I just completed book #29 from Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series called In Too Deep. I rated it 3/5 but it’s more like 1.5/5 and got a 1.5 point bonus because Lee Child is one of my favorite writers.
So, I asked myself a question, is it just me, or the series becomes unreadable? This is the ratings I gave the individual books, and the red line represents the community ratings on Goodreads.
Up to book 18, the community gives a pretty consistent 4.1-4.2 rating, then it hovers around 4 and goes under. The latest books may go under once they gain sufficient ratings as well. But unlike the community, my last 4 ratings are 3s and 4s, and I’ve been very generous. Feels like the community keeps liking the series.
According to some Goodreads sources, Lee Child felt like he runs out of steam and offloaded the actual writing to his younger brother, Andrew. Perhaps I just don’t like Andrew Child’s storytelling. Spoilers ahead.
Book 29 is about some world-scattering conspiracy. Reacher, a retired 60-something homeless vet who owns no phone, car, or ID, would interfere, overwhelming all the three-letter agencies in the US. There are stashes of property left unattended and owned by “the Russians”. There’s a hot police officer vigilante who wants revenge. What there isn’t is anything that’s remotely believable.
Of course, the Jack Reacher series doesn’t need to make sense but it follows certain math. Bullets are faster than people. Knives cut. A person attacks Reacher, Reacher punches back before person even sees it. This math is violated. We’ll see Reacher withdrawing, not using his head, not finding the location of enemies, and winning with absurd constraints that shouldn’t have been enforced in the first place because of the math. This enters the territory of the Marvel movies where the story is first, and whatever doesn’t make sense will be filled with CGI.
Reacher Book 29 – 1.5*/5. It’s like a Steven Seagal movie. The only thing missing is a chair for Reacher to sit during the book.
Veselin.blog 
My husband reads these a lot. Reacher kills the bad guys and gets the woman. The end. Something like that….
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Reacher practices Bullshido. He won a fight while being tied to a bed with all 4. I need to rerank this book, 1.5 is too high for it.
Steven Seagal fights sitting on a chair because he’s too lazy to stand up. Seagal vibes.
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I couldn’t agree more, what a horrible book. I am sadly done with the series. Perhaps I’ll check reviews and if they are great I may read the next one. But for now, sadly, Andrew is trying to live off the momentum of the series. His writing is weak at best, I hate to be harsh but if I was Less there is no way I’d let a series that I made be destroyed like this – sad day. Lost another of my favorite series. Need to find another one now.
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Yeah, unfortunately not the only series that goes downhill the same way.
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1.5 is too generous. Andrew Child has ruined the Reacher franchise, and it gets worse with every book. This plot sounded like every other Andrew Child Reacher novel – take a subpar idea, overcomplicate and over-describe EVERYTHING, and then slip Reacher into the mix occasionally so you can put Reacher’s name on the cover.
He should be ashamed of himself. He doesn’t have a clue who Reacher is. He is incapable of finding Reacher’s voice or mannerisms. If he’d been the original author of the series, Reacher would have landed in the rejection pile at every publishing company.
i used to buy every Reacher book as soon as it hit the shelves. I have the entire collection, except for the last few that Andrew wrote. If Andrew’s name is on the cover, I might borrow it from the library, but I’m not going to buy it. A wise decision, based on his track record with the series.
I wish Lee would take the time to read his brother’s books and see how Andrew is driving Reacher off a cliff, one excruciating plotline at a time. It’s embarrassing for Reacher. He’d be better off dead than suffering through another Andrew Child plot or dialogue.
It reminds me of Robert B. Parker. His Spenser for Hire series was good, but his writing got sloppy in later years, relying on catch phrases to carry the plot. Andrew Child can try to use ‘Reacher said nothing’ and ‘that’s for damn sure” 20 times in a book, but that doesn’t make it a Reacher novel.
For anyone who thinks this novel is good, I would suggest that you read ANY of the Reacher novels published by Lee Child BEFORE his brother got involved. Buy them. Read them. Then you’ll know what I’m talking about. You’ll want to read them again and again. You’ll want to listen to the audiobooks, even if you’ve already read the books.
I can’t imagine anyone wanting to reread one of Andrew’s. I couldn’t even get all the way through IN TOO DEEP. How did it end? Don’t know. Don’t care.
I will label this book DNF – Did Not Finish. As for Andrew Child, I will label him SYM – Save Your Money.
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On the bright side, the latest book is readable.
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