Bad Luck and Trouble (Jack Reacher, No. 11) by Lee Child Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Bad Luck and Trouble (Jack Reacher, No. 11)
Book Review: It's OK
Summary: 3 Stars
I have read all the Reacher series, and one criticism that could be leveled is that there has been too little character development. Reacher is a great hero, but the "lone avenger" thing was a little too one dimensional.
This story sees things move on, because suddenly Reacher is forced to contemplate and compare his life against the lives of those he has worked with - this provides some welcome variety and depth to things. Similarly the story is more a puzzle than an action thriller, and Reacher has to rely on others to help, rather than fixing things on his own. This helps things in my view, as there are fewer plotlines which strain credibility.
All the familiar landmarks of a Reacher tale are here and this will keep you reading till the end, because you will want to know what happens - it's just that the journey travels through slightly unfamiliar territory.
Book Review: Mysteries and Reunions Surprise Reacher
Summary: 4 Stars
If there can be a fictional character that epitomizes living in the moment, that character has to be Jack Reacher. Since leaving the MPs, he's drifted along. But when something gets his attention, he's a spring-loaded weapon.
In Bad Luck and Trouble, Lee Child, shows us other dimensions of Reacher . . . when the immediate solutions aren't obvious, while working with part of a former MP team, and connecting with a woman he's been interested in for a long time. That doesn't turn Reacher into Robert Parker's Jesse Stone, but it does round out his character in ways that are promising for future books.
In the previous books, Reacher's drifter status was symbolized by traveling with only a travel toothbrush and the clothes he is wearing. Reacher finds that he has to modernize himself a bit by also carrying his passport and an ATM card. It's harder to get to his money otherwise.
As the book opens, Reacher finds an unexpected amount in his bank account. He quickly checks to see if it's an error . . . since he's down to his last few bucks. The bank confirms that there's no error and he persuades the bank manager to help him find out who made the deposits. Bingo, it's a former MP colleague, Frances Neagley, and the amount transmits extra meaning to Reacher. He calls Frances and is told by her assistant to find her in LA. Reacher uses his ATM card to buy a ticket and heads to where he would go if he were staying in LA.
What's the fuss? One of the old team, Calvin Franz, has been murdered. Frances has been trying to reach the remaining members of the team with no success. Immediately, Reacher and Frances wonder if someone is targeting the team.
From there, the story develops along the lines of trying to solve the murder of Franz, locating the rest of the old team, and dealing with the mystery they uncover that appears to have caused Franz's death.
Although the story certainly has action sequences, there's much more investigating than action in the book. A lot of the book's appeal depends on Reacher finding himself in luxurious surroundings (which makes him acutely uncomfortable) and in seeing him take on a formal leadership role instead of acting as a lone ranger. It's also fun to see how his former colleagues respond to him.
To me, the book had two major weaknesses. First, there are a number of apparent errors in technical matters (here are a few examples: The corporate headquarters of a defense contractor has little security; Lake Arrowhead is not on the fast route between Victorville and LA; and the final two ATM deposits he receives seem too small). Those errors destroy your sense of being in the story because you start puzzling over the inconsistencies rather than thinking about the story. Second, Reacher is compulsively translating every number into several different measurements and dimensions. It gets old pretty quickly. If Reacher were really that fascinated with numbers, wouldn't he spend some time every day with activities that intrigue number lovers? It undermines the character portrait to have him ignore that element.
The ultimate mystery itself is a minor weakness in the book. Reacher repeatedly fails to follow up on clues that would have resolved the mystery much sooner. Why would a crack investigator be so sloppy, especially when he had lots of people to help him?
Book Review: Average
Summary: 3 Stars
The last two Reacher books have been just average I'm sorry to say. The others are really, really good. In the last book, "Bad luck and trouble" we meet Jack Reacher with his former military friends and he changes from the lone wolf to a team-player. It's a bit sentimental and this new side of him doesn't do him any good. On the contrary, he becomes less interesting. If this is a character-development, I'm not sure I will follow him down that road. The old Reacher is one of the most brilliant creations in the hardboild school... Book Review: Promising opening but seems to tire as it goes on ...
Summary: 4 Stars
This latest outing for Jack Reacher started very promisingly. It had pace and intrigue, and the mystery involved genuinely made you think. Where it started to go wrong was two-thirds of the way through. The story became too drawn out, the mystery element faded, and you were almost left wanting the book to end.
I think there was not enough story for a book of this size. - Simple as that.
Read Echo Burning instead. A superior thriller.
Book Review: Jack's back off vacation
Summary: 5 Stars
"Two against seven or more. No time. No element of surprise. A fortified position with no way in. A hopeless situation. 'We're good to go,' Reacher said." - from BAD LUCK AND TROUBLE
In my review of Reacher's immediately previous adventure, THE HARD WAY, I gave 3 stars and opined that author Lee Child had his hero on R&R. But here, in BAD LUCK AND TROUBLE, Jack is teamed with three of seven former members of the special operations unit that he commanded years before as a U.S. Army Military Police officer. Why only three? Because the other four have been tortured and thrown out of a helicopter high above California's Mojave Desert by villains unknown. Back in their service days, the eight of them had been like family, and Jack and his surviving colleagues are on a mission of vengeance. Ohhh, yeah, are they ever.
The thing I like about the Reacher series, unlike another which I read religiously but whose heroine (initials S.P.) is in a plot and character rut, Jack is constantly evolving in the perception of the reader. For instance, in this installment, Jack reveals himself to be a mathematics adept and the club sandwich as one of his favorites. He likes to pick his teeth with the frou-frou toothpick that holds the sandwich together.
As an aside, one of Jack's team, present and past, is ex-sergeant Frances Neagley, who appeared, as I recall, in one other Reacher thriller some years ago. Frances is perhaps just as deadly and efficient as her old CO. She also has a violent phobia against being touched. A character as interesting as hers deserves her own series. Lee, are you listening?
My only quarrel with the plot came towards the end when four Bad Guys are searching a perimeter fence for signs of entry by Reacher and Neagley. It's a moonless night, almost pitch black, and the searchers have no flashlights. While that makes it easier for Jack and Frances to do their bloody work, it makes no sense from the opposition's point of view and strained credibility.
The ending to BAD LUCK AND TROUBLE alone is worth the full hardcover price and the five stars I'm awarding. It's perhaps the best in the entire series so far. Yup, Jack is back.