Customer Reviews

Bad Luck and Trouble (Jack Reacher, No. 11)

5 star:		(111)
4 star:		(59)
3 star:		(26)
2 star:		(23)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

There are many reasons to admire Jack Reacher, the taciturn hero of Lee Child's "Bad Luck and Trouble." He is a low-maintenance individual who travels with just his passport, ATM card, and toothbrush. He is incredibly strong and an expert in weaponry and hand-to-hand combat, and will go out of his way to protect the people he likes and respects. Reacher is also intelligent, intuitive, and creative; by thinking out of the box, he usually finds the answers to whatever questions are puzzling him.

In "Bad Luck and Trouble," Reacher has a reunion of sorts with three of his buddies from the army, Frances Neagley, Karla Dixon, and David O'Donnell. They reunite because of a tragic event: Calvin Franz, who worked with them years ago in the military police, was thrown out of a helicopter in the California desert after suffering unspeakable torture. The victim left behind a wife and little boy. Three other MPs from the same special investigations unit, Jorge Sanchez, Tony Swan, and Manuel Orozco, have disappeared, as well. Reacher and his remaining ex-colleagues band together to find out what happened to these men and why. He is also plotting revenge: "There are dead men walking, as of right now. You don't throw my friends out of helicopters and live to tell the tale." The slogan that Reacher and the others live by is: "You do not mess with the special investigators."

Lee Child's Reacher is a modern day cowboy, who generally travels alone from town to town, minding his own business. Yet, somehow, "bad luck and trouble" always manage to find him. This time, in a refreshing variation on Child's usual formula, Reacher takes his place as the commanding officer of a tightly knit and focused team, each member making his or her own invaluable contribution to the investigation. Neagley is smart and tough, and she has plenty of money to bankroll their operation. Dixon is a forensic accountant with a sharp mathematical mind, equal to Reacher's. O'Donnell is fast, powerful, and fearless. This formidable foursome is pitted against a group of ruthless adversaries who always seem to be one step ahead of them.

Child has created a cadre of well-drawn heroes, and the fast-paced action never flags. The terse, often dryly humorous dialogue is enormously entertaining. In addition, some nifty mental puzzles are thrown in to challenge the investigators' powers of deduction; brawn without brains just doesn't cut it in today's world. On the downside, the villains are one-dimensional and the finale is a bit too pat to be believed, even in a fantasy such as this. Still, this novel is great escapist fun; it will have wide audience appeal among long-time Reacher aficionados, and it will probably earn the author a host of new fans, as well.

In these days of "metrosexuals" and men getting facials at a spa, it is refreshing to count on Lee Child's annual installment of the ex-Army mayhem-man Jack Reacher, who'd have his fingernails pulled out with pliers before being manicured. And back he is, folding toothbrush in his pocket, ready as always to rid the world of another annoyance.

But this time around, the stoic loner Reacher has some company. Frances Neagley, essentially the female version of Reacher and former member of his US Army Special Investigations team, contacts our nomadic hero through an arcane bank transaction, the first in a string of mental deductions that would leave Holmes and Watson with jaws agape. Neagley tells of the brutal death of Calvin Frantz, another former member of their elite unit, sending Reacher, Neagley and their remaining colleagues to a southern California rendezvous solving the mystery and avenging the murder. The plot thickens and as other members of the team go missing, and Reacher and company find themselves embroiled in super-secret government operations and international terrorism.

As far as escapist thriller fiction, "Bad Luck and Trouble" is about as good as it gets. If you don't overanalyze or rationalize, you can kick back and savor Reacher's unique brand of Zen violence told in Child's no-nonsense, rapid-fire prose. But measured against Child's high standards, I found this one sub-par. Reacher's savant-like mathematical talents, while necessary to set the plot in motion, were strained at first and a burden before long. And I found myself liking Reacher less as a team leader as I have as the lone wolf maverick, and the group dynamics felt forced and frayed. But I quibble. "Bad Luck and Trouble" is a must-read, another hard-core action page-turner that will add "don't mess with special investigations" as another line in that thing about "spitting into the wind."

Advanced mathematics play a significant role in the latest Jack Reacher novel, a coded formula that holds the clues Reacher and his term use to backtrack the death of one of their friends, a part of the elite military cabal that performed successful missions for the government, but are now returned to civilian life. Years have passed since the eight have been in contact and now one of them is dead. Loyalty and shared expertise are key to the unit and when Calvin Franz meets a violent death, one by one the remaining few answer the call, their number seemingly reduced by four by the time they go into action. Reacher is the first to respond, locating Frances Neagley in LA. Later, Karla Dixon and Dave O'Donnell arrive to learn of the probable fate of the others. Unraveling this mystery requires all their considerable skills, the experienced team once believing themselves invincible. Dodging post-9/11 security, the four ex-soldiers come face to face with some hard truths about the directions their lives have taken since the old days.

No matter what elaborate scheme is behind the plot of a Reacher novel; Child makes sense of even the wildest tale. Reacher's appeal, and by extension that of his comrades, is their outside-the-law mentality and ability to out-maneuver and out-plan even the cleverest villain. Violence is endemic to Child's popular series, Jack Reacher strolling through circumstances that would fell a lesser man. That's his appeal: large, smart, ruthless. The formula works just as well here, if a little drier for the reliance on mathematical projections to uncover clues from LA to Las Vegas. But this novel is new, not vintage Reacher, a kinder, gentler, less frequently violent man than in the other titles (The Killing Floor, Die Trying). I don't find the Jack Reacher in Bad Luck and Trouble nearly as compelling and hope he hasn't lost his edge, returning next time to the macho style that so defines the series. Luan Gaines/2007.

How wonderful life can be: a new Jack Reacher novel, a long night of reading and, by sheer coincidence, a tremendous thunderstorm. Perfect for reading about the adventures of Reacher.

And what adventures these are. Reacher reunited with his old military police outfit. Well, sort of: one of the eight has already turned up dead - tossed from a helicopter - and three others are missing. Now there are three plus Reacher living up to their old unit motto: "Don't mess with the investigators".

This is a different Jack Reacher: he maims and murders so few people that you might mistake him for a pacifist. But don't worry: Reacher isn't turning into a wimpified John Rain, Barry Eisler's once glorious intellectual assasin. Reacher is still very much Reacher.

Reacher, if you didn't know, is classic anti-hero. Once a major in an elite U. S. Army military police unit, Reacher has become a drifter who doesn't seek out violence, but always unerringly manages to get knee-deep in other's people's blood that he is usually shedding. Reacher has no home, His possessions were formerly limited to a folding toothbrush. Now, post 9/11, Reacher has added an ATM card. Interesting, author Lee Child simply ignores the fact that banks require some form of ID to open any account. Reacher, of course, has no ID. Jack Reacher is an urban John Rambo. Smarter by far, but essentially a killing machine if you cross him, his friends or some innocent stranger. Reacher doesn't see grays: he sees black and white - you are either with him or against him.

The ATM card plays a clever role in setting up this story. Reacher is in Portland OR and about to go somewhere. He doesn't know where yet because Reacher doesn't plan that way. He goes to the bus terminal and buys a ticket on the first bus he sees. He needs cash for the ticket, goes to the ATM and sees that a deposit has been made. Reacher, it turns out in this 11th installment in the series, has a never before mentioned facility with mathematics, another convenient invention for this story. He see patterns in numbers and in this one he sees a radio code for officer needs help. Reacher deduces that it is one of his old unit buddies seeking him out.

Soon we are introduced to three of Reacher's old command. Of the remaining four, one is known dead and three are missing.

Normally a Jack Reacher book is short on mystery (which is fine) and long on violence. This time, the book is long on mystery and relatively short on violence (though there is plenty, the body count is low for a Reacher book). Why was their old buddy tortured and murdered? What has happened to other old comrades who have gone missing?

Reacher and his three veterans start digging and begin to unravel a mystery that could have awful consequences for the United States.

Lee Child took a gamble here, thinking that he could get away with making Jack Reacher, the solo mayhem generator, into not only a team player, but leader of the team. he gets away with it. Reacher, for a while at least, is indeed a team player, sending its members off on one mission or another to get the job done. Just like the old days when Reacher and friends were in the "green machine", the Army.

The story is solid. Child doesn't disappoint. Reacher is not his usual murderous self, though there is no shortage of newly made corpses. Reacher is still the same cynical loner he's always been, though Child does provide us a glimpse of Reacher as a leader which is indeed a different Reacher.

Save this one for a day or night when you have lots of time because you'll want to read it one sitting. And, if you have the luck to pick a night with a loud and violent thunderstorm, so much the better. Perfect accompaniment for this newest installment in the life of Jack Reacher.

Jerry

I took this book with me to see the doctor, who asked to look at it. He said, "Hey, isn't this about the big guy who travels around and doesn't live anywhere?" Yes, I said. He said, "I heard somewhere that this character appeals only to men, but since 9/11 women are reading about him." Why is that, I asked. "Because women want to feel someone strong is in charge and can take care of things."

Someone strong in charge, who can take care of things. Yep, that just about sums up Jack Reacher, former leader of a special investigations unit in the army, now retired and drifting. But this is special drifting. Writers have all kinds of ways of telling their truths. Lee Child uses Jack Reacher to bring back the individual heroism of Robin Hood, James Bond, Aragorn, according to the interview on the product page. But I would like to suggest the existential hero, the one who finds meaning in a meaningless world, fraught with danger and death and mayhem, not unlike 9/11. As a free agent with no ties any where, Jack Reacher is available to confront "bad luck and trouble," a euphemistic phrase for "a world of mess and hurt."

The mess and hurt this time involves team members of his old army unit of eight mighty handy, highly trained and intelligent people. One is dead, three are missing. Jack and the other three meet syncronously to ferret out this tangle of deceit involving the four. They had a motto back in the day: You do not mess with the special investigations. And so it goes.

At the bottom of the trouble is a super secret military attack system that would cause extreme chaos in the flight world. The bad guys are Americans who have sold out the military to the highest bidder in an underhanded dirty maneuver for profit and gain. The buyer, of course, is an Islamic fundamentalist with death and misery in his heart.

But the story is not about the Muslim or the inside weapons guys: The story is about Reacher and his "guys." Remember, you do not mess with special investigations. In a crazy world two things are consistent about Reacher: his loyalty and his retribution.

Lee Child's novels are not one action-filled moment after the other. Instead, they are realistic. There is much waiting and investigating before action is inevitable. I find the Reacher series to be a thinking person's action thriller. Reacher may carry a travel toothbrush in his pocket, however his travels are the author's means to reaching a new end...and the next book in a very enjoyable series. And my doctor is right--it's good to know someone strong can take charge, even if it is in fiction.

Jack Reacher is back, big and utterly fatihful to his team. There is a strange call, if you can call it that. A code in a deposit made to his bank account. You might not be able to contact Jack Reacher conventionally but if you know how you can reach him through military codes in money in his account.

His old team from the MP's is in danger, two of the original 8 are dead and one of them is trying to contact the rest of the team without luck. She calls on Reacher to help. Reacher responds and they meet in LA, trying to contact the rest once they are there. No one is responding still.

Its the start of a strange case where Reacher finds that he is being followed, but it turns out they may, or may not be the police. There is double cross, double dealing and it is all tied up in mathematical codes.

As with all Lee Child's Reacher books, Jack Reacher is a dependable hero, challenged but never threatened. He is solid and sure, and he will do his bit and is unfazed by threats, certain in his own abiliites. He is a great hero to follow. Lee Child does a fantastic job in spinning this tale. It gripped from the start and there were enough twists and turns and double crossing along the way to keep me guessing and reading along.

What I also really enjoyed in this book this time was the moral and ethical morass that Reacher dwells in outside his campaigning for the true and right causes he follows. In the past Reacher has been a builder and has alluded to other odd jobs, or made money from his work. In this he has taken to ripping off drug dealers. There is no moral reasoning either from Child (the author) or Reacher the character, like pretty much everything he does, Reacher is the strong silent type. Reacher simply rips them off. I was interested in this as a sub-plot. He is essentially stealing - I suppose in a Robin Hood way, but it does endanger the general public to do so. It is certainly a fitting form of income for Reacher, but it is done with such seeming casualness or internal dilemma I was surprised.

Anyway, I enjoyed this way more than most of the others (except perhaps One Shot which I think is the best REacher ever.) A gripping, thrilling page turner to match any that you will read.

"You do not mess with the special investigators".

No indeed you do not. This was the motto shared by Reacher's old military police unit. And in this latest Jack Reacher installment by author, Lee Child, someone has indeed done some messing. If you are familiar with the Reacher series, then you will understand from the get go that 'bad luck and trouble' are about to be visited upon the bad guys in ways both brutal and inventive. This becomes trouble with a capital "T" when one of the baddies trashes Reacher's hotel room AND SMASHES HIS TOOTHBRUSH. Up until this book, Reacher's personal possessions have amounted only to the clothes on his back and his trusty folding toothbrush. But 9/11 has finally caught up with Reacher and he now carries a passport and an ATM card also.

"Bad Luck and Trouble" finds Reacher in Portland, Oregon minding his own business. He is broke after hooking up for a few days with an assistant DA called Samantha. (This may or may not be Samantha Kincaid, the main character from Alafair Burke's nascent series. If so, nice referencing here Lee). On checking his bank account Reacher discovers an unexpected credit in the amount of 1030.00. Given his preternatural ability with numbers, he swiftly decodes this as a message. To be precise, a 10-30 which is a military police radio code requesting urgent assistance from a colleague. From this point Child gives us all the action expected from a Reacher book, with plenty of knotty logistical problems thrown in. And plenty of bodies being ditched out of helicopters also.

The decision is made to pull the old unit back together, and the initial response rate is ominously low. Some of Reacher's colleagues are MIA in the very recent past and at least one has experienced death from a high altitude. There is much talk of vengeance and 'watering' the graves of the perpetrators. We have revisited Reacher at work in his previous career in one other of Lee Child's books "The Echo", and this is a different angle again. Reacher and his remaining colleagues go to work like the Justice League of America tracking their missing buddies and those responsible.

"Bad Luck and Trouble" is a cracker. I knocked it off in a day and it lived up to all my expectations (which are very high) of Lee Child's writing. He even has Reacher doing a tiny bit of soul searching, especially when he compares himself to the post military careers of his old unit. I doubt this will ever evolve into an investment portfolio and a house in the 'burbs or a high paying gig in a private security firm, but it works to humanise the 'Jack Reacher, alone, ever walking the earth' thing, giving a bit more dimension to his character.

I'm personally grateful to Lee for dropping the "Jack Reacher/Men want to be him/women want to be with him" slogan found on the blurbs of his other Reacher books too. I'm a woman and this put me off! For those interested, Reacher even folds a bit over a sartorial choice he made in his own inimitable style, and has also adopted a shaven head for this outing.

So whats up next Lee? Every Reacher book I read I wonder how Child is going to top it with the next one. I haven't been disappointed yet. This is a top notch series and its not necessary to read them in order. Reacher is a man we all love to read about, his appeal is universal. Well done Lee and bring on the next one!

ps. one criticism, ít'd be more sexy if Reacher could occasionally be seen to purchase more than a day's supply of tighty whiteys. Especially with the 'action' he gets: cleanliness is next to sexiness for us girls, Lee! Cheers.

It is rare to simultaneously find strong character development and a great story together. Lee Child does both in this book pretty well. One reviewer was correct that the appearance (from the reader's perspective) of tremendous skill and fascination with numbers and mathematics was distracting however there were enough new character developments in most of the characters to partly compensate. Reacher and his team were getting old and slowing down, which makes them both more human and more believable. Some readers may not like that (understandable) but others may feel that it makes the story more believable. Overall, a great book and a great read!

Bad luck and trouble: it's what befalls you when you mess with Jack Reacher and the remaining members of his team. Three points: a) One cannot rank the Lee Child novels because their quality has been high from the get-go; this one is also superb; b) This novel begins as more of a procedural than white knuckle/suspense and it plays up Reacher's skill with numbers, their interpretation and manipulation; c) One of Lee Child's particular areas of expertise is his knowledge of weaponry and its capabilities; that is one of the hallmarks of Bad Luck and Trouble, but here we are introduced to LC's ability to describe and characterize the actions of a Bell helicopter. Very impressive.

LC has nearly freed himself from the use of Britishisms in American settings. Only one here--the use of the word punter in its British sense (tourist/mark). It's a good word, one that we should adopt. Aside from that, LC continues to demonstrate his ability to describe American settings with all the skill and sense of detail that we would expect from a native.

Great book. It begins slowly (consciously slowly) and builds to a jackhammer conclusion. Don't miss it.

This is the eleventh book in the series and we have earned a new insight into his prior life in the service. We get to meet four of his old collegues from the 110th MP and the families of some of the others. Jack has never been one to hang around or keep mementos or even phone numbers. The only thing that Reacher has is his infinite fascination with numbers. So when someone wants to track him down they have to do it by depositing money into his bank account.

Child starts the book by having the bad guys throw and old friend of Reacher's out of a helicopter at 3000 feet. Not good. No one bounces that well. When Reacher gets an emergency message from on the "special investigators" he knows that it's not for a friendly reunion. If one of his "old buddies" go to the trouble of sending him a message, it can only mean trouble. But the trouble will be for the people who have "messed" with his friends.

The story itself is well written and the plot is logical to a point and especially at the beginning it's hard to tell who are the bad guys and who are the badder guys. But the story follows a linear flow that keeps it from getting overly convoluted and Child never tries anything 'sneaky' by throwing people in to fray as blind alleys. The things that the group they does and the situations they are involved in don't seem to be super- human and one would expect trained military personnel to be able to do.

So the only question that arises from this story is: after thirteen years in the military and ten years out, Reacher has to be in his mid 40s; how much longer can he continue to wander America, living off the Grid.