Past Tense: (Jack Reacher 23) (Jack Reacher, #23)

by Lee Child

The most hotly anticipated thriller of 2018 follows our hero Jack Reacher on a quest into his father's past, and climaxes in the most stomach-clenching, hair-raising, blood-curdling ticking time bomb of an adventure yet.

Jack Reacher plans to follow the autumn sun on an epic road trip across America, from Maine to California. He doesn’t get far. On a country road deep in the New England woods, he sees a sign to a place he has never been - the town where his father was born. He thinks, what’s one extra day? He takes the detour.

At the very same moment, close by, a car breaks down. Two young Canadians are trying to get to New York City to sell a treasure. They're stranded at a lonely motel in the middle of nowhere. It’s a strange place … but it’s all there is.

The next morning in the city clerk's office, Reacher asks about the old family home. He’s told no one named Reacher ever lived in that town. He knows his father never went back. Now he wonders, was he ever there in the first place?

So begins another nail-biting, adrenaline-fuelled adventure for Reacher. The present can be tense, but the past can be worse. That’s for damn sure.

• ISBN10: 1786141426
• ISBN13: 9781786141422
• Publish Date: 5 November 2018
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 13 July 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Random House Audio
• Edition: Unabridged edition
• Format: Audiobook (CD)
• Duration: 12 hours and 28 minutes
• Language: English

Reviews

You always get what you expect from a Reacher book. In an almost textbook manner, Reacher knocks around town while things slowly heat up. This time around, events are on more of a slow boil. Events unfold for a pair of characters in one location for an unusually long time. The reader is left to wonder how that series of events will eventually intersect with what's taking place for Reacher in the meantime. Rest assured, the cast of characters eventually cross paths and to great effect. It just takes a long time to reach the inevitable intersection. The entire time, if you can put up with all of the point of view characters pedantically dissecting the world around them and the motivations of those they encounter the exact same way Reacher is famous—perhaps infamous—for, you're in for another satisfying Reacher novel.

I sound disheartened, yet I have rated this 4-stars? I can almost hear you thinking these words. Like I said at the start: You get what you expect from a Reacher book. It's worth reading, but the book could have been 50-75 pages shorter and nothing would have been missed. The story was good, but I don't think an author lacking Child's name could get away with this so easily and still sell so well.

[Jeff Sexton]

Reacher Being Reacher. This is Reacher number 23, and kind of in the middle of the pack overall. Not the best Reacher story, but not the worst either. Third person again, and while the bad guys are truly bad, they aren't quite as bad as I was fearing - I thought early on Child might be going for more current headlines ala the last Reacher tale, and instead he shifts into something that is rumored online but which I've never seen actual evidence of. Don't start with this book if you're new to Reacher, but if you've read even a single Reacher reading this one out of order won't be a problem other than introducing certain new wrinkles that could be interesting going forward, should Child decide to pursue them.