A lone assassin, a killing spree - and the only thing he will say is "Get Jack Reacher for me".
Girl's brother disappears, years later one of her pupils disappears. Is she the only connection?
sadly, this James Bond spoof is neither as thrilling as it needs to be, nor as funny as it thinks it is.
I'm on a Lee Child jag at the moment. Comes of finding a small stack of his books in a charity book shop in Canterbury for £2.50 a go.
This wasn't one of them, but is, in fact, his most recent paperback release.
Terrorist cells, unlikely escapes, and all the clever Child plotting that you could hope for. As ever, heads roll and women succumb.
I read this on holiday, and I'll read it again before the year is out; like a great movie that you have to watch twice to get all the clues, the you are forced to read the Reacher novels at such a pace that it is inevitable that you miss something first time and, believe, me, you never want to go back a page in a Reacher novel while the whole thing is still rolling out in front of you.
Rather like my penchant for male thriller writers whose surnames begin with "C" I also have a thing for the Gardner/Gardiner duopoly - Lisa and Meg. And, of course, I only began reading one having confused her with the other.
Lisa is NOT the one championed by Stephen King, the one who can't get a deal in her native Americ for her Evan Delaney novels (read 'em, I implore you). No, that one is Meg. This one is Lisa without-an-I-Gardner, and spins off from earlier novels of hers. Helps if you have read them, doesn't hurt if you haven't. This is taut and efficient, a page-turner and satisfying in itself. It won't live forever in the memory, but deals with disappeared wife, suspect husband, nearby sex offender trying to live a straight life. Nothing is as it seems, and Ms Gardner manages to conceal the twists yet make them wholly inevitable when they are finally bought to light.
