Riverdale shook his head. “It mentions 10:00 a.m. on Friday. Very clearly. The time, the date, the place.” Reacher is the stuff of myth. . . . One of this century’s most original, tantalizing pop-fiction heroes.” — The Washington Post We should find out for sure,” Moseley said. “Make an informed decision. The key is, did the guy look in the envelope? That’s what we need to know.” This just isn't a Reacher book. It's an Andrew Grant book with Reacher in it--or maybe the shadow of Reacher. Painted as a target who might know too much, Reacher could find himself in a great deal of danger, but he refuses to stand down from trying to get to the root of the murder. Little does he know, but the killing is part of a larger conspiracy by a group who have even more nefarious plans that span across the country.

Then, just as we are beginning to link up these three threads, another is introduced: crooked Chicago businessman, Lev Emerson, who seems to specialise in arson is determined to exact revenge on those who killed his son. Exactly how he fits into the total picture we have yet to find out. Reacher knew what he saw. So he quite naturally chased the person who had pushed Angela and who had also stolen her purse. And then the local police disregarded Reacher's witness statement in favor of another "highly respected" person who saw Angela's "suicide." As Reacher followed the clues, he became enmeshed in something much more complex than a single murder. The truth about Reacher gets better and better. . . . This series [is] utterly addictive.” —Janet Maslin, The New York Times The tragic tale of a wrongly convicted man. He wondered what it had to do with Angela. Which made him think of another tragic tale. One that was just beginning. For the little girl in the wallet photo. Angela's daughter. Who would now have to grow up without a mother.If it isn't careful, PRH is going to milk this cash cow dry with an annual publishing schedule that takes the loyal reader for granted (Now there's a corporate conspiracy plot line Reacher should investigate). I'd rather wait 18 months for a well-conceived story line than get another "No Plan B" threadbare "Reacher" story in a year.

Right,” the guy with the broken nose said. “And the bag was ripped, remember. How did that happen? And why? We didn’t do it.” And the guy didn’t mention anything about it to the police,” Moseley said. “I’ve talked to the lieutenant over there a couple times. That has to mean something.”

The Jed Starmer plot line is superfluous. Take him out of the story and nothing is lost but maybe 5,000 words. It’s an action/adventure mystery consisting of three to four plots, each plot seemingly having no relationship to any other--which means we keep skipping from plot to plot, all the while wondering what and where the “big reveal” will be. Unfortunately, it doesn’t come until the very end, by which time Reacher has engaged in more than his share of brutal violence--including a killing that is exceedingly grotesque. And when the reveal does come, it’s not very credible Lee and Andrew Child team up again in the 27th thriller of this series, the third for Andrew. As with any long-running series like this, the plot scenario never varies too far from what has always worked well. Here, Reacher has stopped in Gerrardsville, CO, to spend time in a museum that interests him. Right in broad daylight in the downtown, he sees a woman pushed to her death. But the official ruling is suicide so Reacher feels compelled to figure out what's really going on and who would want her dead. The search leads him to a privately-owned prison in Mississippi.

No.” Riverdale shook his head. “If there might be a problem that means there is a problem, the way I see things. Safety first. We should—” There is a noticeable difference in style of writing, now that Andrew has joined the writing team, perhaps a bit less warmth about our hero, but I'm happy to see there is still an occasional bit of humor to lighten things up. I do want the sibling-authors arrangement to work, but I don't think it is. It's a lot to ask of Andrew to keep the print franchise going at the expense of his own career. Reacher was wired to move toward danger. To confront it. To defeat it, or die trying. It was baked into his DNA. Ben Coes, New York Times bestselling author of international espionage thrillers featuring Dewey AndreasThe safety aspect was welcome but the reason the hub had been chosen for this meeting was its seclusion. The opportunity it offered for complete secrecy. Because the rest of Unit S2 was vacant. There were no guards. No admin staff. And none of its 120 isolation cells were in use. They weren’t needed. Not with the way the prison was run under its current management. The progressive approach was a cause of great pride. And great PR. The evil corporate conspiracy trope has become cliche--variations of it have become too common in the series. This is the 27th book in the Reacher series and if you’ve read any of the previous outings you’ll be aware of how things are going to go here. Faced with difficult to impossible odds, outnumbered and outgunned, Reacher wades into the fray full of the confidence of an overly large man who is capable of causing maximum damage with his fists, elbows, knees and feet. Not to mention any gun that he manages to get hold of. Hix tapped his fingertips on the tabletop. “Media exposure is good for the brand. We always publicize. We always have. If we change now we would only attract more attention. Make people think something is wrong. But I do think we need to know. Did he look?” Hix turned to the guys in the T-­shirts. “Best guess. No wrong answer. The chips fell where they fell. We understand that. Just tell us what you believe.”

Tragedy strikes Gerrardsville, Colorado in this latest book in the Reacher series, as a woman steps out in front of a bus in an act of suicide. Or so the first witness claims. But there was a second witness who saw the truth; the victim was pushed to her death.Although, so far, the co-written novels in this long-running series haven’t matched up to many of the earlier ones, in No Plan B there are signs that there could be life left in the series yet. But the photograph was in there.” Riverdale jabbed the air with his finger in time with each syllable. “Eight by ten. Impossible to miss.” But Reacher is unaware that these crimes are part of something much larger and more far-reaching: an arsonist out for revenge, a foster kid on the run, a cabal of powerful people involved in a secret conspiracy with many moving parts. There is no room for error, but they make a grave one. They don’t consider Reacher a threat. “There’s too much at stake to start running from shadows.” But Reacher isn’t a shadow. He is flesh and blood. And relentless when it comes to making things right.