Lee Child - One Shot (2005)
A lone gunman opens fire on the crowded plaza of a medium-sized Midwestern city. When the smoke clears, five bystanders are dead and the gunman has vanished. Fortunately for the police, the sniper left plenty of clues behind, clues which lead them almost instantly to the killer’s doorstep.
Taken into the custody, the suspect refuses to answer any questions or offer any explanation. All he will say is “you got the wrong guy.” Pressed to respond, he advises his lawyer to “get Jack Reacher.”
Reacher, of course, is the hero of eight previous thrillers from author Lee Child. A former Army MP, Reacher now drifts from town to town, living life on his own terms, off the radar screen of any official agency. Locating him would be next to impossible.
Fortunately for the suspect, Reacher is already on his way. Having seen news of the killings on television, he immediately boarded a bus and headed for town. Reacher appears to be the only one who can poke holes in the prosecution’s airtight case. His surprise arrival on the scene, though, just deepens the mystery of what exactly happened on that day.
One Shot is filled with the kind of pulse-pounding action and thrills that Lee Child writes with the skill of a master. The plot moves at lightning speed and the reader would be hard-pressed to avoid being caught up in its wake.
Jack Reacher, one of the most popular characters in contemporary thrillers, is a compelling figure, a superman in plainclothes, with greater strength, charm, charisma and wit than any flesh and blood human. He is the perfect hero for the action movie audience; loved by women, feared by men and respected by all.
Reacher is never realistic. He’s too smart, too true, too tough to believe. But that’s just part of his charm and part of the fantasy. You don’t read a book like One Shot for reality. You read it to escape from reality. And Child helps readers do that better than just about anybody.
Posted by David J. Montgomery in Book Reviews | Permalink
