SethLynch

I don’t remember any blues in this book. It would have been nice to see that carry on. It could be that this is a one off, or perhaps he went off it somewhere along the line. I’ll find out someday as I will be reading them all, because these books are compelling. The draw you in and keep you in. I read each book in a few days. I’ll have to give them a month or so in between though as they are too similar to read one after the other.This book has Reacher in New York where he witnesses an event of little significance. The next night he learns that the event was actually a kidnapper picking up the ransom. This is how he is drawn into the story and although I read along I felt the drawing in was week. Whereas the draw in for Book 1 was solid. However I haven’t read the books leading to this one so it could be that Reacher has developed a personality where he likes trouble for it’s own sake – this is a part of his personality which is certainly there in book one but he denies it. It would be interesting to see he develop into a trouble seeker. For him to acknowledge that he lives by the thrill of life or death situations. Then for Reacher to travel the worlds war zones and getting involved – a fighting version of Grahame Greene.The Hard Way sees Reacher come to England –it’s interesting to see how Child writes this as he is an Englishman living in America. There are a lot of twists and turns in the plot – possibly less than book one. I did like the way Reacher got a lot of it wrong early on. This is shown nicely through the use of the third person narrative used here.Both books are neatly planned out. This one is better written than the first (the first isn’t badly written but there are a few clangers in there). I can see why they are best sellers. I have read the three Stieg Larsson books make for better reading. Larsson however was trying to bring to light some problems in his society. Child is writing in the pure escapism. I felt Larsson failed because he became too distracted by sexual perversion and petty details which are reiterated too often. Child’s writing is clean and his stories are to the point. They could be shorter but they don’t repeat themselves in the way that entire paragraphs in Larsson do. I think I’ll read some Jo Nesbo before I read the next Reacher book.