Review: The Enemy

So how was your weekend? Mine entailed going back a decade, visiting North Carolina, Washington DC, Frankfurt and Paris. In fact the weather was awful, so I decided to stretch out on the sofa, pull back the curtains, pour out a glass of French red wine and relax in the company of Lee Child's muscular sleuth - Jack Reacher.

'The Enemy' is a prequel set during the end of both the 1980's and The Cold War, and for the first time, we see Jack Reacher back as a uniformed MP and not the wandering loner of the previous seven novels. Lee Child uses the first person perspective (like he did in his debut work 'Killing Floor' and Reachers previous outing 'Persuader'). This is interesting, in so far as we get back into Reacher's mind. The prose style like Reacher's viewpoint is terse and moves at a frantic pace. It also gives the book a slippery and claustrophobic texture.

The story starts with a dead two-star General called Kramer, being found in a sleazy 'pay-by-the-hour' motel with his pants around his ankles, and his briefcase missing. It appears he had a heart-attack. On the dawn of a new year, and a new decade Jack Reacher (stationed at Fort Bird, North Carolina) is sent to investigate. Reacher is joined by Lieutenant Summer, a small but tough and fast-driving female officer. She is Black, and as ballsy as any of Reacher's previous side-kicks, coming from the poorest parts of the deep-south. Visually, I actually pictured Summer as Halle Berry, while Reacher I considered to be not unlike Hugh Jackman (due to their pairing in Dominic Senna's flawed but interesting movie 'Swordfish').

The story then gets rather convoluted as dead-bodies start peppering the landscape. We get a lesson on the dynamics of the US crowbar industry as two of the next victims have their skulls stoved in by such an implement. The first crowbar murder, being the Generals wife, and the second being a Delta Force tough-guy called Christopher Carbone, who is killed in a particularly nasty manner. Reacher soon finds himself in bad odour with the new commander at Fort Bird, a desk-jockey called Colonel Willard. Sub-plots abound, with Andrea Norton a Psy-Ops Colonel brought in to investigate (as well as being a possible suspect). We also get a Bulgarian defector Slavi Trifoni ex-KGB and now also a suspect in the killings. But of greatest interest was seeing Reacher in Europe. The sections in Paris and Frankfurt appear robustly researched. The Parisian sections are perhaps the most critical scenes for the Reacher fan, as they feature some distractions from the main plot with Jack interacting with his brother Joe Reacher and their French mother Josephine (Moutier) Reacher. We learn a lesson in the way genetic influence can never be ignored as Jack and Joe Reacher discover secrets about their mother that perhaps help explain their own natures. All the Reacher books are sufficiently different from each other, that it becomes difficult to draw themes between books. 'The Enemy' most resembles 'The Visitor' (aka 'Running Blind' US re-title) thematically, as we have a murder mystery set against the backdrop of the US Military. What I found tremendously interesting in 'The Enemy' is Lee Child's ability to engage with the reader, so that the story is propelled along when there is much less action than actually appears in the narrative. This is because Lee Child develops his characters in the leanest and most minimalistic ways I have seen, yet each is a distinct person, trapped in the brutal and tough world that he outlines. There is also a great contrast to this book, because at first glance it appears firmly slanted towards a Clancy-esque conservative readership with its take of the military elite facing the end of the cold war era. However the tale is peppered like a shotgun blast with pellets coming from the left, from a more liberal direction. Lee Child makes this novel his most provocative to date, as Reacher's partner is a tough Black Woman. Some of the characters talk openly about the problems faced by homosexuals in the US Army. Reacher's Mother is a French Woman. Reacher was himself born in Deutschland. We even get the safe sex message as General Kramer used a condom in the sleazy motel. But most illuminating is the dazzling UK cover which has a haunting picture of a soldier in the shadow of an unfurled US flag. The flag is limp against the wind. Despite the complexity of the sub-text, and the sub-plots that propel Reacher from North Carolina, Washington, and all the way across the Atlantic; Lee Child knits it together and we get a big battle at the end, followed by Reacher getting the bad-guy(s) behind the crowbar attacks. We also learn a few things about life, the military and Jack Reachers roots.

I think Lee Child is immensely talented in the way he moulds a liberal way of thinking, into a tale that appeals to our need for action, justice and escapism all set in the right-wing world of the military. 'The Enemy' like all his work can be read at several different levels. It is an extremely complex tale, but when you strip-way the airbags, metallic-paint and wax, you are left with an engine that can only accelerate forward.

In a word, this book can only be described as - Exceptional. If this one doesn't win The Ian Fleming CWA Steel Dagger 2004, then I must be Bond-girl Halle Berry.

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Ali Karim - RAM

Book Review: The Enemy