So many things that are just wrong.

[Mark]

I enjoy the stories but the details drive me nuts.

I'm not going to list them all by book but just a list in the order that they occur to me.

Gun mistakes. So many, it is hard to pare them down. In one book he claims that police are trained to carry their pistols with the chambers empty. WTF? For some reason, he has the FBI carrying their pistols in shoulder holsters.

In one book he commented on how you should leave your magazines unloaded with just one in the chamber. His idea was that you had one round to shoot while you loaded your magazine. Again, WTF? In that same book, somehow the defective magazine kept the chambered round from firing. Huh?

There's no George Washington Blvd that runs near the Pentagon and no one in their right mind would walk on the George Washington Parkway.

One books comments on Reacher's comfort in a squad by type living arrangement because he did it in "basic training." Reacher went to the Point where he would have lived in a dorm like any other college student.

I do find his way of doing clothing interesting but I find it incredible that he went 13 years in the Army without any civilian clothing. Also, if he had no civilian clothing why would he have bought a pair of brown brogans in England?

Too many British phrases are used throughout the books.

End of rant.

[Russ]

(Yes I realize this post is 5 years old.)

Oh, don’t get me started. I find the books entertaining, but the factual inaccuracies on so many of the details drive me up the wall. Especially the “military life” details. Obviously Lee Child never served in the U.S. military, but he could have at least spent 15 minutes talking to someone about it.

- In the “military” novels, Reacher never has any money. He even had to borrow some from one of his NCOs in one book. Really? Members of the U.S. military do get paid, and a Major makes a comfortable living.
- Also in the military novels, he owns no civilian clothes. Come on now. Military members, especially officers, are not confined to the post. They go out. They do things. They go on dates. They wear civilian clothes when they’re not on duty.
- He never had a driver’s license when in the military. I find that very challenging to believe. Most military members own their own cars like civilians do.
- The whole concept of him getting moved every few months growing up is laughable. Yes, military families move a lot. But “a lot” is like every few years generally, not a few times a year.
- If they’re looking for a military member, the member apparently only ever is in their quarters or at the chow hall, and they are easy to find.
- Basically, Lee Child seems to think that military members live and breathe “military” 24 hours a day and are generally totally isolated from the civilian world.
- Also, what woman would willingly go to bed with a guy who wears the same underwear three days in a row? Gross.

Now, a few “writing style” items:
- “Reacher said nothing.” Ugh. This is way overused. “So-and-so said nothing.” Do you really need to tell us they said nothing? Or at least use different words from time to time.
- “A buck will get you ten” and “last but one” and some other odd-to-me phrases used ad nauseum. Might be a British-ism, but neither of these are terms I’ve heard in common use. “Last but one” is, I assume, what I would call “next-to-last”.

Geography:
- Seems to be getting better, but especially in the earlier books it was as if he hadn’t looked at a map when writing the story. One had them driving from LAX to Ft Irwin in an hour. No, it’s around 3 hours in no traffic.
- Another example was he was in a small plane flying southeast from some town in eastern Colorado, and the pilot turned to avoid Colorado Springs airspace. That just doesn’t work.

There are many, many other things I see as I read the books, and I plan to use this as my “vent” thread. Feel free to join in.

[Ralph]

Not just load your magazine as you shoot your one shot, but 'thumb them in with your left hand.' Beyond ludicrous.