At the end of the last book (‘61 Hours’), Reacher was caught in an explosion that could be seen from space – in fact, the US had to reassure the Russians that they were not launching missiles and vice versa. Snow melted for more than two miles around the site of the big bang. We were left hanging. Did he make it out?

Of course he did. Not only did he make it out alive, at the start of ‘Worth Dying For’ he is no more than ‘hurting’ – and has inexplicably travelled from the site of the explosion in South Dakota deep into Nebraska. Instead of playing the predictable sequel card, Childs just introduces us to another Jack Reacher adventure. There is no mention of how he escaped – in fact, the explanation as to what happened is buried almost in an aside about a quarter of the way into this new book.

Reacher turns up seemingly by accident in a small rural town in Nebraska. He's on his way to Virginia and only intends to stop for a night, when he is drawn into what initially looks like a domestic dispute but ends up being something much bigger. There are all sorts of odd things happening, and Reacher can’t help but hang around to work out what and why. Tied into all this somehow is the mystery of a local girl who disappeared 25 years ago and whose body has never been found.

The Duncans are an evil family of redneck smugglers who control a local farming community with extreme violence and a gang of retired football players (most of whom are named Brett). If that isn't slapstick enough for you, the Duncans answer to the Italians, who answer to some other bad guys, who answer to some Iranians, who answer to the Saudis - all of whom send a couple of guys to keep an eye on the others, resulting in a small town full of organized criminals who comically murder each other (or get their hearts punched out by Reacher).

I was concerned that Reacher might be losing his touch in the last book – only two corpses and an explosion – none of which were down to him. But he’s back to his old tricks – despite the aftermath of the explosion. There are corpses galore and lots of explosions and other fun and games. I was even taken by surprise by the outcome of the smuggling ring – no spoilers, but I didn’t see that coming.

All in all, Jack’s back – and I loved it.



judy (USA: NC) (2016/03/02):
Liked this story very much. This is my 4th or 5th Jack Reacher story and I am so glad I started reading them. Next to John Sandford and the Lucas Davenport books, this is now my new favorite author.