This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2010)

Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films, individually and collectively. In general, this can be divided into journalistic criticism that appears regularly in newspapers, and other popular, mass-media outlets and academic criticism by film scholars that is informed by film theory and published in journals.

Journalistic criticism[link]

Film critics working for newspapers, magazines, broadcast media, and online publications, mainly review new releases. The plot summary and description of a film that makes up the majority of any film review can have an important impact on whether people decide to see a film. Poor reviews can doom a film to obscurity and financial loss.

In recent times, the impact reviews have on a film's box office performance and DVD rentals/sales have become a matter for debate. There are those who think modern movie marketing, using pop culture convention appearances and social media along with traditional means of advertising, have become so invasive and well financed that established reviewers with legitimate criticism cannot be heard over the din of popular support. Moreover, this has led, in part, to a decline in the readership of many reviewers for newspapers and other print publications. The vast majority of film critics on television and radio have all but disappeared over the last thirty years, as well. It can be observed that most of the discussion of film on television is focused on the amount of box office business a film does, as if financial success were the only criterion needed to define artistic success. Today arts criticism in general does not hold the same place it once held with the general public.

Conversely, it's been claimed positive film reviews have been known to spark interest in little-known films. For example, independent films with smaller marketing budgets, such as The Hurt Locker, are promoted more widely thanks to the positive reviews they received. There are those who believe critics are biased towards art-house films (examples: The Hurt Locker, Blue Valentine) and against commercial blockbusters (examples: Pirates of the Caribbean, Cowboys and Aliens). However, many critics analyze a film by its inexhaustibility, or the range of its impact and appeal on to generations of fans beyond its original release date.

Today, fan-run film analysis websites like Box Office Prophets and Box Office Guru routinely factor in general public film review opinion with those of more experienced reviewers in their projections of a film. Other websites, such as Rotten Tomatoes, combines all reviews on a specific film published online and in print to come up with an aggregated rating known as a "freshness rate."

Online film reviews[link]

Some websites, such as Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic, seek to improve the usefulness of film reviews by compiling them and assigning a score to each in order to gauge the general reception a film receives. Other sites such as Spill.com review sites with ratings such as "rent it" or "matinée" to tell the viewer in what setting to watch the film rather than a numerical score. The Online Film Critics Society, an international professional association of Internet-based cinema reviewers, consists of writers from all over the world.

A number of websites allow internet users to submit movie reviews and scores to allow a broad consensus review of a movie. Some websites specialize in narrow aspects of film reviewing. For instance, there are sites that focus on specific content advisories for parents to judge a film's suitability for children (e.g. Screen it!). Others focus on a religious perspective (e.g. CAP Alert). Still others highlight more esoteric subjects such as the depiction of science in fiction films. One such example is Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics by Intuitor. One website, Everyone's a Critic, allows anyone to publish film reviews and comment on them. There are even websites for special interest groups such as the Christian review site, Movieguide.

Blogging has also introduced opportunities for a new wave of amateur film critics to have their opinions heard. These review blogs may focus on one genre, director or actor, or encompass a much wider variety of films. Friends, friends of friends, or complete strangers are able to visit these sites, and can often leave their own comments about the movie and/or the author's review. Although much less frequented than their professional counterparts, these sites can gather a following of like-minded people who look to specific bloggers for reviews as they have found that the critic consistently exhibits an outlook very similar to their own.

Community driven review sites have allowed the common movie goer to express their opinion on films. Many of these sites allow users to rate films on a 0 to 10 scale, while some rely on the star rating system of 0-5 or 0-4 four stars. The votes are then culled into an overall rating and ranking for any particular film. Some of these community driven review sites include Flixster, FilmCrave, Flickchart, and RottenTomatoes.

Academic criticism[link]

It has been claimed^{[by whom?]} that journalist film critics should only be known as film reviewers, and that true film critics are those who take an academic approach to films. This work is more often known as film theory or film studies. These film critics try to come to understand why film works, how it works, what it means, and what effects it has on people. Rather than write for mass-market publications their articles are published in scholarly journals that tend to be affiliated with university presses; or sometimes in up-market magazines.

See also[link]

• Critic
• Film canon
• List of film critics
• List of film journals and magazines
• List of films considered the worst
• At the Movies, a TV series for reviews of movies, originally hosted by Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert

References[link]

Notes

Further reading

• Haberski, Raymond J. Jr. It's Only A Movie!: Film and Critics in American Culture, University Press of Kentucky, 2001.
• Rosenbaum, Jonathan. Movie Wars: How Hollywood and the Media Conspire to Limit What Films We Can See, A Cappella Books, 2000.

External links[link]

• The Online Film Critics Society
• New York Film Critics Circle
• Kansas City Film Critics Circle
• Los Angeles Film Critics Association
• National Board of Review
• Peter Bradshaw gives advice to young, aspiring, would-be film critics (The Guardian, 8 July 2008)
• Independent Red Film Reviews, reviewing and indexing independent films and web series
• Plugged In Online, a service of Focus on the Family
• London Film Critics' Circle site
• Online Film Criticism, Part One and Part Two, by Paul Brunick, Film Comment, July/August 2010 and September/October 2010, supplemented at The House Next Door with The Top Film Criticism Sites: An Annotated Blog Roll, Part One and Part Two

Hubs for film journalism[link]

• Movies at The New York Times
• Movies at The Washington Post
• Film reviews at The Independent
• Film at The Times
• Film Reviews [1] at FilmPulse.net
• Film reviews at The Daily Telegraph
• Film at The Guardian
• Film Reviews at Critics Choice
• Film at Slant Magazine
• Roger Ebert at Chicago Sun-Times
• Homepage for Cahiers du Cinema (French)
• Movie Reviews at The Times of India
• Movie Reviews at itsFILM.com

This article may be written from a fan's point of view, rather than a neutral point of view. Please clean it up to conform to a higher standard of quality, and to make it neutral in tone. (August 2010)

Jack Reacher is a fictional character created by British author Jim Grant who writes under the pen name of Lee Child.

Biographical information[link]

Jack (None) Reacher is a former United States Army Military Police Major. He was born on a military base in Berlin in 1960. A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, he served 13 years in the Military Police, during which time he became part of a fictional military police unit, the 110th Special Investigations Unit, formed to handle exceptionally tough cases, especially those involving members of the United States Army Special Forces.

Though he was demoted from Major to Captain in the prequel novel The Enemy, he regained the rank of Major by the time he mustered out in 1997. He received many military awards during his career, including the Silver Star, the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Soldier's Medal, the Bronze Star, and a Purple Heart for wounds sustained in the bombing of the US Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983.^{[citation needed]}

Since leaving the Army, Reacher has been a drifter. He wanders throughout the United States because he felt he never got to know his own country, having spent his youth living overseas on military bases. He usually travels by hitchhiking or bus. As a drifter, the only possessions he carries are money, a foldable toothbrush and, after 9/11, an expired passport. He wears his clothing for 2–3 days before discarding it, usually purchasing new clothing cheaply from chain outlets. He has no steady income and lives on savings in his bank account and part-time jobs. At various points during the series, his bank account is supplemented by taking money from his enemies (this occurs most notably in Bad Luck and Trouble). Reacher knows how to drive although he is admittedly not a very good driver. He has never possessed a driver's license.

Skills[link]

Reacher's demeanor is stoic, and he does not talk much. He has a propensity for saying "that's for damn sure". Reacher frequently does not answer when people make statements or ask questions, nodding or shrugging, preferring the other party to fill the silence. A recurring line in the novels is "Reacher said nothing". He is cool-headed and rarely becomes visibly angry, one of the few exceptions to this occurs in Nothing to Lose when he erupts in rage at an apathetic hospital employee for not ensuring that comatose Iraq War veteran received the proper care. Reacher has the uncanny ability to know what time it is, at any time of the day, without referring to a clock. He often uses his internal clock as an alarm, enabling him to wake up at any time he chooses. It is revealed in Bad Luck and Trouble that Reacher has a fascination with mathematics. Reacher drinks coffee constantly. With this, he quotes in The Enemy: "The Reacher brothers' need for caffeine makes heroin addiction look like an amusing little take-it-or-leave-it sideline". He is also fond of breakfast foods, especially eggs, pancakes, and bacon. Reacher only occasionally uses profanity.

Reacher is highly skilled at fighting, although he is not an expert in any particular martial art. Reacher's favorite techniques include elbow strikes, uppercuts, and headbutts. His tremendous strength aids him in fighting, as he is significantly stronger than most of his opponents. As revealed in Nothing to Lose, Reacher hates confronting an opponent armed with a knife. In addition to his fighting prowess, a common element of the Reacher novels is his overall propensity for brutality when necessary. Reacher's capacity for violence is enormous, although those he harms are nearly always villains worthy of what they receive. One notable exception to this was a bartender Reacher encounters during an Army investigation in the prequel novel The Enemy. Reacher badly maims the man in a fight but later learns that he was not involved with the story's antagonists. He was officially reprimanded for this by the Army. In his efforts to protect innocents and stop villains, he has done such things as snap necks, bludgeon skulls, and break knees. Sometimes during the course of a novel, usually toward the end, Reacher calmly kills his foe(s) even after they are no longer a threat, but only if they have committed terrible acts (usually multiple murders) which he feels merit their deaths as justice. Such killings by Reacher are featured in Persuader and Bad Luck and Trouble, among others. In The Hard Way, Reacher is described as completely lacking, "The remorse gene. It just wasn't there."

In Killing Floor, it is revealed that he has a love for music, especially blues music. It was this affinity for the blues that inspired Reacher to get off the bus at the start of Killing Floor and catapulted him into the resulting story. It is also in this novel that Reacher's internal monologue reveals that he has a music collection in his head, which he listens to.

Reacher is always aware of his surroundings; he always sits with his back to the wall, so that he can see those entering a room so he cannot be attacked from behind. He generally likes to be alone, especially in the dark. In 61 Hours, it is stated that an Army psychological study of reactions to fear in children showed him as having abnormally fast reflexes and aggression levels at the age of six.

As revealed in Nothing to Lose, Reacher holds no religious beliefs and is openly scornful of the fundamentalist Christianity espoused by the novel's antagonist. Reacher also shows his disdain for religion when in Bad Luck and Trouble he is traveling to Los Angeles via airline, and he states that he does not like Alaskan Airlines "because they put scripture cards on the meal trays."

Reacher is a skilled marksman. In addition to being the only non-Marine to win the Marine Corps Wimbledon Cup rifle competition, he also won the US Army Pistol Championship and served as a pistol instructor. Throughout the novels, Reacher has shown great skill in the use of handguns, rifles, sub-machine guns, and shotguns.

Physical appearance[link]

Reacher is a giant, standing at 6' 5" tall (1.96m) with a 50-inch chest, and weighing between 210 and 250 pounds (100–115 kg). He has ice-blue eyes and dirty blond hair. He has very little body fat, and his muscular physique is completely natural (he reveals in Persuader, he has never been an exercise enthusiast.) He is exceptionally strong but is not a good runner.^[3] Reacher is strong enough to break a man's neck with one hand (Bad Luck and Trouble) and kill a villain with a single punch to the head (Running Blind and 61 Hours) or chest (Worth Dying For). In a fight against a 7 foot, 400 lb steroid-using thug (Persuader), Reacher was able to lift his opponent into the air and drop him on his head.

Reacher has various scars, most notably a scar on his abdomen caused by a bombing in Lebanon.^[4] He also has a 3-4 inch thin white scar that intersects his shrapnel scar that he received during a knife fight with Al-Qaeda operative Lila Hoth. Reacher mentions how the rough stitch work from his existing scar helped decrease the severity of his most recent attack. However, the cut did produce a deep, serious gash that led to Reacher passing out from blood loss.^[5] He also has a scar on his chest from a .38 bullet,^[6] a tear drop burn scar from close range gunshot that crossed his chest at point blank range,^[7] and one on his arm where his brother struck him with a chisel in his youth.^[8]

Family[link]

Reacher's mother Josephine Moutier Reacher, born in France, was 30 years old when Reacher was born. She met Reacher's father in Korea and married him in Holland (The Enemy). She was widowed in 1988, and died in 1990 at the age of 60 of cancer. When she was only 13, she joined the French Resistance and under the alias "Beatrice" worked with Le Chemin de Fer Humain (the Human Railroad), saving 80 men. She garroted a schoolmate, a boy who threatened to give her up to the Nazis. Josephine Moutier was awarded the Médaille de la Résistance (the Resistance Medal) for her heroism.

Reacher's father (Stan Reacher) was a Marine captain, who served in Korea and Vietnam. His service in the United States Marine Corps kept his family continually moving all around the world to various military bases. He died in 1988. When describing his father, Jack is quoted as saying, "(He was) a stone-cold killer. Next to him I look like Liberace.^[9]" After military service, "there was no place left for people like him.^[10]"

Jack had only one sibling, brother Joe Reacher. Two years older than Jack, Joe was born on a military base in the Philippines. Jack used to help Joe beat up the kids who gave him trouble in school, and vice versa. Joe was also a West Point graduate, and spent five years in Military Intelligence before joining the Treasury Department. He never won any of the "good medals", only the "junk awards." Joe died at the age of 38, having arranged a meeting with a potential investigation subject (see Killing Floor). Because he was killed in the line of duty, his name can be found on the Treasury's Roll of Honor.

Acquaintances[link]

• Officer Roscoe, (30), is a police officer, appearing in Killing Floor.
• Holly Johnson, (27), is a newly inducted FBI Special Agent and former Wall Street stock analyst. She is dark, attractive, self-assured and a knee ligament injury sustained whilst playing soccer requires her to use a cane. She appeared in Die Trying. She is the only daughter of General Johnson, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and is the goddaughter of the President.
• Jodie Garber-Jacob, (30), is the daughter of General Leon Garber, his former commanding officer (The Enemy). She met and fell in love with Reacher when she was 15 and was totally off-limits to him. In Tripwire, she is divorced, using her maiden name and working as a corporate attorney. She is mentioned in Echo Burning as having moved to Europe. She appeared in Tripwire, and Running Blind (The Visitor in the United Kingdom and Australia).
• General Leon Garber, (retired), is the father of Jodie, a General who knew Reacher, helped him in Die Trying, and willed him his house. He appeared in Die Trying and The Enemy and The Affair. His funeral is in Tripwire.
• Lisa Harper, (29), is an FBI Agent, stationed at Quantico. She appeared in Running Blind (The Visitor in the United Kingdom and Australia).
• Alice Amanda Aaron, (25), graduated from Harvard Law School, practicing law at a legal mission in Pecos, Texas, as penance for coming from a wealthy family. She appeared in Echo Burning.
• Carmen Greer, (30), is a housewife, short, slim, dark-skinned, fine-boned, "maybe 100 pounds". She is married with one child and an abusive husband. She appeared in Echo Burning.
• Frances Neagley, (late thirties), is a Security consultant, and former Army Master Sergeant and Military Policeman. She is of medium height, slim, and has dark hair and eyes. She spends large amounts of time in the gym and has a purely platonic relationship with Reacher, not liking to be touched. Her demeanor suggests that she could be considered something of a female counterpart to Reacher. She appeared in Without Fail, Bad Luck & Trouble, and The Affair.
• Mary Ellen Froelich, (35), is a Secret Service Agent, charged with protecting the Vice President. She has short fair hair, and is quietly confident. She dated Joe Reacher. She appeared in Without Fail.
• Susan Duffy, (early thirties), is a rogue agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration. She is pale, slim, and attractive, and appeared in Persuader.
• Lieutenant Summer, (25), is an African-American Lieutenant in the Army Military Police. She is petite and slender, and appeared in The Enemy.
• Eileen Ann Hutton, (age unknown), is a Brigadier General in the Judge Advocate General's Corps of the US Army. She and Reacher had a relationship prior to, and featured in, One Shot.
• Vaughan, (exact age unknown), is a police officer in Hope, Colorado. She is "probably less than five feet six, probably less than a hundred and twenty pounds, probably less than thirty-five years old" according to Reacher's estimate. Married to a totally incapacitated casualty of the war in Iraq (husband's name is Robert David Vaughan, called David). She befriends Reacher in Nothing to Lose.
• Karla Dixon, (age unknown, possibly late 30s) is a forensic accountant; formerly a Major in the Army and part of Reacher's 'Special Investigators Unit', which he formed and led in the 90s. They are reunited in Bad Luck & Trouble and secretly rekindle an affair, which they regret not starting back in the army. She is described as 'dark, very pretty, comparatively small' and slim. She is extremely good with numbers and shares Reacher's fascination with mathematics.
• Detective Theresa Lee is an NYPD detective who aids Reacher's take down of an Al-Qaeda team in Gone Tomorrow. They had a brief romantic episode before Reacher left to complete his task.
• Lauren Pauling, (early fifties), is an ex-FBI agent who now acts as a private investigator. She often refers to herself as being old. She appears in The Hard Way.
• Susan Turner, (early thirties), is a Major in the US Army and is the current commander of the 110th MP. She is described as a little above average height (5'7"), slender, long dark hair tied back, tanned skin and deep brown eyes. Her face is described as conveying "intelligence and authority and youth and mischief at the same time". Her defining characteristic, however, is her voice ... "warm, a little husky, a little breathy, a little intimate". She appears in 61 Hours.
• Stan Lowrey, (late thirties), is a member of Reacher's old 110th MP unit. He is handsome, youthful, and full of energy. A kind of man that gets the job done. He appears in Bad Luck and Trouble and in the latest novel The Affair.
• Dave O'Donnell, (late thirties), is a member of Reacher's old 110th MP unit. He appears in Bad Luck and Trouble. He carries an army blade in one pocket and a pair of ceramic brass-knuckles in the other.

Travels[link]

His travels around the United States of America, exploring the one country he never got to see in his childhood, are the subject of all the novels so far, with the exception of two prequels, one being The Enemy, which centers on a case he undertook as an investigator in the Military Police in 1990, and the other being The Affair. The novels are set in locales ranging from New York City and Los Angeles to small towns in the American South and Midwest. To date, Reacher's travels outside of the United States have taken him to rural England (The Hard Way) and Paris, France, where Reacher visits his dying mother with his brother.

Style[link]

The Reacher novels are written either in the first-person or third-person. Child says writing in the first person is more natural for him, but writing in the third person gives him more freedom when building up suspense.

So far in the series, Killing Floor, Persuader, The Enemy, Gone Tomorrow and The Affair are in the first person narrative. Die Trying, Tripwire, Running Blind/The Visitor, Echo Burning, Without Fail, One Shot, The Hard Way, Bad Luck and Trouble, Nothing to Lose, 61 Hours and Worth Dying For are in the third person.

List of novels/ Appearances[link]

Jack Reacher can be found in the following books by Lee Child:

1. Killing Floor (March 1997)
2. Die Trying (July 1998)
3. Tripwire (June 1999)
4. Running Blind (published as The Visitor in the UK and Australia) (April 2000)
5. Echo Burning (ISBN 0-515-13331-0) (April 2001)
6. Without Fail (April 2002)
7. Persuader (April 2003)
8. The Enemy (Prequel, time frame occurs before Killing Floor) (April 2004)
9. One Shot (ISBN 0-385-33668-3) (April 2005)
10. The Hard Way (ISBN 0-385-33669-1) (May 2006)
11. Bad Luck and Trouble (ISBN 0-385-34055-9) (April 2007)
12. Nothing to Lose (ISBN 978-0593057025) (March 2008)
13. Gone Tomorrow (April 2009)
14. 61 Hours (March 2010)
15. Worth Dying For (September 2010)
16. Second Son, a Kindle exclusive short story (August 2011)
17. The Affair (September 27, 2011) Prequel to Killing Floor

He can also be seen in the short story "James Penney's New Identity" from Fresh Blood 3 (Oct 1999, ISBN 978-1-899344-52-9), a compilation of short mystery stories edited by Mike Ripley and Maxim Jakubowski, although Reacher is not the protagonist in the story and appears only briefly. Reacher is also mentioned several times in the Stephen King's novel Under the Dome.

[edit] Killing Floor

Plot

After hopping off a Greyhound to pursue a whim (finding out what happened to a musician, "Blind Blake"). Reacher is arrested and charged with murder. After an attempt on his life while being held over the weekend in a state prison, Reacher is determined to figure out what happened. Later he finds out that the person he was framed for murdering was Joe Reacher, his brother. Unknowingly, Jack Reacher had stumbled into one of the biggest counterfeiting schemes in the United States. And takes head on, a vicious and ruthless butchers of a well established town gang operating a massive counterfeit notes racket. This novel is set in the fictional town of Margrave, Georgia.

[edit] Die Trying

Plot

Whilst helping Holly Johnson, an attractive young woman struggling with her crutches on a Chicago street, they turn around only to discover two handguns pointing at them. Reacher and the woman are thrown into a dark van and taken 2000 miles across America, completely unaware why they were kidnapped and where they are going. Finding themselves trapped in a seemingly remote place, they must work together to find the answers.

[edit] Tripwire

Plot

Hanging around in Key West, digging pools by hand and moonlighting as a bouncer for a topless bar, Reacher finds himself wanted in New York by a Mrs. Jacob. She turns out to be the beautiful Jodie Garber, daughter of General Leon Garber, Reacher's mentor and surrogate father in the Army. Jack and Jodie soon find themselves hunted by a psychopath crippled from Vietnam who has a shadowy business and other secrets to protect. Reacher inherits a house and a steady girlfriend, and contemplates the joys of sedentary life.

[edit] Running Blind

Plot

It's tough being a high-flying woman in the Army. Very tough. When Sergeant Amy Callan and Lieutenant Caroline Cook are found dead in their own homes—in baths filled with Army-issue camouflage paint, their bodies completely unmarked—Jack Reacher is under suspicion. He knew them both—and he knows that they both left the Army under dubious circumstances, both victims of sexual harassment. A former U.S. military policeman, a loner and a drifter, he matches the psychological profile prepared by the FBI, and is arrested by ambitious Special Agent Julia Lamarr. But when the body of another woman, Sergeant Lorraine Stanley, is discovered, killed with similar precision, Reacher is released. Everyone fears there is a serial killer on the loose. But the FBI know something in Reacher's past and have strong persuasive powers. Before long Reacher finds himself heavily involved in the murder investigation. He has to find out what these women have in common and why someone is out to do them harm.

[edit] Echo Burning

Plot

Hitching rides is an unreliable mode of transport. In temperatures of over a hundred degrees, you're lucky if a driver will open the door of his air-conditioned car long enough to let you slide in. That's Jack Reacher's conclusion. He's adrift in the fearsome heat of a Texas summer, and he needs to keep moving through the wide open vastness, like a shark in the water. The last thing he's worried about is exactly who picks him up. He never expected it to be somebody like Carmen. She's alone, driving a Cadillac. She's beautiful, young and rich. She has a little girl who is being watched by unseen observers. And a husband who is in jail. Who will beat her senseless when he comes out. If he doesn't kill her first. Reacher is no stranger to trouble. And at Carmen's remote ranch in Echo County there is plenty of it: lies and prejudice, hatred and murder. Reacher can never resist a lady in distress. Her family is hostile, the cops can't be trusted and the lawyers won't help.

[edit] Without Fail

Plot

Reacher arrives in Atlantic City, New Jersey, after hitching a ride with a couple of aging musicians. He is accosted there by Mary Ellen (M. E.) Froelich, a beautiful secret service agent who managed to track him down. She has a special request for him: she consults him on how he could kill the Vice-President; countering those methods would help her considerably in her job: protecting the Vice-President. He accepts the challenge, and enlists old colleague Frances Neagley to help carry out the mission. Froelich asked Reacher's assistance on this matter because of suspicious and threatening letters which had been sent to the Vice-President but instead intercepted by his protective team. Together, they attempt to find the ones responsible.

[edit] Persuader

Plot

Walking along the street, Reacher sees Quinn, a man who should be dead. Reacher is a man who hates unfinished business. Ten years ago, a key investigation went sour and Francis Xavier Quinn got away with murder. Now a chance encounter outside Boston's Symphony Hall brings it all back. And Reacher sees his one last shot to finish what was started all those years ago.

[edit] The Enemy

Plot

On New Year's Day, 1990, in a North Carolina motel, a two-star general is found dead. Within minutes, Reacher is ordered to contain the situation. But things soon escalate when Reacher discovers the general's briefcase is missing and within hours, the general's wife is killed. Reacher soon finds himself embroiled in a complex game of tug of war between powerful men in the United States Army, and beyond.

[edit] One Shot

Plot

In an innocent heartland city, five are shot dead by an expert sniper. The police quickly identify and arrest a suspect, and build a slam-dunk case with iron-clad evidence. But the accused man claims he's innocent and says "Get Jack Reacher.". Reacher himself sees the news report and turns up in the city. The defense is immensely relieved; but Reacher has come to bury the guy. Shocked at the accused's request, Reacher sets out to confirm for himself the absolute certainty of the man's guilt, but comes up with more than he bargained for.

[edit] The Hard Way

Plot

After witnessing an exchange of $1,000,000. Jack Reacher is hired by the underhanded director of a private military firm to rescue his wife and stepchild, who appear to have been kidnapped although they have run away. While Reacher uncovers clues that might lead to a rescue, he learns about the director's dubious past which involves a murderous plot against two ex-associates.He meets a beautiful ex-FBI agent converted to private investigator who assists him in the investigation to unveil the shocking truth, and ultimately engages in a showdown on a farm in Norfolk,England. The novel is set primarily in New York City.

[edit] Bad Luck and Trouble

Plot

You don't mess with the Special Investigators. When one of his old army crew turns up dead outside Los Angeles, Reacher gets his old investigations unit back together to get to the bottom of what's going on.

[edit] Nothing to Lose

Plot

Based in Colorado, travelling from the town of Hope to the town of Despair, it soon becomes clear that Reacher is an unwelcome visitor in a town with a lot of secrets to hide. Reacher cannot resist the opportunity to explore the town's secrets further, especially the peculiar town owner who has employed the majority of the population to work within his recycling factory.

[edit] Gone Tomorrow

Plot

Reacher takes the subway late at night, and routinely checks his fellow passengers. Four are okay, but the fifth is not. Checking against his mental list for suicide bombers, he comes to the conclusion that the fifth is one too. He is puzzled with her choice of timing and place, as it is not crowded; on the contrary the subway was exceedingly empty. He reasons with her, but she shoots herself; thereby proving Reacher wrong when he concluded she was a bomber. He is determined to discover why she killed herself and soon uncovers a massive conspiracy stretching from California to New York City to even Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation of that country.

[edit] 61 Hours

Plot

The 14th book of the Jack Reacher saga. In South Dakota, a tourist bus crashes during a savage snow storm with Jack Reacher in it. Jack gets caught up in a hunt for a murderer and the protection of a key witness. Meanwhile, a link to Reacher's past comes to his aid and a brings a path to redemption.

[edit] Worth Dying For

Plot

Jack Reacher arrives late one night in a rural Nebraska town. In the town's fading motel bar he overhears a drunk doctor's refusal to attend a domestic abuse. The victim of the abuse is married to the scion of the Duncan clan, which holds that part of Nebraska in its grip, keeping the population cowed and docile. Reacher talks the doctor into doing the right thing, and ends up embroiled in a smuggling ring and an unsolved disappearance from twenty-five years prior.

Worth Dying For was published on 30 September 2010 in the UK^[11] and on 19 October 2010 in the USA.^[12]

[edit] Second Son

Plot

The short story "Second Son" is a snapshot of the life of Reacher and his family circa 1974, while they're stationed on a military base in Okinawa. Upon arriving they immediately get into deep trouble that's compounded by some bad news. The action is interspersed with contemplative moments, such as when Jack's grandfather, a prosthetic-limb maker in Paris, recounts that "… a great war leaves a country with three armies: an army of cripples, an army of mourners, and an army of thieves."

[edit] The Affair

Plot

March 1997. Six months before the events of Killing Floor. Jack Reacher is still in the army. And there's big trouble in a small town in Mississippi, where a soldier's girlfriend is found with her throat cut from ear to ear. Local trouble? Or is the killer from nearby Fort Kelham, a giant base used by elite Army Rangers? In 1997, Reacher's orders are: go undercover, keep your distance, monitor the investigation. Eventually the army's official investigation produces a cast-iron prime suspect—and so does Reacher's undercover search. But Reacher's answer is not the same as the army's. If he keeps quiet, will he be able to live with himself? And if he speaks out, will the army be able to live with him?

Miscellaneous[link]

Paramount Pictures recently hired Academy Award nominated screenwriter Josh Olson to adapt One Shot, the ninth book in the series. Christopher McQuarrie, Oscar-winning screenwriter for The Usual Suspects, was then brought in to re-write Olson's draft.^[13] It was announced in July 2011 that Tom Cruise would play Reacher in the movie adaptation of One Shot, even though he has no visible physical or mental representation of the Reacher character.^[14]

Author Lee Child revealed the origin of Jack Reacher's name in a video clip^[15]: whilst unemployed and midway through writing the first novel with the character as yet unnamed, he visited his local supermarket with his wife. An elderly lady approached him and asked him to reach an item off a high shelf for her. His wife commented: "Hey if this writing thing doesn't work out, you can be a reacher in a supermarket."

The schedule for the Reacher series, previously one-per-year, was stepped up with 61 Hours and Worth Dying For both released in 2010. Lee Child was twice approached by Guildrose/Ian Fleming Publications to continue the James Bond novels but has turned down the offers.

Reacher makes an off-stage cameo in Stephen King's 2010 novel Under the Dome. Chester's Mills police officer Jackie Wettington is revealed to have previously served as a military policewoman in Germany, and she is recommended to Colonel Cox by Jack Reacher, whom Cox describes as "the toughest goddam Army cop that ever served, in my humble opinion."

See also[link]

Novels portal

• Lee Child
• Military brat

External links[link]

• Author Lee Child's Official website
• Jack Reacher Official US website
• Official Publisher UK website
• Jack Reacher Fans website
• Reacher Creatures Facebook group

Notes[link]

References[link]