Better Off Dead: A Jack Reacher Novel

First of all congrats to all the people who managed to get reviews published the day after the OFFICIAL release. Obviously a lot of insomniacs and retired people are fans. Secondly what is all the fuss about it being written in the first person? What about the five others written in the first? The Enemy, Persuader, Personal, Gone tomorrow, The Affair. I have been a real fan until about five books ago when the first cracks started to appear. The end was in sight when Little Brother became co-author. This book simply confirms that the end is happening. If it was other than a Child name on the cover I would have felt cheated with this book. With two Child names on the front I feel doubly cheated.Is Child going the same way as Wilbur Smith? Wilbur's name prominently on the cover but not actually written by him. The difference between the genuine to the upstart small print author was obvious. The books are very far short of the Smith only originals. Ok, we have to wait and see what sort of a job Child the Younger does in his first solo Reacher book but it will never be the same again.I won't bother about going into the analysis of the book, the plot and everything else that so many other reviewers have done such a brilliant job with. They are right. This is just an insulting money spinning attempt to get money from so many thousands of loyal Reacher fans. Enjoy your money Lee but just call a halt to the gravy train. Let Jack go and put an end to this sham.

I have read all the Jack Reacher books and enjoyed them very much. This book however is something else altogether. It is so badly written that I struggled to finish it the book. I suspect there was very little Lee Child input into the writing of this book.

I don't know who wrote this but it is not up to the usual standard. Using Reacher as the storyteller doesn't work. The plot was weak and after having looked forward to this book for a year I am very disappointed. I don't think I will pre-order next years, if there is one, because if I were you Lee, I would quit now and let us remember the good old days.

Like most other reviewers, I have been a devoted fan of Lee Child's 'Jack Reacher' books. After the first few books, Reacher as a character was fully formed and the plots (most of them) were page-turners. This book, like the previous one co-authored by Child's brother Andrew, just feels as though the creators are going through the [increasingly preposterous] motions to make a buck and keep the franchise going. The book could have been two-thirds the length if the endless--very boring and only in part relevant--detailshad been eliminated. Do we really need to know, much less care about, how many rivets are drilled into something to secure it? NOOO!!! The minute description of the 'baddie's' work complex was mind-numbing as were many of the other descriptions. Everything gets horrendously bogged down. And the Fenton character whom he is trying to save? She is so uni-dimensional it is hard to imagine why even a good guy like Reacher would bother. No matter how much you love 'our Jack', save your money!

Chapter 6, paragraphs 3-4. Jack Reacher speaking after he promises to help a damsel catch her brother's killer so that she won't commit suicide:"The truth was, I had no interest in any of those things. But I wasn't about to tell the woman. I figured that the prospect of capturing her brother's killer was a lifeline I could use to pull her ashore. Probably the only thing I could use. It would be stupid to cut it before her feet were safely on dry land. Worse than stupid. Criminal. I might not have been serious about capturing some guy I'd never met. But I meant every word about helping her. Suicide has claimed far too many veterans. One would have been too many. So if I could prevent there being one more, that's what I was going to do."I planned to take things slow. Give her time to see that the police were her best option. I was going to deceive her, yes. In the short term. But better deceived than dead"I ask you - in what universe would Jack Reacher talk like that? Tells a woman he will help her find her brother's killer, but has no intention of following through?!? Waxes sensitively on about veteran suicides?!? Thinks the local police are the best option?!?You killed the main character. Not worth buying.