His Workout: Beating People Up
By JANET MASLIN - The New York Times - Published: August 29, 2013
Lee Child’s bodacious action hero, Jack Reacher, has already tramped through 17 novels and three e-book singles. But his latest, “Never Go Back,” may be the best desert island reading in the series. It’s exceptionally well plotted. And full of wild surprises. And wise about Reacher’s peculiar nature. And positively Bunyanesque in its admiring contributions to Reacher lore.
NEVER GO BACK - A Jack Reacher Novel
By Lee Child - 400 pages. Delacorte Press. US$28.
By Lee Child - 400 pages. Delacorte Press. US$28.
We knew this guy was big, smart and tough, but “Never Go Back” offers this description: “an extreme mesomorph physique, with a six-pack like a cobbled city street, and a chest like a suit of N.F.L. armor, and biceps like basketballs, and subcutaneous fat like a Kleenex tissue.”
Reacher achieves this look with zero gym time and a pie and cheeseburger diet. He does get exercise, but it comes from episodes that end with some version of “So I banged their heads against the side of their car.”
This book’s most memorable martial arts display has Reacher keeping his promise to demolish two other guys with his hands behind his back. “I’d put a bag on my head if I had one,” he volunteers.
Reacher starts this particular fight with an impressive kickoff. Mr. Child begins “Never Go Back” with some swift kicks, too. For the last couple of Reacher adventures, the author has been teasing readers with the thought that some day Reacher might return to the northeastern Virginia headquarters of the elite military police unit he once ran. The reason for his return: the telephone voice of Maj. Susan Turner, the woman now in Reacher’s old job. Their flirtation began in “61 Hours,” when he was in South Dakota. But that was four books ago. And Reacher is a guy who has made detours a way of life.
As the new book begins, he has gone back to his old office and quickly gotten himself incarcerated. First of all, he faces a homicide charge. Second, there’s a paternity suit. Third, Major Turner is not at her desk. And fourth, Reacher didn’t read the fine print when he left the military in 1997. His status became that of a reservist; now, he is ordered back into the Army.
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