Customer Reviews

Nothing to Lose (Jack Reacher, No. 12)

5 star:		(65)
4 star:		(62)
3 star:		(71)
2 star:		(100)
1 star:		(186)

 

 

Disappointing. After reeling off 11 good to (often) great Reacher novels, Lee Child struck out with this one. It starts promising enough. Despair had all the makings of a great stage for Reacher to be Reacher, reminiscent of the Killing Floor. But the promise is never fulfilled. The meandering plot doesn't pull you in. Unlike previous stories, the villain is flat, two dimensional and far from frightening - a death sentence for any story of good vs. evil. The action is sparse.

Previous Reacher novels were impossible to put down. You were torn between your desire to get to the end and your hope that the story would keep going. After all, it would be another year before you got the next one. Sadly, that was not true here. The ending seemed slapped on, left lots of loose ends untied and seemed very uncharacteristic for Reacher. But worst of all, it didn't come too soon. It could have come 100 pages sooner.

These were the big problems with the book. Reacher's detour into politics and criticism of the war did seem out of character but not because I had any assumptions about his politics. He always struck me as outside of politics - outside of almost everything for that matter.

Lee, everyone is entitled to a miss, especially after the roll you have been on. Here is hoping the next one is back to your old form

After reading about 8 of Child's Jack Reacher books, I finally found a dud. It started out thrilling, as expected, but quickly become almost boring. I can not believe I am typing those words.

Reacher's repeatedly doing the same thing, over and over (returning to a bad place) was tedious and so unlike our hero's usual behavior. The plot wandered all over the place and the book was too long.

I found it impossible to buy into the far-fetched "conspiracy theory" with its pathetic "villains" and was surprised at Child's foray into political opinion (putting his opinions into Reacher's mouth -which completely changed Reacher's character). This was totally out of place, I thought, and awkward at best.

I just hope that Child has not run out of stories and that he will return Reacher to his previous inventive adventures.

I only read the Amazon reviews after finishing the book, and must say I am not surprised that there are 110 reviews and the average is an abyssmal 2.5 stars. Most of his other books have averaged 4 stars.

Holy conspiracy theories, Batman! Did somebody take James Lee Burke and tuck his liberal rants between the covers of a Lee Child novel?

Don't get me wrong - Burke and Child are two of my favorite authors - but the venerable Burke started a fast descent when his politics began to irrationally overpower the gripping atmospheric prose of the Mississippi delta and Dave Robicheaux's hard-hitting tales of southern noir. But if one were to judge Child solely on the basis of "Nothing to Lose", they might conclude that that he is already well down that slippery slope. Which would be a true disservice to the author and his readers.

So this starts out as the vintage Lee Child/Jack Reacher thrill fest, with the stoic loaner Reacher alone on a desolate highway separating the fictitious and allegorically named Colorado towns of Hope and Despair. Borrowing heavily from Stallone's "First Blood" - and even a bit from Stephen King's eerie "Desperation" - Reacher wants nothing more than a cup of coffee while passing through Despair. Instead, he finds himself first ignored and then in jail for vagrancy. With a provocative and mysterious prologue, and Reacher's first fist fight by page fifteen, all the pieces were quickly falling into place for a classic Child/Reacher escape to fast action and delicious revenge. The mystery of the Despair deepened, a company town supported by a massive metal recycling plant and controlled Waco-like by the omnipresent "Mr. Thurman". And keeping with his trusted and successful formula, Child provides Reacher's love interest in the form of "Vaughan", a patrolman of neighboring Hope.

But a promising start begins to fray around the edges a hundred-or-so pages in, and, by halfway through, has literally lost all "Hope". Repeated encounters between Reacher and Thurman and his thugs become tedious - even boring, unheard of in Child's pages - as the plot meanders and stumbles through incongruities and inconsistencies alien to Child's usually credible plot lines and meticulous research. But in this installment, while Child can still add depth and interest to a story with minutia ranging from the perfect cup of coffee to the physics of a cell phone call, he is inexcusably sloppy in tying together his central theme. Unlike the smart, lean, and unencumbered prose we've been conditioned to expect, "Nothing to Lose" reads with all the clarity and efficiency you'd expect in a "Code Pink" manifesto.

It's a shame, really. Lee Child is arguably the standard in contemporary thriller/action fiction, and Jack Reacher is, as so well said by the Chicago Sun-Times, "...the perfect hero, loved by women, feared by men, respected by all." But not this time. Let's just hope that this episode's muddled and confused Reacher is an aberration, and that next year's entry will return to the straightforward thrills of "Persuader", "Tripwire", or "Killing Floor", rather than following James Lee Burke down a path that will not only cost him a loyal fan base, but also tarnish the great writing that justifiably has earned their fealty.

Lee Child's Jack Reacher series is one of the few I purchase in hard cover as soon as they come out. I buy them, I read them, I keep them, and then I read them over again, sometimes several times over the space of a couple of years. This one, though, I wish I'd waited for the paperback. I may keep it, but I doubt I will reread it. For the first time I actually found times when I didn't like Jack Reacher, when he acted out of character in a way that lost my favor. I won't say how or why, since you may also be a Reacher fan, and I want you to read this. Just wait for the paperback.

Lee Child/Jack Reacher novels are "Gotta get the hardback today" books for me. His previous efforts range from very good to great. His plots/locales have varied, but his formula for a page-turning thriller has not. "Nothing to Lose" not only lacked the usual page-turner formula, but was actually a chore to finish. This novel has to be compared to Child's previous efforts to appreciate it's failings.
"The Hook"- Child can set the hook like no other author. The action starts hard and heavy, and is mysterious enough to keep the reader engaged. "Nothing to Lose" had no hook. By page 45, I was still waiting for the hook to get me interested. Never happened.
"The Bad Guys"- Child always has fascinating and diabolical bad guys, often with a clever plot twist to throw reader off of who's good-who's bad. But by the end of the novels, I can't wait for Jack to take care of these guys as he always does. The End Times preacher was a [yawn] low-grade baddie who [yawn] only truly gets defined as a baddie after he's been blown up [yawn].
"The Roller Coaster"- Every Reacher book to date has hit a point where I cannot put it down until it is finished. I call this the "top of the roller coaster"- usually about 100 pages from the end. 3 AM, have to be up at 7AM- too bad. Have to finish the Reacher book. In Nothing to Lose, 75 pages from the end, I just lost interest, and put it down for three days. I forced myself to finish it.
"Politics"- If Lee Child is actually interested in continued sales of his novels, he might be wise to realize several points. Jack Reacher probably doesn't have mass appeal for left-wingers, peaceniks, or academic liberals. Also, the Jack Reacher character is almost by definition apolitical. "Nothing to Lose" is basically a platform for Child to espouse his anti-Iraq War, anti-administration views and twist them into a discoherent plot.
"Memorability"- Within one hour of finishing most Reacher novels, I could recite a fairly tight outline of the main story lines. It's now an hour since I finished Nothing to Lose, and realize I can't do it. Let me try. Jack wanders back and forth from Despair to Hope. Beats up some guys who weren't really bad, but pissed him off. Goes back and forth a few more times and occasionally beats up some more guys. Finds out the town is weird with something going on. Gov't/current administration coverup of gross failures in Iraq exposed. Pitiful brain injured Iraq vet demonstrated for all to see. Pipeline for military deserters desperate to escape duty in Iraq and head to Canada left unexposed. Gets the babe. Blows up the dirty bomb which really wasn't that dirty. The end. Hmmmm.
Technical Accuracy- OK. It's just a story. A few loose ends are inevitable and forgivable. Truth can be stretched for novels sake. Nothing to Lose took these liberties to the point of constant distraction. Acute radiation sickness from depleted uranium??? Come on. Massive Abrams battle tank losses covered up by the gov't??? Come on. His description of a chronic brain-injured patient was so off base it was distracting. (If Child would like an MD/surgeon to proof his next book, I volunteer).
In summary, No Hook, Bland Bad Guys, an 8 ft. roller coaster, politically polluted, unmemorable, and technically inaccurate. Worst Reacher book of all times. I think I'll wait for the paperback when "Gone Tomorrow" comes out.

If you enjoy reading a novel where all the adjectives are "dingy, dirty, greasy, sandy, dull and dun-colored" and if you enjoy reading a novel where nothing happens and no characters develop, this is the book for you.
The author phoned it in - knowing that he has a built-in audience that expects a book a year. I've always liked the hero, Reacher. Not enough to be bored to pieces. I am very sorry to have wasted my money. Please don't waste yours, too.

Fans write reviews when they are let down by their authors or are thrilled they have discovered a new one. Lee Child's Jack Reacher novels have been a staple of my fiction reading library since he appeared. However, with Nothing to Lose, I feel he mailed it in for the first time. There was only so much to do with the idea, and the repeated traveling between towns was worn out after the first couple times. The bad guys, such as they were,were lightweight and generated no fear. All in all, a novel that did not do anything for me and was a waste of money and energy in the anticipation. I went back and reread the previous books the last few weeks and confirmed this new one was a very weak and seemingly half-hearted attempt to repeat those. I hope he recovers his abilities for the next one.

Like many of the reviewers I am a huge fan of Lee Child's Jack Reacher novels. But I think Lee did us all a considerable disservice with this book. Reacher just didn't seem like...well, Reacher. He wanders back and forth from one town to the other, looking for what? The story line meandered, the characters are pretty boring, and Child gratuitously plugs in some political venting about the brave deserters who would rather flee than fight.

I'm no kind of literary critic, but I had to laugh at the endless repetition of the phrase, "Reacher was no kind of this," or "Reacher was no kind of that." Child seems to have phoned this one in, for it's the first Reacher story that not only was I not unable to put down, I had to force myself to finish it. The plot is convoluted and implausible, and if I did not already "know" Reacher from the prior novels I would have had little clue to his character from this one. The novel seems to have been concocted as a wet dream for the moveon.com or Daily Kos crowd, replete with the wholesale destruction of American tanks in Iraq, the wanton murder of Iranian civilians, wanton contamination of the environment and wanton mistreatment of injured vets back home -- all covered up by the government -- capped off by a dirty bomb plot hatched not by Islamists (perish the thought) but by Christian fundamentalists (naturally). Come to think of it, Child's target audience really must be America-bashing Hollywood producers -- I bet this is the first Reacher novel to make it to the big screen!

I really like Lee Child's Reacher series too. But Nothing to lose was a huge disappointment. Especially after Bad Luck and Trouble & the Hard way, which were great mixes of action, thriller, & mystery - this book really just limped along, with disparate storylines, very little action, and a strange resolution. Reacher's character really took a hit here in my opinion - while the love stories in each of his books are throwaways - Reacher doesn't usually come off as sleezy, which he does here. And more tangeants then usual - like the completely irrelevant explanation of xeriscaping - WTF? To potential readers, this is generally a great character and a great series - but I would skip this particular book or at least not lead off with it.