Die Trying (Mass Market Paperback)

In short order Reacher learns that his kidnap companion is FBI agent Holly Johnson who is recuperating from torn knee ligaments and on light duty for the moment. She happens to be the daughter of Joint Chiefs of Staff leader General Johnson and also the god daughter of the president.

After a long arduous journey, in which Reacher declines several escape attempts to protect the injured Johnson, they finally arrive at an enclosure deep in the forests of northwestern Montana. This geographically secure enclosure is the home of the Montana Militia, a para-military neo-Nazi group headed by a 400 pound behemoth Beau Borken. Borken, a paranoid and maniacal son of a California farmer who blew his head off when the government repossessed his farm, is a ruthless murderer who has no use for the U.S. government. He plans to use Holly Johnson's kidnapping to convert his militia into a separate nation!

The FBI gets wind of the plot through a covert operative within Borken's group. Without presidential support they commence an operation to free Johnson. Reacher, of course, while being held prisoner also plots to accomplish the same thing.

Childs' follow up to The Killing Floor, while falling a little short of the intrigue is still suspenseful and a worthwhile chapter in a continuing series.

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"Die Trying" is Lee Child's second Jack Reacher novel, and there is no sophomore jinx. Reacher, ex-military cop and veritable walking encyclopedia of all armament, happens on the wrong place at the wrong time in downtown Chicago, finding himself unwittingly in the middle of a kidnapping. The victim: Holly Johnson, a beautiful and brainy FBI agent, but, as it turns out, much, much more. The perps: a band of neo-fascist wacko's - think Waco or Ruby Ridge - about to hatch a plot to declare independence and secede from the United States. Meanwhile, everybody from the FBI to the US Marines tries to find and free Holly, while Reacher works on the inside - as a co-hostage - fights to protect Holly's honor, chastity, and life. Child paints a wonderfully diabolically twisted Beau Borkin as the leader of the cult, and a rather fascinating picture of life inside an extreme right-wing conspiracy. Bottom line: not a novel you'll be retelling to the grandkids, and no literary milestone, but few can verbalize raw power better than Lee Child. A great page-turner, a great diversion, pure entertainment.

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In Die Trying, I loved the hypnotic psychotic snake-charmer like character of the villain Beau Borken, and Holly Johnson is one of Childs' stronger more resourceful female characters. The description of Reacher's journey through the mine shaft is some excellent listening. Dick Hill does an incredible job as reader for all the Reacher books. Recently, I read an excerpt from Enemy, the upcoming Reacher book and was truly surprised at how terse Childs' dialogue is. I highly recommend the audiobook format.

I hate Reacher's bad hygiene, worse than ever in Die Trying, and find it unbelievable Holly would touch him for the smell. I mean this is an active man oozing with testoreone, adrenaline, and sweat, not to mention contact with mounds of corpses and crawling through rats in a mine shaft! Couldn't he take just one shower in a 5-day period? Thankfully in later books Childs gets Reacher to water more frequently and gives him a toothbrush. Also those extra long descriptions of a bullet's trajectory -- filler!

I did have to suspend belief on a few things. A huge dynamite explosion on the road that did not damage the highway?

But this is fiction, and this is a fabulously enjoyable series to listen to. Can't wait for Enemy to be published, the first Reacher book I will read rather than listen to.

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