Exit Strategy

Not the best Reacher book….and I’ve read them all!!

I’ve read nearly every Reacher novel, and Exit Strategy is the first one I nearly gave up on.

I really wanted to like it. But it feels like an approximation written by someone who’s only ever watched the Amazon show.

The twists, internal logic, and magic of the earlier books are completely missing.

Parts of the plot make no bloody sense.

A gambler so deep in debt that he has to sell his belongings somehow still has a safe house and can afford a rental car??

There are also far too many side characters.

At times Reacher is sidelined while his convenient helpers conveniently work out the next step for him.

SPOILER ALERT – ending discussion

The climax is set in a private army training facility. What an incredible missed opportunity.

The last third of the book could have been jaw-dropping — Reacher pushed to his absolute limits in desert, snow and urban war zones, trying to outsmart an evil military mastermind on his own turf.

Instead we get more easy conveniences to draw it to a quick conclusion without any of the imagination, risks, danger, high-stake twists and payoffs fans are accustomed to; and still hungry for.

Seems more like the writer got bored and just wanted it over with.

It’s a real shame. Reacher and his fans deserve better.

I think what has kept me reading the Reacher releases since Lee Child stepped back has been partly addiction, partly loyalty, but also a kind of fascination in trying to work out what on earth it is that makes these later efforts just nowhere near in the same class as the earlier books.

It has come time to just admit to myself that I am no literature expert, and simply lack the skills to analyse the stylistic and technical differences that just make these newer stories simply not hold my attention.

This most recent instalment was the first that I very nearly just abandoned before halfway. Is it that the plot is not interesting enough? Or that it is not told with enough detail to fully capture my attention? Is there something about the actions of our hero that don’t quite seem to chime with what I most respected about him? Or the dialogue that often seems rushed and unnatural? And is this poor dialogue and lack of the usual effort in description the reason that I simply don’t connect with any of the supporting characters enough to care about what happens to them?

I don’t have answers to these questions, and it has reached the point where thinking about these things is distracting me from the books themselves, so maybe it’s time for me to bow out, call it a day.

The conclusion? Lee Child is/was simply a genius, he had that indescribable golden touch that just hit the spot perfectly. I thank him for the many hours of pleasure I derived over many years from reading and re-rereading his masterpieces.