TV Series: Reacher

Watched on: Amazon Prime

Premiered: 2/4/22
Season 1
Number of Episodes: 8
IMBd: 8.7/10
RT Critic's Consensus: Reacher captures the trademark bulk of its titular hero while trading away some of his definition, but fans of the novels will find plenty to love about this faithful adaptation.
RT Audience Score: 85/94
cag: 6 - It was wonderful

Characters: Alan Ritchson is the PERFECT Jack Reacher!  

My comments:  The cast is wonderful and just right, and the flashbacks to Reacher's childhood relationship with his brother Joe, and his parents are fantastic.  Not only did it represent the book and series well, it would have been great even if I hadn't known the story and Reacher's personality so intimately.  Loved it!  

Storyline from IMBd:    When retired Military Police Officer Jack Reacher is arrested for a murder he did not commit, he finds himself in the middle of a deadly conspiracy full of dirty cops, shady businessmen and scheming politicians. With nothing but his wits, he must figure out what is happening in Margrave, Georgia.

98. Blue Moon by Lee Child

#24 Jack Reacher
listened to audio borrowed from Bosler Library
narrated by Scott Brick
Unabridged audio (11:21)
2019
359 pgs.
Adult Mystery
Finished 6/25/2020
Goodreads rating: 3.97 - 40,462 ratings
My rating:  3
Setting: Contemporary unknown city

First line/s:  "The city looked small on a map of America."

What I posted on Goodreads:  Most Reacher books are unbelievable and implausible, but this one takes the cake!

My comments:  Not sure why Blue Moon was the title of this book, I may be missing something!  There was a lot of bloodshed in this story, bloodshed in which Reacher never batted an eye.  Yes, he was cleaning up some really bad guys, cleaning up in a city who really needed the help (two warring mafia gangs from two different countries) but it was pretty overwhelming.  Gaining the friendship of four different people who helped immensely also seemed pretty implausible.  This man has more than luck on his side, and as much as I celebrate his genius, this story just seemed to be over the top over and over again.  I must admit, it's nice to not be nervous at all as I anticipate what will happen next because I know Reacher will prevail.

Goodreads synopsis:  “This is a random universe,” Reacher says. “Once in a blue moon things turn out just right.”
          This isn’t one of those times.
          Reacher is on a Greyhound bus, minding his own business, with no particular place to go, and all the time in the world to get there. Then he steps off the bus to help an old man who is obviously just a victim waiting to happen. But you know what they say about good deeds. Now Reacher wants to make it right.
          An elderly couple have made a few well-meaning mistakes, and now they owe big money to some very bad people. One brazen move leads to another, and suddenly Reacher finds himself a wanted man in the middle of a brutal turf war between rival Ukrainian and Albanian gangs.
          Reacher has to stay one step ahead of the loan sharks, the thugs, and the assassins. He teams up with a fed-up waitress who knows a little more than she’s letting on, and sets out to take down the powerful and make the greedy pay. It’s a long shot. The odds are against him. But Reacher believes in a certain kind of justice . . . the kind that comes along once in a blue moon.

66. A Hard Man to Forget: The Jack Reacher Files by Dan Ames

Jack Reacher Cases #1  (Though it's marked #3 on Goodreads, I'm pretty sure this one is the first one.)
read on my iPhone
2017 Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
200 pgs.
Adult Mystery
Finished 11/14/2017
Goodreads rating: 3.86 - 499 reviews
My rating: 3

First line/s:  "The two men with guns walked behind the man carrying the shovel."

My comments:  I never really became engaged with this story, not even sure who the actual protagonist was until near the end, since the story jumped around from one setting to another.  It kept my interest, but I would have liked to have been pulled into the story more.  I was merely an observer for this one.

Goodreads synopsis: Book One in THE JACK REACHER CASES.
          Former FBI agent Lauren Pauling met Jack Reacher in THE HARD WAY, the 10th Jack Reacher novel by Lee Child.
          Now, in A HARD MAN TO FORGET, Pauling is a private investigator in New York and receives a mysterious letter with Jack Reacher's name, along with a phone number. Pauling calls the number and reaches a woman whose husband has gone missing.
          Even stranger, the woman claims she didn't contact Pauling, and has no idea who Jack Reacher is.
          Intrigued, begins to investigate and when the woman becomes the target of the same men who may have abducted her husband, Pauling recruits Michael Tallon, a former special ops soldier.
          Pauling and Tallon quickly realize they're dealing with much more than a missing persons case, and soon they're in a deadly race to stop a terrifying act of mass murder.

73. Die Trying by Lee Child

#2 Jack Reacher
listened to in the car - end of trip to PA and up to Maine, all in December, 2016
originally published in 1998
552 pgs. in Mass Market paperback
12 unabridged cds
Adult Murder Mystery
Finished 12/26/16
Goodreads rating: - 4.0 - 67,368
My rating: 3
Setting: Chicago, then the wilds of northwestern Montana

First line/s: "Nathan Rubin died because he got brave."

My comments: I'm reading this series out of order, which works fine for me.  This is the second book in the series, and what I'm finding is that I like the more recent books better than the beginning titles.  This one was TOO detailed, too much information and explanation about guns, bullets, velocity, too much of the nitty gritty.  (If it were about cutting fabric for a quilt I'd probably feel differently).  It also seemed to go on forever and ever and ever...but no matter how impatient I get, these are great for listening to on a 8 hour plus drive!

Goodreads synopsis:  In a Chicago suburb, a dentist is met in his office parking lot by three men and ordered into the trunk of his Lexus. On a downtown sidewalk, Jack Reacher and an unknown woman are abducted in broad daylight by two men - practiced and confident - who stop them at gunpoint and hustle them into the same sedan. Then Reacher and the woman are switched into a second vehicle and hauled away, leaving the dentist bound and gagged inside his car with the woman's abandoned possessions, two gallons of gasoline. . . and a burning match. The FBI is desperate to rescue the woman, a Special Agent from the Chicago office, because the FBI always - always - takes care of its own, and because this woman is not just another agent. Reacher and the woman join forces, against seemingly hopeless odds, to outwit their captors and escape. But the FBI thinks Jack is one of the kidnappers - and when they close in, the Bureau snipers will be shooting to kill.

MOVIE - Jack Reacher: Never Go Back

PG-13 (1:58)

Wide release 10/21/16

Viewed 11/9/16 at Century Park Place

RT Critic:  37  Audience:  48
Critic's Consensus:  Monotonously formulaic, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back is one action thriller sequel whose title also serves as a warning.

Cag:  4.5 Really well done, liked it a lot

Directed by Edward Zwick

Paramount Pictures

Based on the book by Lee Child

Tom Cruise

My comments:  This is the one where he saves the woman who now has his old job from false accusations and they both go on the run.

RT/ IMDb Summary:  Jack Reacher must uncover the truth behind a major government conspiracy in order to clear his name. On the run as a fugitive from the law, Reacher uncovers a potential secret from his past that could change his life forever.

49. One Shot by Lee Childs

Jack Reacher #9
listened to in the car while driving
2006
466 pgs.
Adult murder mystery
Finished 9/14/16
Goodreads rating:  4.19 - 66,684 ratings
My rating: 4

First line/s:  "Friday.  Five o'clock in the afternoon.  Maybe the hardest time to move unobserved through a city.  Or maybe the easiest.  Because at five o'clock pm a Friday nobody pays attention to anything.  Except the road ahead."

My comments:  No matter how implausible a Jack Reacher story becomes, it is still incredibly interesting to read.  I listened to this while traveling endless deserted Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexican roads which flew by because I was totally enthralled by the story.  There's on one like Jack Reacher.  There's not superhero that could beat or outsmart him.  Years before, Reacher had told James Barr that if he ever got into any kind of trouble, he'd "get him."  So when James Barr does get in trouble, and his only response when arrested is to contact Jack Reacher, Reacher knows something's not right.  And off we go.....

Goodreads synopsis:  Six shots. Five dead. One heartland city thrown into a state of terror. But within hours the cops have it solved: a slam-dunk case. Except for one thing. The accused man says: You got the wrong guy. Then he says: Get Reacher for me. And sure enough, from the world he lives in--no phone, no address, no commitments-ex-military investigator Jack Reacher is coming. In Lee Child's astonishing new thriller, Reacher's arrival will change everything--about a case that isn't what it seems, about lives tangled in baffling ways, about a killer who missed one shot-and by doing so give Jack Reacher one shot at the truth.... 
     The gunman worked from a parking structure just thirty yards away-point-blank range for a trained military sniper like James Barr. His victims were in the wrong place at the wrong time. But why does Barr want Reacher at his side? There are good reasons why Reacher is the last person Barr would want to see. But when Reacher hears Barr's own words, he understands. And a slam-dunk case explodes. Soon Reacher is teamed with a young defense lawyer who is working against her D.A. father and dueling with a prosecution team that has an explosive secret of its own. Like most things Reacher has known in life, this case is a complex battlefield. But, as always, in battle, Reacher is at his best. 
     Moving in the shadows, picking his spots, Reacher gets closer and closer to the unseen enemy who is pulling the strings. And for Reacher, the only way to take him down is to know his ruthlessness and respect his cunning-and then match him shot for shot.... 

29. Worth Dying For - Lee Child

Jack Reacher #15
Listened to audio cd in the car
2010 Delacorte
400 pgs.
Adult Mystery
Finished 5/19/16
Goodreads rating: 4.20
My rating: 4
Setting: Contemporary rural Nebraska

First line/s:  "Eldridge Tyler was driving a long, straight two-lane road in Nebraska when his cell phone rang."

My comments:  Jack Reacher was a little disconcerting in this entry, at least until the very end.  He seemed particularly ruthless and ...blood-thirsty... in this one, much more than usual.  But a tiny bit more is revealed just before the very end of the book that made my "thumbs up, Reacher" attitude return.  Reacher is his usual foot-loose and fancy-free self in this one, making quick friends and enemies in an isolated small town in Nebraska where one family rules without question.  And they aren't a nice family.  Of course Reacher discovers what everyone is hiding, how to outsmart one heck-of-a-lot of hoodlums, and end up on the winning side...something you never doubt for a moment.  As always, an enjoyable audible treat on my drive back and forth from work.

Goodreads synopsis:  There’s deadly trouble in the corn county of Nebraska . . . and Jack Reacher walks right into it. First he falls foul of the Duncans, a local clan that has terrified an entire county into submission. But it’s the unsolved, decades-old case of a missing child that Reacher can’t let go.
 
The Duncans want Reacher gone—and it’s not just past secrets they’re trying to hide. For as dangerous as the Duncans are, they’re just the bottom of a criminal food chain stretching halfway around the world. For Reacher, it would have made much more sense to put some distance between himself and the hard-core trouble that’s bearing down on him. For Reacher, that was also impossible.

2. Small Wars - Lee Child

Jack Reacher #19.5
(1:30) on Audible
audio read by Dick Hill
2015 Transworld Digital
44 pgs.
Adult Murder Mystery "short story"
Finished
Goodreads rating: 3.97
My rating:  4
Setting:  Georgia

First line/s:  "In the spring of 1989 Caroline Crawford was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel.  She bought a silver Porsche to celebrate.  She had family money, people said, and plenty of it.  A trust fund, maybe.  Some eminent relative.  Maybe an inventor.  Her uniforms were tailored in D. C. by the same shop that made suits for the president.  She was held to be the richest woman in the army.  Not that the bar was high."

My comments:  Short and sweet...a short story, I guess.  Another interesting look at brother Joe.... It's fun to read (listen to) a shortie in between the regular book-length ones.  Decent story, too.

Goodreads synopsis:  A young lieutenant colonel, in a stylish handmade uniform, roars through the damp woods of Georgia in her new silver Porsche - until she meets a very tall soldier with a broken-down car.
       What could connect a cold-blooded off-post shooting with Reacher, his elder brother Joe, and a secretive unit of pointy-heads from the Pentagon?

67. Running Blind - Lee Child

Jack Reacher #4
read by Jonathan McClain - a different reader than I'm used to for Reacher, couldn't quite get used to it
11 unabridged cds
2000/2012 Penguin Audio
512 pgs.
Adult murder mystery
Finished 12/8/2015
Goodreads rating:  4.07
My rating: 3
Setting:  Washington DC and the northwest

First line/s:  "Life is full of decisions and judgments and guesses, and it gets to the point that you're so accustomed to making them you keep right on making them even when you don't strictly need to.  You get into a what if thing, and you start speculating about what you would do if some problem was yours instead of someone else's.  It gets to be a habit.  It was a habit Jack Reacher had in spades."

My comments:  There were too many rights-related happenstances that I found difficult to believe in this book.  Reacher was able to get past them all, but it did get the old eyeballs rolling a few times.....  It was a great mystery, convoluted and believable.....  I love to envision this tall, well-built man, lying on his back in bed for an entire night just thinking and figuring and tossing different scenarios around in his mind.....

Goodreads Summary:  There were too many rights-related happenstances that I found difficult to believe in this book.  Reacher was able to get past them all, but it did get the old eyeballs rolling a few times.....  It was a great mystery, convoluted and believable.....  I love to envision this tall, well-built man, lying on his back in bed for an entire night just thinking and figuring and tossing different scenarios around in his mind.....

49. Killing Floor - Lee Child

read by Dick Hill
listened to in the car on the CD player - driving west from PA
1997 Brilliance Audio
12 unabridged cds
525 pgs.
Adult Murder Mystery
Finished 8/5/15
Goodreads rating: 4.02
My rating: 4
Setting: Contemporary Margrave, GA

First line/s:  "I was arrested at Eno's Diner.  At twelve o'clock.  I was eating eggs and drinking coffee.  A late breakfast, not lunch.  I was wet and tired after a long walk in heavy rain.  All the way from the highway to the edge of town."

My comments:  I'm skipping around reading this series, and this is the first of them chronologically.  It gave a teeny, tiny more insight into protagonist Jack Reacher and why he is living life in his chosen, off-beat way.  The mystery was great, fascinating, kept you guessing, and entirely improbable.....which was totally okay with me!  This is the perfect book for a reluctant reader from young adult onward.  It's hard to put down.

Goodreads synopsis:  Ex-military policeman Jack Reacher is a drifter. He's just passing through Margrave, Georgia, and in less than an hour, he's arrested for murder. Not much of a welcome. All Jack knows is that he didn't kill anybody. At least not here. Not lately. But he doesn't stand a chance of convincing anyone. not in Margrave, Georgia. Not a chance in hell.

38. Second Son - a short story by Lee Child

Jack Reacher #15.5
read by Dick Hill
listened to audio through Audible
2011 Transworld Digital
32 pgs.
Adult mystery
Read on 5/27/2015
Goodreads rating: 3.93
My rating: 3
Setting: Base housing, 1970's Okinawa

My comments: It was interesting to look at Jack Reacher with a family, living in a house in a bedroom of his own....but to truly believe that a 13-year old could think in the way that he did left a little question mark in my head.  Of course Reacher was probably a detecting/investigative prodigy, but this one went a little over the top to be completely believable.  Ah, well.   A short story from Lee Child - fun.

Goodreads synopsis:  In this short story from #1 New York Times bestselling author Lee Child, available exclusively as an eBook, a young Jack Reacher knows how to finish a fight so it stays finished. He knows how to get the job done so it stays done. And, in one of his earliest challenges, he knows that his analytical brain is just as important as his impressive brawn.
          Okinawa, 1974. Even at thirteen, Jack Reacher knows how to outwit and overpower anyone who stands in his way. And as the new kid in town, that’s pretty much everyone. His family has come to the Pacific with his father, who’s preparing for a top-secret Marine Corps operation. After receiving a rude welcome from the local military brats, Reacher and his older brother, Joe, intend to teach them a lesson they won’t forget. But it’s soon clear that there’s more at stake than pride. When his family’s future appears to come crumbling down, it’s the youngest Reacher who rises to the occasion with all the decisive cunning and bravura that will one day be his deadly trademark..

34. Never Go Back - Lee Child

Jack Reacher #18
listened to audio CD AND Audible.
audio read by Dick Hill..
2013 Delacorte Press
400 pgs
Adult mystery
Finished 5/12/2015
Goodreads rating: 3.98
My rating:4
Setting:  Contemporary Washington DC & LA

My comments:  Lee Child - and Jack Reacher - always seem to grab me immediately and not let go.  There were a few places in the story where I had to pause for a moment and try to figure out how two plus two equaled four; and my anger at politics and government/armed forces/police hierarchy made me crazy, but good stories should attract strong emotions, right?  If you read this book only to take a look at Reacher and his beliefs, lifestyle and aggressive genius, you won't go wrong.

Goodreads synopsis:  After an epic and interrupted journey all the way from the snows of South Dakota, former military cop Jack Reacher has finally made it to Virginia. His destination: a sturdy stone building a short bus ride from Washington D.C., the headquarters of his old unit, the 110th MP. It was the closest thing to a home he ever had.
          Why? He wants to meet the new commanding officer, Major Susan Turner. He liked her voice on the phone. But the officer sitting behind his old desk isn’t a woman. Is Susan Turner dead? In Afghanistan? Or in a car wreck?
          What Reacher doesn't expect to hear is that Turner has just been fired from her command. Nor that he himself is in big trouble, accused of a sixteen-year-old homicide. And he certainly doesn't expect to hear these words: ‘You’re back in the army, Major. And your ass is mine.’
          Will he be sorry he went back? Or – will someone else?

22. 61 Hours - Lee Child

Jack Reacher #14

audio read by Dick Hill

11 discs: 13 hours

2010. Random House Audio

383 pgs.

Written for adults

Finished June 7, 2013, on the road between Tucson and Dallas, TX

Goodreads Rating: 4.03

My Rating: 3.5 (It was very good)

Acquired: Paperback Books Swap (PBS)

Setting: Bolton, SD during a frigid blizzard

Goodreads:  Sixty-one hours. Not a minute to spare. A tour bus crashes in a savage snowstorm and lands Jack Reacher in the middle of a deadly confrontation. In nearby Bolton, South Dakota, one brave woman is standing up for justice in a small town threatened by sinister forces. If she’s going to live long enough to testify, she’ll need help. Because a killer is coming to Bolton, a coldly proficient assassin who never misses.

Reacher’s original plan was to keep on moving. But the next 61 hours will change everything. The secrets are deadlier and his enemies are stronger than he could have guessed—but so is the woman whose life he’ll risk his own to save.  In 61 Hours, Lee Child has written a showdown thriller with an explosive ending that readers will talk about for a long time to come.

My comments: I can't believe that right in the middle of bumper-to-bumper-Dallas-practically-stopped-rush-hour-traffic with about 200 miles to go I got to the end of this book.  I backed it up and listened again.  WHAAAT?  So badly did I want to get to a computer to ask a question or two. If I say more it will be to much of a apoiler!  The story started out slowly for me but got better and better - it totally kept my attention driving from Tucson through a huge part of the state of Texas!  And for the first time in many, many Reacher books, I figured out the back guy before he did!  Didn't take away from the story, though.

26. The Affair - Lee Child

#16 Jack Reacher (this is the prequel)
audio read by Dick Hill
11 unabridged cds
14 hours
$45.00 TPPL
2011, Random House Audio
416 pages
4 **** (Really liked it)

Setting: 1997, in a tiny town called Carter Crossing, Mississippi, home to Fort Kelham, an army base used as training grounds for special forces troops.
OSS:  When Jack Reacher is dispatched to Carter Crossing, Mississippi to make sure the army isn't involved - or even mentioned - in the murders of three beautiful young women, he teams up with local sheriff Elizabeth Devereaux to get to the bottom of it all.

This is the story of how ... and why ... Jack Reacher left the army.  It's the story of his last job as an Army major.  It is Jack Reacher through and through, his cleverness, his seeing the minute clues that others would never even consider, and it's also about his stance for what's good, and what's right.  The way he decides to deal with it all at the very end of the book does bother me somewhat, but I guess that's what makes Reacher Reacher, right?  He trutsts... and lusts after ... Devereaux right off the bat, but when she becomes implicated in the crimes, you can't help but wonder.  Child keeps the reader thinking every step of the way.  The story went really fast and was really good.

16. The Hard Way - Lee Child

Jack Reacher #10
audio read by Dick Hill
2006, Brilliance Audio
10 unabridged cds (12 hours)
$36.95 (I got from PBS)
384 pages
Rating:  Liked it a lot/ 3.5

List of Jack Reacher books on Lee Child's website.

This installment begins with Jack Reacher enjoying a coffee on the sidewalk in lower Manhattan when he is approached and asked about something he may have seen the previous night.  The way that he is accepted into the lair of a ruthless, wealthy guns-for-hire Edward Lane is the only part of the story that was hard to believe.  Nevertheless, Lee Child has to figure out a good way to get our footloose-and-fancy-free protagonist involved in the exciting plots he finds, so I had to overlook the less than believable start.  Thank goodness I didn't give up, because it got better and better.

Edward Lane's wife, Kate, and her 8-year old daughter have been kidnapped.  Although Lane's "A-Team" of ex-military sharpshooters and gunhandlers can't figure out what to do, Reacher, in his usual blunt, brusk way brilliantly finds minute clues and follows them to one story, then another, and then on to London and the Norwich countryside. 

This was an excellent story with all the twists and turns that I love, very little "cozy," and just a touch of ooh-la-la.  So far I've read three Jack Reacher novels, and I agree that they don't have to be read in order.  So I have lots more in the future!

77. Nothing to Lose - Lee Child

#12 Jack Reacher
Audio read by Dick Hill
Random House Audio, 2008
11 unabridged cds ($44.95)
14 hours
432 pages
Rating: 3.5 (a bit tedious in places)

Jack Reacher is certainly an interesting character. He is homeless, cocky, loves the way he lives, and has a certain code that he lives by. He carries no wallet, an ATM card, and knowledge of numbers and the way the body works that he can throw someone an elbow, placed just right, and incapacitate them...maim them...or even kill them, if he desires. He can figure his way out of all sorts of dilemmas. He's quite uncanny. And unbelievable, sure, but is that why you'd read these thrillers, for reality? Don't think so. He also has a way of getting involved in capers that make the reader ponder questions about the U.S. government and what's REALLY going on.....

In this novel, Reacher is traveling from one corner of the country to another...from Calais, Maine to San Diego, CA. He travels by hitchhiking, by bus, by walking. He is dropped off in Hope, Colorado and discovers there's no public transportation to continue west, so he begins the 15+ mile walk toward the next town, Despair, Colorado. No cars travel along this road, and he ends up walking the entire distance. What he gets to is a town that wants him out, gone, bye-bye. And of course, him being Jack Reacher, he wonders why and what's going on. We're soon to find out.

A hotel in Hope becomes his home for the next week or so, and a female cop becomes his "helper" and confidante. Well, confidante to a certain point, he always keeps some things to himself. And what they discover is scary, both unbelievable and believable, and a good tale involving the government, the war in Iraq, and even touches on the lives of guys that are being asked to return to Iraq for duty over and over again.

I enjoyed listening to this story, although the next Reacher novel I have I think I'm going to read to see if my take on the guy and his personality changes.

75. Bad Luck and Trouble - Lee Child

Jack Reacher #11
audio read by Dick Hill
Random House Audio, 2007
10 unabridged cds
13 hrs.
384 pgs.
Rating: 3.5 (a little to long and drawn out in places)

When I visited the Tucson Mystery bookstore, the owner recommended the Jack Reacher mysteries highly. She said you could start anywhere and did not have to read them in order. This is the first one that I was able to get from the library. It passed away many a mile on the road, I must say that!

Jack Reacher is a character unlike any I've "met" to date. He owns nothing (well...a folding toothbrush....), lives on the road, has no cell phone, no computer, no one to keep in touch with. The only clothes he owns are on his back, when they get dirty he simply replaces them. Okay..... He's a numbers whiz, and I love the way he plays with them, looking for primes, reciprocals, meanings....

In this novel, Reacher is reunited with the Army Special Unit team that he'd worked with many years before. There had been eight of them, and there are four surviving - trying to discover what caused the other four's murders. Frances Neagley, Dave O'Donnell, and (oh shoot, her name has just flown out of my head) join Reacher for a no-nonsense hunt and vendetta.

Reacher is loyal, smart, big, and has no problem killing. This part put me off a bit, but when I really thought about it, it made the story all the more real. He worked on adrenaline and it was payback time. I think some of the story was dragged out a bit, it could have been done in 8 discs instead of ten as far as I'm concerned, but it kept me entertained back and forth to school for a couple of weeks!