Customer Reviews

One Shot (Jack Reacher, No. 9)

5 star:		(106)
4 star:		(55)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

We've read all eight of the Jack Reacher books and absolutely love this singular character. And in "One Shot" we found one of the best books we've ever read -- how's that for high praise! First, Reacher is perhaps the best new leading man of this decade: as smart as Nero Wolfe; as honest and personable as a Dick Francis hero; and as physically fit and resourceful as Arnold Schwarzenegger, with the type of will that enables him to break a bad guy's neck without a second of indecision. Second, Child has created a plot with such gripping suspense, we stayed up till 3 a.m. to finish this -- we can't even remember the last time we were up much past midnight! And the supporting cast, including two women, were so appealing, with characters crafted so well, we'd almost like to see more of them as well.

The story gets off to a hot start when a sniper mows down (with six rifle shots) five random people innocently leaving their place of work. The guy seems to have expertly planned his attack, yet leaves behind such a wealth of forensic evidence that even a CSI rookie could have followed the trail and snagged the killer, as did the local Indiana small city cops just hours later that night. The arrested man, James Barr, who turns out to be a Gulf War Army sniper, says almost nothing, but finally denies his guilt and asks for Jack Reacher. Reacher hears about the deed on national TV and sets out for the town before he knew he had been tangentially involved. Meanwhile Barr gets almost killed in prison overnight and is in a coma in the hospital. When Reacher shows up and sees the case from the police side, he is also convinced it's open and shut -- and we're left wondering where this is all going. Answer -- into one great story that tracks down the truth from the tiniest of inconsistencies, with little more than caring people to keep the search going strong. When Reacher gets hit on by some bad guys after a setup from a cute townie girl, and then the girl gets brutally offed, he's in the game for good now; and as usual, enraged enough morally to relentlessly chase -- mostly on foot (he doesn't own a car or anything else for that matter!) -- the villains. Finally, it may be that a crooked cop or DA (the defense lawyer's father of all people) may be part of the problem, only adding to the tension! Cap this off with a fabulous ending that leaves everybody happy and satisfied, especially we readers, and what more can we ask for in a novel!

We rarely effuse to this extent about a "mere" thriller, but Lee Child has written a truly great book -- one that grabs our hearts and minds, keeps us involved as the pages fly by, and rams home several hours of first class entertainment. For fiction fans, THE MUST READ OF THE YEAR !!

Lee Child's main character, Jack Reacher, is the modern day equivalent of a gunslinger. The idea of a man of honor, who served honorably and well in the military of his country, coming back to roam the country unfettered by traditional lifestyles or bonds....well, it makes for compelling plotting (and takes me back to my childhood, with all those westerns in black and white). I've been a fan since the beginning of this series, despite Child's early lack of in depth research and some significant editing problems. In this, Reacher's 9th outing, the newest book, "One Shot", Child serves up more delicious action as Reacher is drawn into a small city incident of what appears to be terrorism.

The sniper shoots and kills six people. He takes few pains at hiding his identity, and he's picked up in a police probe that is a slam dunk. The evidence against him is so compelling that only his sister holds out any hope for the fact that he is innocent. Reacher doesn't want to save him. He arrives on the scene to cement the thought that the man is capable of such an act, citing an earlier act of conduct while in the military that seems to echo in the current shootings. But it doesn't take long for Reacher to become uncomfortable with the circumstances, and with the clumsy efforts of some force, some unknown powers who are framing the sniper and running scared that Reacher will find out.

The climax of the story is without parallel, and, once again, Reacher compels the reader by both his various "tough guy" idiosyncrasies and his ability to extricate himself and others from tense and action packed situations.

Now, don't get me wrong, the villains in question are way over the top, both in their plotting and in their identities and foibles. That's pretty much stock in trade for the foes that Reacher comes across in his pursuit of living an anonymous life of a crime buster in these United States. And while Child won't win any awards for his prose, he is, without a doubt, a master of mounting tension and that ephemeral quality of writing so compelling that the book can't be put down. One of the best in this nine book series, you'll enjoy "One Shot" whether you've run across Reacher before, or not. If you haven't read the series, this book may lead you to do just that.

Enjoy!

If there is a contemporary writer offering more thrills than Lee Child, and a hero more compelling than Child's Jack Reacher, I've yet to find it. "One Shot", the ninth installment in the Reacher series, is another hard-hitting mystery/thriller true to Child's lean, unembellished style. A few seconds of seemingly random violence from a sniper's puts an unnamed midwestern city in panic. But impeccable police work has the perp in irons within the day, as the forensics lead to Army vet (and former Desert Storm sniper) James Barr. Barr's one request: find Jack Reacher - he'll prove my innocence despite what appears to be a slam-dunk case for the prosecution. The story unfolds, unveiling a prior history between Barr and Reacher, while the intially straighforward case becomes yes certain. So engrossing is the mystery that the hardcore Reacher fan may overlook the fact that almost 100 pages have turned before Reacher actually hurts anyone. Momentum builds steadily, taking a few twists while leading to an unforgettable climax guaranteed to knock your socks off.

So while there may be nothing extraordinary about the basic plot - it's been done in a million variations - what is extraordinary is the visceral appeal of loner Jack Reacher - the ultimate cross between Clint Eastwood's `man without a name" and Sherlock Holmes. Reacher is justice personified, an irreverent avenging angel who shuns all material possessions in exchange for total independence. Also extraordinary is Child's ability to tell spin a yarn in clear, concise, stripped down prose that keeps the story clean, the dialogue lean, and the pages turning. You'll get no ambiguity from Child (or Reacher, for that matter): black and white, good and evil, and when there is evil, dispatch it quickly and brutally.

In short, "One Shot" is about as good as action fiction gets. The only drawback is that Child only writes one novel a year - it's a long wait till the next rush.

The gun man fired six shots, killing four males, one female, and one miss with the five KIAs all shot with precision in the head. Law enforcement believes a military trained sniper caused the massacre. The military database leads to nearby resident, ex Infantry Specialist James Barr. Warrants allow the cops to search Barr's property where further proof surface. Within six hours, James is arrested for mass murder.

James fails to respond to any inquiry from the DA except to calmly and quietly whisper they got the wrong guy but also demands they get him Reacher. Hearing the news of the slaughter and subsequent arrest, Reacher is on the way to the city even before Barr's strange request. He knows that Barr has done this before, and there is cause to see the man executed this time around as Barr escaped with no real punishment with the previous incident. To his chagrin, Reacher believes Barr's plea of innocence, and joins the defense team trying to prove the impossible as their client refuses to accept an insanity plea.

Though there seems an obvious conflict of interests between the two legal teams and Reacher's disdain for the accused, who he considers the ENEMY, it leaves him less frenzied than normal. ONE SHOT is a fabulous investigative legal thriller. The story line is action-packed as all Reacher tales are while the hero struggles with an ethical dilemma that slows his normal wacky pace yet makes him seem more human. The climax will blow away the audience as Lee Child provides a powerful thriller that fans of the series will relish.

Harriet Klausner

Lee Child's ninth Jack Reacher story begins not with one shot, but with six. A sniper has opened fire on office workers in an Indiana town, leaving five dead. The local police force, through extraordinarily meticulous detective work, finds their man. They have mounds of evidence, the local prosecutor is delighted, the problem is solved. But when they interview the suspect, he says only two things: "You have the wrong man"; and "get Jack Reacher". And the problems are just beginning. First, it's no easy task to "get Jack Reacher". A former military policeman, Reacher has left the Army for a life of wandering; he has no ties to any place or any person - it's not that simple, even for the police, to find a man who has no address, no phone, no tax records. In this case, however, Reacher is already on his way to Indiana; he's seen the news reports of the incident and has his own reasons for wanting to talk to the prisoner. And that's the second problem; from the moment Reacher arrives in Indiana we, and everyone else involved, discover that nothing is as it appears. And Reacher, as always, is determined to do the right thing at any cost.

From the first paragraph to the last, this book is a thrilling ride, containing all the wonderful elements readers have come to expect from Lee Child's writing: meticulous plotting, riveting action, unexpected humor, and of course, Jack Reacher - one terrific hero.

As my rating indicates, I found this thriller by Lee Child to be not only extremely compelling as the story rushed towards its crescendo, but also extraordinarily enjoyable as well. The factor that most differentiated ONE SHOT from the majority of other thrillers was the author's wonderful use of seemingly minor details to bring his central character Jack Reacher (and a few of the other characters as seen through Reacher's eyes) into extremely sharp focus for me as a reader. This is the first novel by Lee Childs which I have read, so I cannot compare to the previous eight entries in the series. Instead, I will have to leave it to Child's fans to comment upon whether the formula has gotten stale and repetitive for readers of the series; on the other hand maybe the author has gradually improved as he has honed his skills and perhaps I happen to stumble upon the volume which represents his arrival into the circle of the superior writers of this genre. In any event, this novel is very engrossing on a standalone basis as a ONE SHOT read; during the course of the story the author certainly inserts the necessary background material concerning Reacher's past to provide sufficient context for a reader to fully understand the context of Reacher's actions. There is no tedious detail, it is simply worked into the story; I also appreciated the lack of references to past exploits which can so frequently frustrate readers who attempt to read a recent entry in a long running series with which they are unfamiliar. While I applaud the author for this feature, it is also made easier for him to accomplish by the fact that Jack Reacher is a man who lives off the grid - in effect a man with no face, no forwarding address, and seemingly a man who has effectively ceased to exist. To paraphrase his comment to the detective who doesn't believe his alibi, maybe he really is Joe Gordon. (Yes baseball fans, that is the Joe Gordon who you think it is.)

The storyline is simplicity itself. A typical Midwestern city in the heartland of Indiana is briefly plunged into chaos when a sniper fires six shots into the crowd exiting a city plaza during the evening rush hour. However the panic is defused when incredibly thorough and very speedy police work by the crime scene investigators allow them to arrest a suspect (James Barr) within hours of the deaths of the five victims of the apparently deranged gunman. The police believe that the case is ironclad; Barr won't say anything until his sister Rosemary finds a lawyer to represent him. He then utters two brief sentences "They got the wrong guy" and "Get Jack Reacher for me". While his request provides insurmountable difficulties for the defense team since they cannot even determine who Reacher is, Reacher fortuitously learns of the events in downtown "heartland city, Indiana" and heads there not to help Barr but with the intent of making sure that he is convicted of the horrible crime of which he is accused. Imagine how shocked he is when he arrives there and discovers that Barr has requested his presence despite the knowledge which he possesses concerning the highly classified secrets of Barr's past. However, he becomes suspicious when it becomes clear that the rush to arrest someone for the crime has left several inconsistencies despite the supposedly airtight case. The more he learns, the more these questions gnaw at him. Thus, he decides to briefly stsay around and work in the shadows alongside Barr's young and inexperienced new counsel (hired after Rosemary realized that her brother's original lawyer was interested in a quick disposition of the case rather than defending her brother). An interesting twist is that Barr's new lawyer is Helen Rodin, the daughter of DA Alex Rodin, whose caution in choosing which cases to try means that he has never lost a major prosecution which he has undertaken. Reacher gradually begins to unravel the complexities surrounding the supposedly random shootings; then his shadowy opponents manage to limit his flexibility by diverting him from Barr's case through the need to prove himself innocent of a heinous crime of which he is soon accused.

Most of the character development is limited to the extent needed to make the story internally consistent, but the major villains (Linsky and the Zec) certainly are interesting and the characters of Gunny Cash (who was featured in a small but essential part) and Ann Yanni (in a crucial and quite substantial supporting role) were sufficiently developed to be very enjoyable. In fact, the interchange between Reacher and Yanni concerning George Orwell which developed into a brief episode of dueling quotations was one of the unexpected small touches which made this book so enjoyable for me. And long time fans of the series even get to meet an individual from Reacher's Army past, (now) Brigadier General Eileen Hutton, who is one of the links in the chain that might tie former Army sniper Barr to Reacher as well as these shootings.

Is this story realistic? Of course not! Would the series of coincidences combined with Reacher's extraordinary powers and unbelievable investigative ability strain your credulity if you sat back to analyze this book as you were reading it? Of course! In this regard this shares the attributes of all great thrillers, they suck the reader into the story - the action is so fast paced and forces of evil opposing the lone hero seem so the powerful that the reader is captivated by the flow of events and his desire to learn how good will triumph in the end and who will have died along the way. The great thing about this book is that it accomplishes its goal while Reacher is still managing to have fun. He attempts to romance his former superior officer, then later he flirts outrageously with Ann Yanni despite the deadly game in progress. His methodology for choosing his identities and the background role of sports in this book will delight all sports fans and was the touch that caused me to add a plus to my rating of five stars to indicate my total enjoyment of this book,

So this is a thriller with a superhero as the central character - a police procedural with an investigator of unmatched abilities - and finally an action story detailing how Reacher's hastily assembled army of irregulars (including Ann Yanni and Helen Rodin) supplemented by ex- Marine Gunny Cash fulfill their assigned roles and allow him to execute his fiendishly clever plan for righting the wrongs which have so offended his sense of justice and morality. ONE SHOT hit all the right notes for me, and while may of the nuances which I enjoyed so much may not be quite as appealing to a broad range of readers, I think that most individuals who enjoy this genre will agree that this is a well above average entry in that category. Finally, this is not a book to be skimmed for the plot - both the enjoyment and the genius is in the details. And when you reach the conclusion you will understand the applicability of the title, despite the fact that six shots were fired on that fatal day that set all this Jack Reacher adventure in motion.

Tucker Andersen

When you're in a tight spot...... being handed a bad rap...... and need someone who, once committed to your case, will relentlessly pursue the truth, the man to call on is Jack Reacher.

Large in physical stature, expert in weaponry and hand to hand combat, an ex-military investigator with an analytical mind and the deductive powers to ferret out the truth no matter how convoluted the clues, Reacher is a man to be reckoned with.

A man's man; he's a strong, silent, low-maintenance kind of guy, who travels the country with just the clothes on his back, a few bucks in his pocket, and a penchant for checking into hotels and registering under the names of obscure baseball players. The fact that he wears each set of clothes for four days and then buys new duds at a local second hand store may be a bit of a turn off for the ladies in the audience......but the females in the story don't seem to have a problem with his personal hygiene.

Called upon by a defense attorney to investigate what appears to be a random act of violence committed by a sniper, he slowly becomes convinced that the air tight, slam-dunk case the cops have built against the accused is just a little too perfect and proceeds, in typical Reacher fashion, to chip away at the "details.

The story itself really strains at the bounds of credibility.....but we're here to be amused and entertained, and author, Lee Child delivers on that count. He manages to occupy our interest, keep us engaged, and in the process gives his readers a lot of "bang for the buck".

Oh yes, one last thing.........if you think I was exaggerating when I said that Reacher was the strong, silent type.......count how many times you read the phrase "Reacher said nothing" in this book!!!

... and Lee Child delivers.

What a relief. A book in a continuing series that lives up to the tradition of its predecessors. Some of my favorite suspense and crime fiction authors seem to be "phoning it in" on the later books in their series, but Lee Child isn't one of them. "One Shot" is a very good book.

Jack Reacher, the continuing character. If you haven't met him, you should. He's a man's man and woman's man, um, too, if you know what I mean. Child manages to build Reacher as both the ideal macho man and a guy intelligent and moral enough to treat the women in his life with respect (and a little bit of lovin').

The plot of this book revolves around a ghost from Reacher's MP past. A mass murder is committed and the obvious culprit calls for Jack Reacher before the culprit lapses into amnesia. No one knows who Reacher is or how to get in touch with him but, no matter, Reacher is already on his way. He has a promise to keep and Reacher always keeps his promises.

If you step back and ask yourself, after reading, just how much of the plot is actually plausible (especially the fantastic yet satisfying ending), the answer is, not a whole heck of a lot.

I wasn't asking myself those pesky plausibilty questions while I was reading, though. I was turning each page as quickly as I could to see what happened next and yes, that's good suspense fiction.

Lee Child makes his readers happy. I do hope that writing these books makes Child happy and that he won't start phoning them in any time soon.

My only regret is having read the 9th Reacher in hardcover and having so long to wait for next one.

Jack Reacher, a man on a mission, arrives in town in the wake of the apparently random shooting of five office workers. All the evidence points towards an ex-marine colleague. He gets a slightly unsatisfactory $6 haircut, ditches his old clothes, buys a pair of deck shoes, some green trousers, and a green shirt, then proceeds to wear them for the entirety of the book (when he's not ironing them by placing them under his motel mattress at night), and yet women still can't resist him. He also manages to evade the entire police force, plus a vicious gang of Russian baddies on foot (whilst dressed all in green) as he negotiates his way round town kicking ass, taking names and concocting theories in his pursuit of the truth, which not only fly in the face of conventional thinking, but are also always proved to be 100% correct. These are two of the problems I encountered with Lee Child's 9th Jack Reacher thriller `One Shot'. However, the main problem I had with it was the fact that last night I stayed up until 2am to finish it and am now quite tired.

One Shot was my first experience of Lee Child's `Jack Reacher' series, and was purchased solely on account of being half price. From the assorted reviews listed on the dust cover I was able to glean that Reacher was an irresistible and uncompromising rebel hero who I naturally assumed I would be rooting for over the course of the next 490 pages. I was somewhat surprised therefore, to find that as Reacher's luck finally ran out and he stood on the sidewalk, hands aloft, yet still wheeling out his `dry' one liners to the Russian sniper who's crosshairs were trained on his head, my overwhelming feeling was `It'd be quite funny if he shot him'. Herein lies the fundamental problem with `One Shot', namely its highly unlikely lead character.

In Reacher, Child has created an ice cold, all-action, fortysomething ex-forces tactical genius with an eye for the ladies, who isn't afraid of who he has to go through in pursuit of justice. In many ways you could draw parallels with Jack Bauer, a man whose maverick ways have kept TV audiences on the edge of their seats through 5 series of 24. But in many ways you couldn't. For example Bauer isn't 6ft5 and 250lbs. He probably never held the title of worlds best shot from a 1km distance. He might struggle to kill a man a lot bigger than him with a minute-long bear hug. And if he walked into your workplace out of the blue, smelling of five day old green clothes and started rabbiting on about conspiracies, you might be more inclined to ask to see some identification or call security, than to lend him your car then join him on a daring midnight raid on a Russian gang's secret lair without the assistance of the police. Jack Bauer is also employed by the government to uncover corruption and root out the bad guys, killing them if need be. For the unemployed Reacher however this is more of a hobby. Well, that and the ladies obviously.

However, it is testament to the genuine suspense generated by 400 pages of ultra-descriptive scene setting and impressively in-depth development of multiple characters that I, like pretty much every woman Reacher has spent more than 5 minutes talking to, didn't get to sleep until past 2am last night. To bring the reader to the point of not only remembering the names of, but also simultaneously being genuinely intrigued to learn the individual fates over the next 90 pages of: a suspect, his sister, a lawyer, his daughter, a chief of police, a district attorney, a news reporter, a shooting range owner, a Russian gang leader, his 4 cronies, and, to a lesser extent, an ice-cold all-action ex-military hero, is no mean feat. The final set piece, Reacher's daring one-man mission into the depths of the Russian gang's hideout, whilst slightly far-fetched is an exciting and satisfactory reward for paying attention to the elaborate, yet not over-complicated, series of events that have gone before.

Through Child's almost almost-obsessively descriptive narrative, a mind's-eye picture every location and character that Reacher encounters can be easily formed, which is the key to ensuring the reader's continued sense of involvement in the story. Unfortunately the picture one is invited to conjure up of Jack Reacher is an unlikely cocktail of Schwarzenegger, Rambo, McQueen, Casanova and the Green Cross Code Man. Difficult to empathise with, and certainly from my point of view, difficult to actually like.

Lee Child rocks. Jack Reacher is definitely not your typical serial hero. Much tougher than nails, smarter than whips, and almost utterly without emotion except a strong urge for "just" revenge. Reacher, in short, is the perfect cop - his abilities are super and they are well detached from fine sensibilities. Like Dirty Harry on a combination of espresso and testosterone, Reacher shows up on the scene to right wrongs, but he never pre-judges the outcomes of his investigations. Too much usually happens, and he knows it does, to make the obvious solution often the right one.

Child is not the most sensitive of writers (if you want beautiful prose with your cops and murders, buy James Lee Burke), but he is a superb plotter. Though the other characters are often not well developed (how can they be when they die so prematurely, so often?), they do have a certain ring of authenticity to them. And Reacher is a gem -- the kind of guy you think and hope to God the U.S. military is actually full of -- supremely competent, brutal beyond belief and yet intrinsically decent. Lee Child, a Brit, has given us the quintessential American hero. God help us all.