The opening paragraph of Lee Child’s THE HARD WAY is deceptively simple: A man is observed getting into a car and driving away. But since the observer is none other than former military policeman Jack Reacher, this seemingly mundane act soon snowballs into a life-or-death situation.

Reacher – now in his 10th consecutive thriller – is questioned the next day about what he saw by Lane, a very rich man of quite dubious background. Lane’s interest, however, is crystal-clear: His wife and stepdaughter have been kidnapped, and Reacher is offered a cool million to bring them – and the party responsible – back. With the help of a conveniently hot ex-FBI agent named Lauren, Reacher sets out to do just that, only to find the situation may not be what it seems. From there, Child puts the screws to the reader, twisting you through every turn. And – a testament to this series’ increasingly popularity – there are many.

There’s more than a little of Jack Bauer in Reacher – a man whose essentially lonely life is dedicated to doing good, even at a second’s notice, sometimes with disregard for his own life, and rules be damned. Such an off-the-cuff personality keeps THE HARD WAY’s unpredictability quotient high. He’s simply a get-things-done, cut-the-bullshit protagonist for whom you enjoy rooting. (In short, a major movie franchise just waiting to happen.)

Child – who’s been cranking these things out lately on an anuual basis – writes in a clipped, matter-of-fact style, rarely straying from the no-nonsense subject/verb/direct object sentence structure, with not a lot of prepositional phrases and sometimes in incomplete sentences. On my first encounter with Reacher – 2003’s PERSUADER – this initially bothered me until I got used to it. With THE HARD WAY, it wasn’t even an issue; rather, I realized it helped propel the narrative along its speedy journey, so you wouldn’t get lost in the plot, thick as it is with machinations. If anything’s to be nitpicked, it’s that Child could throw in a few more instances of attribution when delivering one of his patented blocks of two-person dialogue exchanges; sometimes I lost track of who was speaking.

For thriller fans, Reacher has become appointment reading, and THE HARD WAY is an easy read. By the time I hit the final chapter, I couldn’t turn the last few pages fast enough. If you’ve never read a Reacher, this is as fine a novel to start with as any. I’m betting it won’t be your last. –Rod Lott

“She was wearing a tiny black bra. He raised his arms in turn and she knelt up on the sofa and hauled his shirt up over his head. She spread her hands like small starfish on the broad slab on his chest. Ran them south to his waist. Undid his belt. He unclipped her bra. Lifted her up and laid her down flat on the sofa and kissed her breasts. ‘Older women,’ she said. ‘We’re worth it.’ He didn’t answer. Just smiled and ducked his head and kissed her neck below her ear, where her skin was damp and tasted of salt water.”

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