Lee Childs
When I first started reading The Hard Way, I thought I knew what to expect. A good twisty thriller, some scares and a few truly creepy characters. And then I spoke with my sister, who said that she didn't really like Child's books (and we share much the same taste in mysteries, although not entirely. Who would have guessed that I have a higher tolerance for violence?). She said she didn't like them because "did he have to kill everyone?". I didn't think much about what she said until the last quarter of the book, when I got a little worried that people I actually liked in the book were all going to die. I became afraid it was going to be a bit like a John Sanford Lucas Davenport book-not the ones where there's a killer on the loose and Lucas has to hunt him-I mean the kind where there's a killer on the loose and Lucas has to hunt him down before he kills him and everyone he loves and really bad things happen that have consequences for the rest of the series. He hasn't written a Davenport like that in awhile, but I was a little concerned thinking that would be the case.
Not to worry. As a reviewer I just read said, the Reacher books are all revenge fantasies. The bad guys do something really bad-leaving their friends behind on a battlefield to be tortured by the enemy, throwing a guy with two broken legs out of an helicopter at 3,000 feet onto the desert floor, making crude and vicious threats against a child five years old-and eventually Reacher finds them all and kills them. Quickly and without remorse, as he seems to be missing the "remorse gene". Are they well-written? Yes, for the most part. You aren't going to find sparkling prose here and it's certainly not poetry but Childs tells a story very well. He's a bit like Jack McDevitt, the science fiction author. The writing isn't the best (although it's better than most) but he's a great storyteller-and Reacher is a great character. I wasn't sure I'd read others in this series when I was done, but I changed my mind and bought three more-we'll see how it goes.
Not to worry. As a reviewer I just read said, the Reacher books are all revenge fantasies. The bad guys do something really bad-leaving their friends behind on a battlefield to be tortured by the enemy, throwing a guy with two broken legs out of an helicopter at 3,000 feet onto the desert floor, making crude and vicious threats against a child five years old-and eventually Reacher finds them all and kills them. Quickly and without remorse, as he seems to be missing the "remorse gene". Are they well-written? Yes, for the most part. You aren't going to find sparkling prose here and it's certainly not poetry but Childs tells a story very well. He's a bit like Jack McDevitt, the science fiction author. The writing isn't the best (although it's better than most) but he's a great storyteller-and Reacher is a great character. I wasn't sure I'd read others in this series when I was done, but I changed my mind and bought three more-we'll see how it goes.
posted by SHbookworm at 8:26 AM
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