Customer Reviews

Worth Dying For: A Reacher Novel

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have to admit this one crossed me up a little. For whatever reason, I was expecting a sequel to 61 Hours, which ended with a huge bang but left a number of loose ends available if required. Instead, we find ourselves willy nilly in darkest Nebraska, one county of which is living under the thumb of the evil Duncan family. We don't know what the Duncans are up to until almost the end; what we do know is that they are determined to track Reacher down before he finds out.

That's one piece of the puzzle. The second is the mystery of what happened to a little girl who disappeared 25 years before. Disappeared, as in never found.

Reacher is big and he's tough, but he's also smart, and he has a code that he lives by. You take a character like that and put him in a story that barrels along, propelled by writing that doesn't try to do too much but knows how to vary the pace just enough: this is a recipe for a winner. The Reacher books are what they are: not great literature, but solid, always readable adventure mysteries.

I was a bit confused that this book did not pick up at the end of the last book. Lee left us a hint at the end that the next book may do so.

I have been critical of some of Lee's books, but no more. I did pre-order this book and have no regrets. In the last couple of books I have
started liking Jack Reacher even more. While I found this book a little more violent, Jack lives by his morals. I've really enjoyed his
character development. It must be coming with age :)

I won't go into the book details but I will recommend this book to anyone who has enjoyed the Jack Reacher series. If you gave up a couple of
books ago, come back. This book and the last were great reading. Can't wait for the next one!

"They all lie in wait for blood;
Every man hunts his brother with a net.
That they may successfully do evil with both hands--
The prince asks for gifts,
The judge seeks a bribe,
And the great man utters his evil desire;
So they scheme together.
The best of them is like a brier;
The most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge;
The day of your watchman and your punishment comes;
Now shall be their perplexity." -- Micah 7:2-4 (NKJV)

Worth Dying For begins on the heels of the cataclysmic events in 61 Hours. A hitchhiking Reacher finds himself in a motel at a tiny Nebraska crossroads in the middle of nowhere, about to become aware of the local evil-doers. Once-again Reacher puts his finger into a deep cesspool of rottenness, symbolic of the underlying moral decay throughout America that's a continuing theme in this series. And like the faithful watchman, Reacher puts matters to right.

As in many of the books in this series, Reacher finds himself in hostile territory with the apparent odds stacked against him, particularly since he hasn't recovered from the final battle and escape in 61 Hours. Unlike many such fictional heroes, Reacher is as smart as he is tough. In this book, the smarts count for more than the toughness. I was particularly intrigued by the little threads of plot development that Lee Child put in the story that are easy to miss, but which provide many thought-provoking scenes before the story has ended. Very nice!

Lee Child does an even better job than usual of putting lots of moral lessons into the events that precede and occur during the novel's action. Without so much as pointing a finger, Child makes mincemeat out of those who assume false superiority based on force or immoral rights.

There's a minimalism in the story that makes it work at a more universal level than most books that pit one character against an evil-dominated town.

My only complaint about the book is that the scope and nature of the evil seems totally out of proportion for what one is likely to find in such a small rural community. As a result, it's a bit hard to suspend disbelief to take the baddies seriously. There's almost an element of caricature here, rather than realistic portrayal.

But will you have fun. Sure thing!

While not quite worth dying for, it's certainly worth staying up late to finish.

Book 15 in the Jack Reacher series

Jack Reacher's new adventure will bring him closer to Virginia, his eastward destination. He leaves Bolton, South Dakota and his adventure in '61 Hours' behind him by hitching a ride that takes him to a desolate town in Nebraska County, his intention is to stay overnight at the only motel in town and hit the road early next morning. Avid followers of Reacher know better, trouble is never far behind.

You will think that after fifteen episodes, Reacher would know enough to keep his distance from trouble. This time his plans change when he befriends a doctor that is trying to drown his sorrows at the motel bar and offers to help him when he gets an emergency call to treat a local woman in distress. When they realise she has a broken nose and is a victim of conjugal violence, Reacher feels he is the woman's only line of defence. He soon gets embroiled in a power struggle between the town's people and the husband's powerful family. The family enforcers do not like strangers meddling in personal matters and have a tendency to discourage any involvement with brute force. After many encounters and looking like a pro-fighter on a bad day, Reacher wonders how his friend Susan in Virginia will react to his roughed up appearance. Giving back the town's people their self-respect is his immediate concern and leaving the local undertaker plenty of work has always been his trade mark before he moves on....

This novel has all the ingredients to be a successful thriller: a tough hero with a code of ethics and true American values, easy to read, although the prose may seem a bit rough it is nevertheless clear and concise, the dialogue is rather artificial but don't let it bother you too much, the storyline is an absurd and unbelievable one but full of suspense with enough violence to satisfy the average fan. It's corny, it's fun, and it's a real blast to read.

It took me 6 & 1/2 hours to read Worth Dying For and I can certainly say it was worth every minute!

I find Reacher to be a fascinating character whose thoughts, feelings and actions make him so very real. That he makes mistakes and gets hurt naturally adds to this - I guess what I'm saying is I wish he was a person I could actually meet.

This book is fast-paced, violent, with a plot I feel pretty believable - with a fabulous ending!

A must read (at least once)

this is another good addition to the jack reacher series. in this one he winds up in a small town being terriorized by a corrupt sheriff and his country buffons. being a small town justice is one sided and the town has to pay extortion money to stay safe. naturally reacher shows up and changes what is going on. parts of the book are a little long winded but with 16 books of the same character it,s hard to stay fresh. not bad overall.

Can't imagine any more plaudits that could possibly be heaped upon the always excellent Dick Hill. He has been named both a Golden Voice and a Voice of the Century by AudioFile magazine, and is a three time winner of the Audie Award. It goes without saying that he's in great demand not only by audio book publishers, but also by discerning listeners who look for his name on an audio edition.

With experience as a stage actor and writer Hill has been the voice of Jack Reacher from the beginning with his narration of the 1997 Killing Floor. There's no other way to say it - he is the voice of Reacher, totally inhabiting this character's persona. And, that's not an easy task considering the scrapes Reacher gets into.

WORTH DYING FOR takes us deep into Nebraska (although Reacher is headed for Virginia to meet Susan). Nonetheless, as luck, fate, and the fellow from whom he hitched a ride would have it he's dropped off in a small corn country town with one motel.

Things take an immediate turn for not any better when he runs into a drunk doctor in the motel bar. He agrees to drive the M.D. to a home to treat a woman's broken nose. When Reacher finds out how her nose suffered such a calamity, of course, he decides to teach her husband a lesson.

Gallant but not a very good idea because this puts Reacher up against some mean, powerful men, the Duncans, who run the town and its cowed citizenry. As it turns out the Duncans also have some folks to fear, and there is the decades old case of a missing child.

Virginia and Susan will just have to wait - if Reacher gets out of Nebraska alive.

- Gail Cooke

There are references to Reacher's previous adventure in 61 hours but that is it. This is good story telling, fast paced with good intrigue until the very end.

It should perhaps be noted at the outset that readers waiting for the other shoe to drop, so to speak, after the cliffhanger ending of '61 Hours,' the previous book in the series [of which this is the 15th], are [initially at least]in for a disappointment, for the explanation [such as it is] comes pretty much only by references to Reacher having been badly hurt, as well as descriptions of specific effects of the trauma sustained in the closing pages of that book, but no details. Until a bit later in the book, that is: After a while there is a paragraph giving a succinct description of the events themselves.

Now that that's out of the way . . .

This time around, Reacher finds himself in Nebraska, after hitching a ride [as is his wont] 'in the dead of winter in the forty-first least densely populated state of America's fifty,' where he comes up against an old family [three brothers and the son of one of them] so powerful that they have an entire town - - with everything and everyone in it - - under its control. The town in question is 450 miles due south of the Canadian border, and it soon becomes clear that said family is involved with some kind of illegal smuggling.

Reacher takes a motel room for the night, in which he finds 'everything he needed, nothing he didn't,' which happens to be his credo for the manner in which he travels [i.e., 'light']. And which, for that matter, is a perfect description of a Lee Child book, to which this one is no exception. When Reacher is told he is crazy, he says he prefers to think of himself as conscientious. But he is more than that. Wrongs need to be righted. At some point the tale includes an investigation into what happened to an eight-year-old girl who had disappeared 25 years earlier.

The expected quotient of heightening suspense mixed with violence, equally in service of good and evil, is present, of course. As always the writing is wonderful and witty, and includes a priceless treatise on human nature. Reacher once more relies, for the most part, on little more than ingenuity. At one point, when he finds himself outnumbered four to one, with only a small amount of weaponry, he finds that he has everything he needs, nothing he does not, once more. Not invincible, but still Reacher, after all.

Highly recommended.