Review: The Hard Way

I really can’t believe it has been ten years since Lee Child debuted with his Jack Reacher thriller series. The tenth entry ‘The Hard Way’ is a masterclass in how to keep a series as fresh and as exhilarating as the first. We all know that the trick in avoiding the ‘sell-by date’ [or ‘jumping the shark’] is robust characterisation intertwined with a page-whipping plot [which ‘The Hard Way’ has], but what makes it extra-special is attention to the small details, and making what appears as trivial events into major plot foils.

Jack Reacher ordered espresso, double, no peel, no cube, foam cup, no china, and before it arrived at his table he saw a man's life change forever.. Not that the waiter was slow. Just that the move was slick. So slick, Reacher had no idea what he was watching. It was just an urban scene, repeated everywhere in the world a billion times a day A guy unlocked a car and got in and drove away. That was all.

Submerged within Reacher’s love of coffee we have a tiny, tiny detail that becomes a clue that embroils ex-military policeman Jack Reacher in an international kidnapping case. That’s what separates Lee Child’s work from many others ploughing the thriller furrow, his level of detail where the mundane and unremarkable aspects of life become the sources of death and danger.

Minding his own business, the laconic drifter Jack Reacher notices a small detail while sipping his coffee in New York's Greenwich Village. This detail is sufficiently intriguing for the Detective in Reacher to return the following night to the self-same coffee shop. And as is usual in a Reacher novel, he finds himself involved in an adventure, which Child drip-feeds the reader. It appears what Reacher witnessed was a ransom drop organized by Edward Lee, the leader of an ex-army military group who work covertly for Governments and organizations that need black operations, but can’t be seen to be directly involved. In a word, Lane is a mercenary who plays the big league. Again this is another factor in Lee Child’s work; the small details lead to the big, big game and to paraphrase a lyric from David Edmunds ‘…from small things momma, big things one-day comes….’ Which could be an anthem for Child’s career as he is now at the top of his game.

It appears that Edward Lee’s wife and adopted daughter have been kidnapped, and Lee is willing to pay millions for their safe return but he wants no police involvement. Edward Lee’s anxiety is on a full scale deflection because this is the second time this happened, as his first wife Anne was kidnapped and murdered, so this time he’s not taking any chances. He decides to hire Reacher to find the people behind his wife’s abduction and he’s willing to pay Reacher a cool Million for his services.

Then the plot snakes as the sister of Edward Lee’s first wife Patti believes that Lee was involved in her sister’s death, as well as the kidnapping of his second wife Kate and daughter Jade. Perched from her balcony, she spies on the mercenary gang but soon comes face to face with Reacher who begins to doubt the integrity of his employer. Child then peppers his love of the Beatles by setting these tense scenes at place where John Lennon was murdered, giving the writing a dark atmosphere.

As Reacher investigates the kidnapping case, Patti puts him in touch with Brewer an NYPD cop who investigated her sisters’ murder and sends Reacher to meet ex-FBI special agent Lauren Pauling who conducts private investigations and remains haunted by Anne Lane’s kidnap / murder. Pauling becomes Reachers love interest and it was refreshing to note that she is not your feisty, young blonde but a mature and sensual fifty-year old. Before long Pauling becomes more than Reacher’s sidekick as they soon share a bed.

Soon Pauling and Reacher track down a former employee of Lee’s mercenary gang, someone who has a grudge against Lee and his men – Hobart, a soldier who was left behind on a mission to Africa and found himself at the mercy of a rebel band who tortured him leaving him both physically as well as mentally scared. When Reacher sees what befell Hobart because of Edward Lee, he decides to help him and his sister Marie. This sort of altruism that is rippled throughout the Reacher books harkens back to the British golden age, where the mysterious stranger with a high moral code came to the aid of people who couldn’t defend themselves. Hobart gives Reacher a lead, a man who also has a grudge against the mercenary gang and man who has no tongue.

Soon, Reacher and side-kick Pauling find themselves on a flight to Britain, because the trail ends in Norfolk, a rural community more famous for its wetlands and US army bases than its location as a crime epicenter. Reacher ponders as to the wherabouts of Kate and Jade Lane, and whether they are alive or dead, as well as the relationship with the man with no tongue.

The finale reminded me of Sam Peckinpah’s ‘Straw Dogs’ as Reacher and Pauling find themselves defending a farm house from the agents of chaos.

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

Book Review: The Hard Way