at least a man who is supposed to have been dead for ten years. And if anyone should know that the guy is supposed to be dead, it's Reacher.

The man in question, a particularly nasty character named Quinn, had crossed paths with Reacher back when Reacher was still in the army. Reacher ...more

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Feb 21, 2017 Ahmad Sharabiani rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: crime-mystery, literature, fiction, 21th-century, british

The Persuader‎ (Jack Reacher #7), Lee Child
Persuader is the seventh book in the Jack Reacher series written by Lee Child. It is written in the first person. Jack Reacher is working unofficially, with the DEA to bring down a boy's father, Zachary Beck, who is suspected of smuggling drugs, under the pretext of trading in oriental carpets. They stage a kidnap effort on Zachary's son, Richard Beck. A frightened Richard places in his trust on Reacher, and asks him to take him back home. Reacher gains The Persuader‎ (Jack Reacher #7), Lee Child
Persuader is the seventh book in the Jack Reacher series written by Lee Child. It is written in the first person. Jack Reacher is working unofficially, with the DEA to bring down a boy's father, Zachary Beck, who is suspected of smuggling drugs, under the pretext of trading in oriental carpets. They stage a kidnap effort on Zachary's son, Richard Beck. A frightened Richard places in his trust on Reacher, and asks him to take him back home. Reacher gains access to Beck and gradually gains his confidence by working as a hired gun/bodyguard. ....
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز هشتم ماه جولای سال 2016 میلادی
عنوان: وسوسه ی انتقام - کتاب 07 - از سری جک ریچر؛ نویسنده: لی چایلد؛ مترجم: محمد عباس آبادی؛ تهران، تندیس، 1394؛ در 524 ص؛ شابک: 9786001821691؛ موضوع: داستانهای نویسندگان انگلیسی - سده 21 م
هفتمین کتاب از سری «جک ریچر» با عنوان: «وسوسه‌ ی انتقام» است، که در سال 2003 میلادی، برای نخستین بار منتشر شد. این داستان با روایت اول شخص، و از زبان خود «جک ریچر» نوشته شده است. «جک ریچر»، پلیس پیشین ارتش، سال‌هاست که ارتش را ترک کرده، و زندگی پرماجرایی را بدون خانواده، بدون دارایی، و بدون هیچ تعهدی، و البته بدون هیچ ترسی، آغاز کرده است. با اینکه «ریچر»، به دنبال دردسر نیست، دردسر همه‌ جا به دنبالش می‌گردد. و آنگاه که دردسر او را پیدا می‌کند، «ریچر» اهل جا زدن نیست. ‌ده سال پیشتر، در یکی از مأموریت‌های «ریچر»، برای کشتن یک افسر اطلاعات ارتش، که قصد فروختن طرح‌های یک سلاح سری به «عراق» را داشت، و یکی از همکاران نزدیک «ریچر» را به قتل رساند، کارها خوب پیش نرفت. حالا، پس از یک رویارویی تصادفی، همه ‌چیز برایش دوباره زنده می‌شود. اینجاست که با آخرین شانس خود، روبرو می‌شود. بعضی‌ها به آن می‌گویند: «انتقام»، بعضی دیگر هم شاید نام: «رستگاری» را روی آن بگذارند؛ اما برای «ریچر» چیزی نیست، جز: «عدالت». ا. شربیانی ...more

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Dec 03, 2008 Julie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I am totally loving this series. (Although I think it must be best NOT to read them back to back because then the formula wears through.) This is a good one -- tense, claustrophobic, and non-stop action. Two quibbles -- the romance between Reacher and Duffy seems...unmotivated. Like the author says to himself, "And this is the place where I start the romance," and proceeded to have Reacher make out with the nearest available female character. Also, the last 20 percent of the novel seems unduly l ...more

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Jun 17, 2013 Jeff rated it liked it

Shelves: thrillers-suspense-spys

This is the first Jack Reacher book I’ve read. Maybe I should have started with the first one in the series, but I picked up this one used. For fifty cents. Reading some of the Goodreads comments about the varied quality of the Reacher series, I was probably better off starting with this one.

The tricksy misdirection at the beginning of the book aside, this was a decent read. Reacher, reminded me of Robert B. Parker’s Spenser, big, tough, smart, can handle himself in any situation. But he’s not a ...more

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Nov 22, 2017 Michael rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

To me this was the best of the series after Killing Floor.

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May 13, 2018 William rated it really liked it · review of another edition

4-stars, perhaps a bit more.

This and "Echo Burning" are by far Child's best books in the series (so far). The pacing is terrific, mostly. The dialogue and action are very good, mostly. The climax is good, but too drawn-out in parts. The plot is very, very clever. This would have been 5-stars if not for Child's momentary returns to excessive detail and repetitive prose.

As usual with my reviews, please first read the publisher’s blurb/summary of the book. Thank you.

Lots and lots of guns in this ...more

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Aug 08, 2010 smetchie rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: listening-is-just-different

This bad-ass walks around with an anaconda in his pants (apparently, that's a type of revolver but it's still pretty impressive)
Anaconda Revolver

He has an AOL device hidden in his shoe. He says nothing a lot. So does everyone else in this novel.

I'm not cut out for crime fiction. It bugs me. ...more

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Oct 02, 2013 Krycek rated it really liked it

Gigantic hobo detective Jack Reacher once again wanders into more trouble than any happy-go-lucky wanderer would reasonably expect. This time, after encountering a ghost from his past, a man named Quinn who should be dead, Reacher gets involved in an undercover DEA operation to take the man and his smuggling operation down. Reacher poses as a gun-for-hire in order to infiltrate Quinn's operation. The DEA wants him to go in and recover an agent who went missing and is presumably held captive. Rea Gigantic hobo detective Jack Reacher once again wanders into more trouble than any happy-go-lucky wanderer would reasonably expect. This time, after encountering a ghost from his past, a man named Quinn who should be dead, Reacher gets involved in an undercover DEA operation to take the man and his smuggling operation down. Reacher poses as a gun-for-hire in order to infiltrate Quinn's operation. The DEA wants him to go in and recover an agent who went missing and is presumably held captive. Reacher is going in for personal reasons. Quinn was supposed to be dead and Reacher is going to make sure he stays that way.

Child's Reacher series is fairly reliable. After reading a couple, you pretty much know what you're going to get, and you keep reading more because what you want is what Child delivers. That is, action, thrills, a little sex, despicable villains and a big-ass juggernaut of justice willing to crack skulls and shoot people until all the bad guys are dead. Persuader is no different, and that's a good thing. Replace any of the items above with Reacher learning to crochet or taking a yoga class and…no I would not want to read that. The Reacher novels are, as Zwolf says over in The Mighty Blow Hole, the literary equivalent of a BDAM, or "Big Dumb Action Movie. I have to agree (and, by the way, he also thinks that Dolph Lundgren would be an awesome film Reacher). Persuader is a BDAM, that's for BDAM sure, and it's a heck of a lot of fun.

You do have to be able to overlook a certain amount of goofiness, however. This goofiness is stuff that's pretty consistent with Child's other Reacher books. For example, dialogues often have that rapid-fire back-and-forth Dragnet quality that is sometimes unintentionally hilarious. Child doesn't write convincingly about army life, cop life or guns. During his investigations, Reacher often seems to just stumble through it pulling some of the most far-fetched subterfuges, like (view spoiler) and his investigative methods often include such subtle "techniques" as breaking a guy's neck and shooting a guy in the head. I often wonder if Reacher really thinks thing through first.

So if you're looking for a clever, delicately nuanced thriller with a plot as tangled a spider's web, Persuader ain't it. Persuader is about as subtle as a six-feet-five, two-hundred-and-fifty pound ex-military policeman can be. It does, however, offer a good amount of effective suspense thrown in with the action, and Child is quite good at pacing his novels.

Ultimately, the most satisfying aspect of Persuader (and the Reacher novels overall) is the fact that Child has a talent for creating some of the most evil, repulsive, despicably vile bad guys, all who receive suitably brutal comeuppances courtesy of Jack Reacher. It may be a bit of wish-fulfillment on my part but I like seeing bullies put in their place, and so does Reacher:

I don't really care about the little guy. I just hate the big guy. I hate big smug people who think they can get away with things.

Persuader's an effective thriller and a long as you don't take the minor gaffes too seriously it's a lot of fun. 3.5 stars, rounded to 4.
...more

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Aug 21, 2017 Abram rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: action-adventure

An awesome Novel.
My RATING: 4.4/5

The Novel is in full throttle. The flashback story line is awesome and the twist in the flashback is great. The novel is fun and intriguing. Back to awesomeness !
See u guys at next, Thank you.

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Sep 15, 2012 Cameron Mitchell rated it it was amazing

I would have to rank this as one of my favourite Lee Child books, even if I thoughs the start was dubious. For the first chapter or two, I worried this might even be a Reacher novel of a standard to rival the disaster that was Nothing to Lose. Then, of course, we got a little farther into the book and I was able to reassure myself that no book could be as bad as Nothing to Lose. I think if Lee Child were to write another book as bad as Nothing to Lose, I'd have to give up on him. Anyway, Persuad I would have to rank this as one of my favourite Lee Child books, even if I thoughs the start was dubious. For the first chapter or two, I worried this might even be a Reacher novel of a standard to rival the disaster that was Nothing to Lose. Then, of course, we got a little farther into the book and I was able to reassure myself that no book could be as bad as Nothing to Lose. I think if Lee Child were to write another book as bad as Nothing to Lose, I'd have to give up on him. Anyway, Persuader was a terrific novel, definitely up there with the best of Reacher.

The book begins with Reacher witnessing and intervening in a kidnapping. Immediately, we know something about the situation is not quite right. Reacher is acting in ways that we know are not congruent with his character. For instance, Reacher doesn't stroll around with two huge revolvers in his pants on any normal day, and (this was the most alarming) he most definitely does not drive a van. Also, without giving anything away, his reactions to certain events do not fit with what we know of the character.

For these reasons, I feared that Child may have, for some unknown reason, decided to disregard everything we know about the character, just so events would fit the story. But I should have known better than to doubt Child. Soon enough, we were back to the Reacher we know and love.

Soon after the chaotic events of the first two chapters, Reacher is working undercover, infiltrating a heavily guarded mansion in an attempt to rescue a DEA agent held hostage by a ruthless criminal. Reacher's motives in taking part in this operation are slowly revealed throughout the book, as we learn that he is trying to settle an old score with an old enemy figure from his past, one long thought dead.

One of the main reasons I found this book to be one of my favourite in the series was that this role had good deal of character building for Reacher. His desire for justice and the lengths he will go to achieve it play a huge part of the story, particularly in the final chapters.

The other reason I like it is that Reacher comes up against a situation we very rarely (if ever) see. In most instances, Reacher is the biggest and strongest guy in the room. He's able to knock down enemies with only one or two blows, easily defeating those who get in his way. However, in Persuader, there is (get ready for it) someone bigger than Reacher! Our hero comes up against a huge mountain of a man, a four-hundred-pound, seven foot tall, steroid using thug with arms that look as though they've had basketballs stuffed inside of them. This is a guy who makes Reacher feel as Reacher makes most other people feel. This scenario reveals a completely new side of the character. Not many people could take one of Reacher's kicks and stay standing.

However much I enjoyed this book, there is one or two little problems I had with it. First of all, the romance seemed rather pointless. I didn't like the character Duffy in the first place (she seemed rather dim witted) and it appeared to me that the romance between her and Reacher was placed only so Child could have a sex scene in the book. It didn't really seem to mean anything, and both characters acted as though it had never happened afterwards. Saying this, I did, however, enjoy the scenes between Reacher and Kohl (a character I liked much better than Duffy). This romance was actually relevant to the plot, and it seemed more meaningful than the Duffy-Reacher romance.

My second minor problem was was that there was a sequence of scenes towards the end of the book that seemed drawn out and pointless. Basically, it involved a few of the characters running around looking for the bad guys only to end up back where they started. This just seemed dumb, and served only to set up the next sequence of scenes (which I admittedly loved; I just think Child could have found a far better way to get to them).

Overall, Persuader was an excellent edition to a series I love and a great development to a character I love. There were a few minor things that annoyed me, but not enough to drop my rating from five stars to four. Overall, a great read for any thriller fans. ...more

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Sep 08, 2012 James rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: i-own-ebook, crime, jack-reacher

My name is James, and it's been seven months since my last Jack Reacher. The seventh in the series, Persuader should follow the same, increasingly predictable formula. Except, something feels wrong; it doesn't feel like Reacher – from the unusual eagerness to get involved, and the carrying of two guns, to the shooting of a cop. These things are totally out of character for the man we've spent six novels getting to barely know. Then I realised, the biggest thing that feels wrong about this Re My name is James, and it's been seven months since my last Jack Reacher. The seventh in the series, Persuader should follow the same, increasingly predictable formula. Except, something feels wrong; it doesn't feel like Reacher – from the unusual eagerness to get involved, and the carrying of two guns, to the shooting of a cop. These things are totally out of character for the man we've spent six novels getting to barely know. Then I realised, the biggest thing that feels wrong about this Reacher is the narrative. This first-person just isn't Jack Reacher. Yes the first one, Killing Floor , was also written as first-person, but the last five books have all been solidly third-person. And, to be honest, Reacher feels more of a third-person personality. His detachment and taciturnity almost requires third-person – once we get in his head we'll get to know far too much about him, and that will just destroy the mystique.

The book itself? Rescuing a child about to be kidnapped, Reacher is slowly taken into their family protection unit. In true Reacher style, that generally means he's replacing people who just weren't good enough. Oh, and of course, the family is far from normal – they're clearly into some bad schtuff. Reacher obviously has his reasons for getting involved, getting stuck into other people's business is rarely something that Reacher volunteers for. In lieu of spoilers, anybody who saw the BBC spy series Hunted will pretty much know exactly what's going on here.

While I kinda think I understand why Child went with the first-person here, in that it allows a much more tightly controlled narrative – we aren't aware of anything going on outside of Reacher's direct experience, and that leaves the other characters motives much less well defined and cranks up the suspense. Ultimately I don't think it was necessary and it just feels too 'personal' to be in Reacher's head like that. Plus it allows Child to get a little carried away with his exaggerations in the fight scenes. I was running out of patience with the continual running commentary in Reacher's head during his fight with Paulie where every punch or kick would have killed a lesser man – really? ...more

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Nov 04, 2013 Karin Slaughter rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This is the book that put Lee Child on my must-always-read list. I hated Killing Floor because (1) obviously Lee had never been to Georgia when he wrote this and (2) I wasn't yet published when it came out, so I had to be a jealous hater.

Both were remedied by the time I read Persuader, and I could love this book for the pure reading pleasure that it is. Also, I had met Lee by then and he is so handsome and dreamy that it's hard not to see his beautiful, sensitive eyes whenever I think of Jack Re ...more

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Jul 02, 2012 Harry rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: detective-mystery, favorites

I'm going to add the same review for all of the Reacher series, so if you've read this one, you've read 'em all. If you feel a certain affinity for the lone hero, a man of principle, of unwavering knowledge and assent as to his own actions, than Jack Reacher's your kinda guy.

Lee Child has created an unforgettable and unique character in his creation of Jack Reacher. Jack seems to implicitly understand that he is a unique animal/human running around on this planet and that in spite of social con ...more

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Jan 06, 2015 Freda Malone rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

As always Lee Child is an exceptional writer. I think this one is going to be tabbed a favorite of mine. Reacher has met his match with the character, Paulie, who is just a lowly bodyguard, or so it seems. Finally, my hero (Reacher) isn't so tough and perfect. I love the thinking process in the writing as Reacher tries to solve yet another mystery, but this time, he's a bit slower figuring out the clues. There was more suspense and a little more wit, I had to laugh at the reasoning behind tippin ...more

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Sep 21, 2019 Sandra Hoover rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: suspense

If there was ever any doubt that Jack Reacher is the baddest of the bad boy superheroes, this book puts it to rest. Reacher seizes an opportunity to seek justice for the brutal murder of a past co-worker by going undercover and off the record. He infiltrates a gang of smugglers and works his way to the top man – one dead body at a time. From beginning to end, Reacher outfights, outguns, outswims, and outlives everything and everybody thrown at him. He made a promise years ago . . . he won’t quit ...more

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Dec 25, 2017 Maureen DeLuca rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

A 4 star read - but I just had to throw in another star for such a great series - and of course- a great character!!! I know I'm behind in this series- I started with book 1 and I am reading them all in order- looking forward to book number 8 !! ...more

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Sep 09, 2017 Sloane Howell rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Reacher fights a man the size of Texas, and fires shotguns that could blow a drug tunnel to Mexico. What more can you ask for?

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Dec 22, 2011 Jane Stewart rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-suspense-thriller

2 stars for the back story. 4 stars for the rest. Another fun tough guy Reacher story. Several scenes where he takes out bad guys, my favorite parts.

STORY BRIEF:
Reacher thought he killed bad guy Quinn ten years ago. He recently saw Quinn on the street. He learns that FBI agents are trying to catch Quinn and Beck who work together. They believe Beck is into drug smuggling. Reacher gets hired by Beck and is now undercover.

REVIEWER’S OPINION:
There is a great scene in the beginning with Reacher thwa 2 stars for the back story. 4 stars for the rest. Another fun tough guy Reacher story. Several scenes where he takes out bad guys, my favorite parts.

STORY BRIEF:
Reacher thought he killed bad guy Quinn ten years ago. He recently saw Quinn on the street. He learns that FBI agents are trying to catch Quinn and Beck who work together. They believe Beck is into drug smuggling. Reacher gets hired by Beck and is now undercover.

REVIEWER’S OPINION:
There is a great scene in the beginning with Reacher thwarting a kidnaping attempt. There’s a fun scene later where Reacher kills two men with one stone. It weighed ten pounds. I still laugh when I think about it. What a tough guy. Ok so this is another typical Reacher story. It’s fun. It’s escapist. There are some really bad guys, and Reacher does them in. There were a few parts where I was thinking, don’t do that, or why are you doing that, or this is illogical. But it’s best if I try not to be too logical or analytical. Just enjoy it. It’s revenge, justice, and vigilantism. If civil and legal rights for bad guys are important to you, you may not like this. Even though I had a few grumbles about the book, as soon as I finished it, I went straight to the next one. These Reacher books keep me entertained and engaged.

I did not like the way the author told the back story from ten years ago. I would have preferred the author tell it completely at the beginning of the book and then do the current day story without interruption. The back story was broken into about a dozen pieces, with little chunks thrown at us throughout the book. It was distracting and interrupting. At times I was confused until a character’s name was said which told me whether it was now or then. And, the back story was not very good. Also, I would have liked an epilogue to find out what happened to Beck and his family.

THE SERIES:
This is book 7 in the Jack Reacher series. I gave 4 or more stars to all of the first 6 books except for Running Blind, gave that one 2 ½.

NARRATOR:
The narrator Dick Hill was very good.

DATA:
Unabridged audiobook reading time: 13 hrs and 51 mins. Swearing language: moderate. Sexual language: none. Number of sex scenes: one referred to not shown. Setting: late April, 2003, mostly Maine plus other east coast locations in the U.S. Book copyright: 2003. Genre: mystery suspense thriller. Ending: Good. ...more

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Oct 21, 2016 James Fearn rated it liked it

Nice title.
Easy read, not very challenging either.
Plot was great.
Written like this review.

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Sep 04, 2012 Kathy Davie rated it really liked it

Shelves: thriller

Tenth chronologically in the Jack Reacher thriller series (and seventh publication-wise) revolving around a retired MP roaming the country and rescuing the threatened. What can I say? Reacher just hates "big smug people who think they can get away with things".

My Take
Reacher is hot for vengeance and talk about TENSION. Sneaky, too. A grand scheme to get Reacher inside the house so he can search for a missing agent. A plan with so many ways it could backfire…and it does in ways expected and not.

D ...more

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Jan 30, 2017 John rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: lee-child

Never forgive, never forget. Well I will forgive myself for reading the book and happily I will more than likely forget the plot. To be fair all the Reacher novels have basically the same plot although some have some great twists. Jack Reacher series are fairly formulaic with misdirection at the start, bad guys, military connection usually and a steady body count.

The story starts with Reacher apparently intervening in a botched kidnapping of a college student. However, later on we find two para ...more

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Apr 24, 2018 Rob rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: serial-thrillers

Number 7 in the Jack Reacher series.
Jack Reacher at his best, heart pumping thrills and spills from page one to the very end.
Jack can't believe who he has just seen, someone that he killed ten years ago. Jack is quick enough to get the number plate of the car that the dead man just got into. He phones a friend that he knows in the military police to see if a trace can be put on the number plate. Not long after the FBI are knocking on Jack's door. Jack explains his interest in the number plate a ...more

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Mar 01, 2020 Tom S rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I love this series. Whenever I am stuck in a reading rut, I check out a Reacher book from the library and it gets me back on track.

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Aug 01, 2015 Manuel Antão rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2015

If you're into stuff like this, you can read the full review.

Shit, This Thing Is Selling Millions: "Persuader" by Lee Child

I’m taking two risks here by writing this review. The first risk sounds repetitive. I have the distinct impression that I’ve written about this in several of my previous texts. The second risk might be because you might incur a waste of my (and your) time by reading this diatribe. After reading one more Reacher book, I just had to write (again) about this.

Imagine the follo ...more

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Jan 28, 2015 ✨Susan✨ rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audible, gunfights, heroic, corruption, crime-thriller, romance

Another exciting Jack Reacher adventure. Each time I pick one of these up on a Daily Deal I always think that it will be my last, but Lee Child has a great pen for action-adventure.

In this addition Jack finds himself knee deep in a covert mission where he is to extract an under cover operative that is caught up in a drug opperation, however, all things are not what they may seem. When he infiltrates and gains the trust of some of the key players involved, he starts to realize that the whole con ...more

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Nov 19, 2019 Nick rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Ultimately intimidating and all-consuming. Best one ever, maybe.

Some questionable details, as usual. Like, man, A fight for a life you are trying to prove all your rules wrong, hitting a guy twice your size boxing-style?? What for? To crush your knuckles and to die painfully??

Anyway,..definitely a hugely impressive read.

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Jan 02, 2016 Nate rated it really liked it

Shelves: crime-and-spy-shit, creeps-perverts-psychos-killers

I thought Killing Floor was a fun novel that showed a lot of promise. Its sequel, Die Trying, had very genuinely good shit but also bloated horribly and killed the momentum with the FBI agent plotline. Tripwire had a shamefully obvious mystery and a glacial plot with flashes of true suspense. So I was not really jazzed on the Reacher series. But ever since I started them, I liked Child's overall style, pacing, and prose. But I gotta admit, when I saw Make Me on the shelf, I thought to myself Tha I thought Killing Floor was a fun novel that showed a lot of promise. Its sequel, Die Trying, had very genuinely good shit but also bloated horribly and killed the momentum with the FBI agent plotline. Tripwire had a shamefully obvious mystery and a glacial plot with flashes of true suspense. So I was not really jazzed on the Reacher series. But ever since I started them, I liked Child's overall style, pacing, and prose. But I gotta admit, when I saw Make Me on the shelf, I thought to myself That's some real shit. I took it home and had a blast with it. I knew I had finally gelled with Child. None of the early bloated, pointless sub-plots and minutiae were there. The probably-legally-obligated-to-existence cool, tough, smart and ruthless professional female interest was there, but she is, truly unfortunately, just one in a sea of many. But I did really enjoy it.

So I went out to the store and found the most over-the-top sounding Reacher novel I could find. And that was Persuader. Essentially, Reacher hooks up with some, uh, you know, FBI, CIA or the standard Unidentified G-Men over a single enemy: Quinn. Suffice it to say that Reacher and Quinn were not bros, and good people died. However, Reacher spots this ancient (and long thought dead) enemy in a completely random event. The g-woman picks up Reacher's calling in old favors on Quinn's car, and asks him what the hell his interest is. Frankly, Reacher, of course being a 6'5, 250-pound modern day hedge knight on a quest to right wrongs, agrees to go on an undercover mission in Zachary Beck's fortress mansion to recover an agent who was sent in before before losing contact, but Beck is connected to Quinn and is involved in a mysterious illicit trade of some kind. Just to make it more epic, dude lives on a peninsula guarded by a huge wall and a giant, steroid-addled disgusting fuck named Paulie, so physically intimidating that Reacher admits Paulie's outsizing him "put him squarely in the freak category."

This is the perfect Reacher book: truly vile villains that deserve Reacher's own brand of justice, several criminal conspiracies going on to be revealed, Child's stylistic, utilitarian elegance, and a fantastic and liberal deployment of true tension, as well as mysteries: Where's the missing agent? What really is Beck into? What happened with Reacher and Quinn back in the day? Sure, you know Reacher's gonna make it, but who else isn't? The action in the book is sharp, well choreographed, and visceral as hell. Not sure if there was a typically cookie cutter Reacher love story in this book (which I fucking hate, as it'd probably shave 50-100 pages from these typically 500-page books.) but I was very pleased with it, so I'm pretty sure there wasn't, or at least was super ignorable. I recommend those who consider this series to be vapid trash possibly give this book a shot. It's much better and tightly focused than the earlier Child books, and does even possess a bit of educational value (even if most of it's on lots of tough guy shit and gun-porn.) ...more

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Feb 14, 2011 Hobart rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011-reads

It's really hard to say something about a Jack Reacher book--in a very real sense, if you've read one, you've read 'em all (maybe this changes after book 7, but I doubt it). But dang it all if you don't come back for more and more and more--like Pringles, or Fritos, etc. Great action; totally outlandish, but (in the moment definitely) believable plot; lots of testosterone-y fun.

Two things I'd like to mention about this book.

First, there's this fad in TV lately where you watch a scene or two at ...more

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Jul 10, 2012 Jeffrey rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. The Jack Reacher books by Lee Child are like crack. The action is fast paced, the writing quick. The novels read like the fast paced action thrillers they are. I've read two of Child's Reacher novels (the first and the second) and while I wanted to read them in order my experience with them is that each is self contained. These are not sequential novels per se: one need not read the previous to understand the current. Begin a Reacher novel and you are instantly brought into a world that every ch The Jack Reacher books by Lee Child are like crack. The action is fast paced, the writing quick. The novels read like the fast paced action thrillers they are. I've read two of Child's Reacher novels (the first and the second) and while I wanted to read them in order my experience with them is that each is self contained. These are not sequential novels per se: one need not read the previous to understand the current. Begin a Reacher novel and you are instantly brought into a world that every child, at one point, has dreamed of entering. Reacher's world is singular, elusive, wandering. He's a man who roams from place to place, who stays almost completely off the grid, and yet somehow manages to get himself into the most remarkable amount of trouble.

Persuader sucks in the reader from the first page, from the first line. "The cop climbed out of his car exactly four minutes before he got shot." At that moment, fourteen words into the novel, you know you'll only put this book down under extreme duress. I was lucky to have started this book on the final day of my trip to Mexico and had an extra three days before my wife went back to work in order to finish it. Still, reading it was an endurance test that Reacher himself would be proud of.

In Persuader, our everyman hero finds himself working undercover in the house of a rug importer who may or may not be working with a man Reacher thought he had killed ten years before. For the first half of this breathless novel we discover nothing about the man Reacher is seeking other than he had done something very bad during Reacher's time as an army MP. As usual, Reacher is alone amid a sea of unknowns: who is a friend, who an enemy, and how long can he remain hidden in plain sight. Ostensibly he has no more than a week at the most to accomplish his goals. But this is a Lee Child novel. The sands of time will run out much quicker than Reacher would like.

It's a pun for me to say he's lost in a sea of unknowns, because much of the action of the novel takes place in or around a mansion perched on the edge of the cold Atlantic on the outskirts of Portland, Maine. There Reacher has managed to get himself hired as a bodyguard. The action unfolds both slowly and rapidly as Reacher plays both sides of the fence and tries to save the real undercover federal agent who went missing weeks ago while uncovering the secrets of this mansion and the family who occupy it.

It's hard to write too much about the story without giving anything away. I can say that I was completely drawn into the story until about 80% into the book when I was reading only to get the reading done. It was like running my first marathon: the beginning smooth and easy and fun and you feel like you can run forever, but when you hit mile 20 you don't want to pay attention to the scenery anymore, don't want to enjoy the run, you just want the thing to be over. Part of that feeling had to do with a few weeknesses in the plot itself. "They were glaring errors in our thinking and they all came back to haunt me." I can suspend much disbelief in the abilities of Jack Reacher, the tasks he can perform and the ordeals he can survive. But there are other aspects of the novel that are weaker. The bad guy, for example, who smartly had a very brief physical appearance. Quinn is talked about often but rarely seen and by the time we catch our first glimpse of him we already hate him, not for his actions but for the things we're told he has done without being told what those bad things were. In the end we discover the kind of monster he can be when we learn what he has done. And he does it again. Brutality that knows no bounds. Still, his reasons for doing what he did the first time seemed pretty thin. He was a petty criminal who got caught, but the way he is described in the novel makes him seem like the kind of man who has done that sort of thing repeatedly in his life. (Which he might have--perhaps that's the implication I didn't get.)

It's a minor quibble and certainly one that did not detract from my sheer enjoyment of this novel. And learning a bit about the mystery man's past added an extra layer of thrill to this novel. I don't know how much about Reacher we learn in novels three through six but in this one we discover a little of his past and learn a little about what makes the man tick. In the end it is Reacher himself who tells us everything we really need to know about him. "I try to do the right thing. I think the reasons don't really matter. Whatever, I like to see the right thing done." ...more

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About Lee Child

Lee Child

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Lee Child was born October 29th, 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 pr ...more