Die Trying

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A beautiful cop who runs Hope joins forces with Reacher to break open the secrets of Despair and expose their connection to the war that is killing Americans. He embraces it. Understands his philosophy implicitly, revels in his physical being,his conventions and values. He defends those he loves, those he does allow into his world, with a loyalty bar none while never letting go of the notion that he is alone and being perfectly comfortable with that. I enjoyed this a little less than book one ( Killing Floor) in terms of plot, but that's mostly due to the fact that the whole dangerous militia group thing annoys the shit out of me as a rule. I have also been following the “Women’s Murder Club” series by James Patterson and, fortunately, each story follows on from the previous one and it is fairly easy to keep up with the changes. She needs Reacher’s help with a job to assassinate the Vice President of the United States, theoretically. Froelich needs his help to find the holes in her system because there is a covert group who plans to do it for real. The would-be assassins have thought of nearly everything in their plan to kill, but there’s one thing they didn’t plan for: Reacher.

What I like most about the Reacher storyline is that (and stay with me here) is it reminds me of one of my all-time favorite TV shows: Kung Fu.While held captive by the kidnappers Reacher impresses Holly with his calm, brains, physical fitness. He even tries psychological games on the kidnappers to gain some upper hand. As part of his punishment, Reacher and Holly are sent into the woods to bury the body of the undercover FBI agent. Reacher warns Holly that the militia is planning something big and it is to take place on the Fourth of July. At the same time, the FBI and Holly's father have set up a command post a few miles from the camp, despite the fact that the President has refused to allow them to take a rescue party into the camp. That night, Reacher escapes from the punishment cabin and begins to explore the camp. Reacher finds the abandoned mine where the militia keep their vehicles and discovers that they have stolen a military caravan transporting missiles. When Holly's father finds out his daughter has been kidnapped,he along with Holly's staff with the FBI are hot on her trail. They have pictures of the kidnapping, but they think Reacher is one of the bad guys.

His journey will take him through small towns, the middle of nowhere, and the Wyoming wilderness. As he digs deeper into his search, things get more dangerous for him. The ring is just a link on a chain that leads Reacher to a vast criminal enterprise. It's one thing to suspend belief, it's another thing to suspend disbelief. I would have kept the story line about the process of dealing with a hostage to be more realistic. I don't care if you supported Bush I, Clinton, Bush II or Obama (the book is from the 90s, but in some ways is timeless), the reaction of political and military leaders in the plot is beyond belief and totally incompetent. Holly specializes in finance and has a resume to die for, but she feels like she is always walking in her father's shadow, a high ranking member at the white house and her Godfather is the president himself. So, Holly makes a very nice bargaining chip. Whoever the enemy is, Reacher knows that the only way to stop him is to match his ruthlessness and cunning, and beat him at his own dangerous game. The plot still seems like something lifted from an action movie and doesn’t bear much scrutiny even though it gets the job done. I was questioning several points like how the U.S. president is so concerned with politics that he turns a blind eye to a group of murderous conspiracy nut jobs who have kidnapped the daughter of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. I know this was written pre-9/11 shortly after the Ruby Ridge and Waco incidents, but it was also after the Oklahoma City bombing (Which is never mentioned.) so it seems crazily unrealistic to think that the government would just try to ignore these yahoos.Under normal circumstances, Holly would be well-equipped to handle herself. She is one of the strongest female characters to appear in this series, but with her bum knee, which she injured in a soccer game, she could use a little help. Reacher, of course, is there to provide it, and he and Holly together will have to struggle mightily both to defend Holly's virtue and to prevent the militiamen from accomplishing their objectives. The message is what draws their attention as the courier states that an American wants one hundred million dollars. They don’t know who is asking, who they are asking from, or what they are giving in return; and this group is tasked with finding all that out. Time isn’t on their side and all they know is that they need to find this man before an epic act of terrorism is committed. Their mission will send them from Langley to Hamburg, Jalalabad to Kiev as they try to stop this act of terror. Then there was the bad guy. He is apparently the leader of a cult. What do all cult leaders have in common? They are charismatic. Child paints this guy like a cross between Bo Radley & Hannibal Lector. Who would follow such a person? Most would cross the street at the sight of him. Reacher may be an exceptional soldier, but sweeping other people’s secrets under the carpet isn’t part of his skill set. As he races to discover the link between these victims, and who killed them, he must navigate around the ulterior motives of his new ‘partners’. And all while moving into the sight line of some of the most dangerous people he has ever encountered. The second installment in the series wasn't as strong as the first, but it was still worthy of a four star rating. Lee Child still hasn't gotten past all the shrugging and nodding and his writing style still slows me down a bit. I have no idea how many ladies read this series, but I would imagine Reacher has a larger male fan base. Thus, the author goes into a great deal of detail about weapons and the speed of bullets and so on, which is interesting to a degree, but normally goes over my head and I tend to tune out during those paragraphs. But, my husband loves all that stuff.

After Reacher fails to take advantage of an opportunity to escape during the night, Holly insists that he let her handle things. However, she ends up owing him when, during another stay, one of the kidnappers, Peter Bell, tries to rape her. Reacher breaks free of his restraints, kills Bell, hides his body, and re-restrains himself before the others become suspicious. Holly finally and reluctantly accepts his help after this. Reacher doesn’t agree to those terms and even tries to escape, but eventually decides to at least look into the situation. It’s a decision that could cost him his life. are the short story versions going to be released as a full length novel i hope so as soon as you start reading them, it drags you in and you want more, but sadly they suddenly end. Spying/Terrorism Thriller - Yes Cloak & Dagger Plotlets: - kidnap/rescue Kid or adult book? - Adult or Young Adult BookSecond, the character of Holly. Compared to Roscoe in Killing Floor, Holly is a much stronger character. She needs Reacher but can use her brains, courage and strength when the situation demanded. Again, not so original but an improvement over the last character. Sort of reminded me of John D. MacDonald’s 1979 Travis McGee novel The Green Ripper, and there are similarities between Reacher and McGee, but obliquely and MacDonald is the more thoughtful writer. While Child has Reacher making some astute social and cultural observations, this is nowhere near the level of subtly intellectual commentary MacDonald was able to pull off. he’d lived and served all over the world most of his life. Outside the United States. It had left him knowing his own country about as well as the average seven-year-old knows it. So he couldn’t decode the subtle rhythms and feel and smells of America as well as he wanted to.” In fact coincidence is the key word in this novel, coincidence and cliché. Frankly there's way too much of them both throughout. The novel wavered between a 2-star and a 3-star for me. On the one hand the story was good and engaging. I wanted to keep reading to the end. On the other hand, some of the descriptive writing was so heavy handed it was laughable. I'm happy to put this down to second-novel nerves though. Just trying too hard to be better than the first success.