The Enemy (Jack Reacher, #8)

by Lee Child

New Year's Day, 1990. The Berlin Wall is coming down. Soon America won't have any enemies left to fight. The army is under pressure to downsize. Jack Reacher is the duty Military Police officer on a base in North Carolina when he takes a call reporting a dead soldier. The body was found in a sleazy motel used by local hookers. Reacher tells the local cop to handle it - it sounds like the guy just had a heart attack. But the dead man turns out to have been a two-star general on a secret mission. And then, many miles away, when Reacher goes to the general's house to break the sad news, he finds a battered corpse: the general's wife. Lee Child's new stomach-churning, palm-sweating thriller turns back the clock to Jack Reacher's army days. For the first time we meet a younger Reacher, a Reacher not yet disillusioned with military life. A Reacher with family. A Reacher in dogtags and starched uniform who imposes army discipline, if only in his own pragmatic way. A Reacher as far from the no-credit card, no-last-known-address drifter of the previous eight novels as is possible to imagine.

• ISBN10: 0593051823
• ISBN13: 9780593051825
• Publish Date: 1 April 2004 (first published 1 January 2004)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 27 June 2008
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Random House USA Inc
• Imprint: Bantam Press
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 416
• Language: English

Reviews

[zooloo1983]

I have listened to another Lee Child's book, this time narrated by Jeff Harding. I do miss listening to Dick Hill read to me, however Jeff does a good job!

In this story, we are taken back to New Year's day of 1990, the fall of the Berlin Wall and there has been a murder of a 2 star General in a seedy motel. At first glance it seems that this General has had a heart attack whilst in the throes of passion, but being a Jack Reacher novel you know this won't be the case! Especially as it turns out that his briefcase is missing with a very important agenda (there is always an agenda remember that!!) hidden in it and his wife turns up dead a few hours later. Whilst all this is going on, you find out that MPs are being moved about at the exact same time to completely different bases, all being side of by Garber?! I mean really! It was nice however to finally meet the famous General Garber before being shipped off to Korea!

 I really enjoyed this new look at Reacher. We get to meet Joe living and breathing and I loved their relationship that we are shown a little bit of but most importantly we get to meet one of their parents - their Mum! Unfortunately, it was not to be for long, and in the middle of the book to break the tension we are given more information on their relationship and her childhood.

This book had a few comical moments that I really enjoyed, Joe using Jack to get them upgraded on the flight to Paris by using his medals! A joke about a heart attack (sounds worse than it is!) really had me chuckling, I won't ruin it for you but you will know the bit I mean when you read it (or listen).

This book also focuses on what are deemed as hard subjects especially for the era it is set in and with the army.  The storyline follows gay soldiers and a woman MP who also just happens to be black. It was not the main subject but you felt it there and what was typically thought about these "categories" of people. It was really well written and when the subject of gay soldiers in the army was brought up especially by Willard, you just wanted to give him a large slap in the face for the cruelty in his words about the men.

Summer reminded me a way of Cole from the previous book, although I thought she was written much better. The "romance" with Reacher flowed so much easier than previously as it did not, to me, feel forced. I loved her character, as I was internally (and vocally) asking questions she was asking them for me and her reactions were the same as mine. She did not give up on any lines of thought, and like the reader she was just a step behind Reacher most of the time.

At the end, Reacher is still a MP, which leads me to hope there will be another book where we are taken back to when he leaves the army and why. It is however obvious this book is a big factor of his decision. I found this story was more interesting because he was constrained by the army, but he knew how to play the system and he still did things his way and on his timescale.

There is a lot of hate towards the end by other readers for Reacher, for some of his actions. While they do not seem to be very "Reacherish" the way he has acted was to help the soldiers that did not have a chance to defend themselves, and because instead of standing up what they should believe and uphold, they were just a sheep. I think personally it was a fitting end.



I THINK EIGHT BOOKS IN THE SERIES THAT THIS IS MY FAVOURITE ONE SO FAR!

[Sarah Says]

This the eighth Reacher novel is set eight years before the first novel ‘The Killing Floor’. ‘The Enemy’ is an emotional thrilling roller coaster ride and it’s become my favourite Reacher novel so far. This book sucked me in, it was extremely intense and I raced through the last chapters dying to know the outcome. I kept getting cranky with my husband for interrupting me while I was reading, I NEEDED to get to the end.

Two very big things happen to Reacher in this book, he loses his mother and he loses faith in the people who govern him. We see Reacher start to change and you can see how he eventually turns into the drifter vigilante we all know and love. I really enjoyed seeing Reacher in his army days, reading familiar names that pop up in later books and seeing him interact with his brother.

The ‘case’ is a big one and the who-done-it will keep you entertained and guessing. Mr Child doesn’t disappoint he gives us another action packed thrilling adventure to go on Reacher with. Five out of five stars.