Book Review: The Secret by Lee Child & Andrew Child

In reviewing brothers Lee & Andrew Little one’s The Secret—the collection’ twenty-ninth entry, and the brothers’ fourth collaboration—I ought to most likely reveal a (shameful) secret of my very own: I’ve by no means truly learn a Reacher e book earlier than. Positive, I’ve learn about Reacher (Andy Martin’s Reacher Mentioned Nothing) and personal Lee Little one’s brief work on the parable of (hu)man, The Hero. I additionally know that Tom Cruise performed the larger-than-life character to smaller than anticipated field workplace returns and that Alan Ritchson at present embodies Reacher in a well-received TV collection. However as for the books themselves? They’re largely a thriller to me.

The Secret opens in 1992. Sixty-two-year-old Keith Bridgeman awakens in a hospital room, the place he’s spent almost a month recovering from an enormous coronary heart assault that ought to have killed him. However his convalescence is interrupted by the looks of two feminine interlopers; they’ve acquired a listing of six names—all someway linked to actions of December ‘69—and demand a seventh (which Bridgeman insists he doesn’t know). The result, nevertheless, is evident: cooperative or not, Bridgeman is a lifeless man. Certainly, his miraculous survival quickly goes out the twelfth-floor window together with the remainder of him. His won’t be the final assisted loss of life.

In the meantime, ex-Military Navy Police Officer Jack Reacher is managing the fallout from some undefined profession misstep when summoned by the Secretary of Protection. He has no alternative however to reply the decision of responsibility, becoming a member of a process drive set as much as examine the aforementioned string of deaths (which have been staged to appear like accidents or suicides). This small however elite group additionally contains three equally disenfranchised members. A loner by nature, Reacher should work inside this pairing (and past it) to reconcile previous occasions with current crimes. Nonetheless, he can’t assist however suspect they’ve been recruited as ready-made scapegoats ought to the inquiry fail—which appears more and more seemingly because the physique depend grows.

The Childs make use of a roaming third-person narration that features Reacher, the perpetrators, and their victims—a sequence of people that reaches all the best way to the Pentagon. This not solely retains the pacing and placement transferring however highlights the intelligent, crafty nature of the killers, who defy expectation to spectacular impact. Per ordinary, the visceral (and sometimes violent) motion is offset by moments of cerebral contemplation; whereas Reacher will not be a person of phrases, he makes them depend after they come—and sometimes amusingly so. Such levity can also be included via the usage of then-cutting-edge know-how akin to fax machines and pagers (which endlessly frustrate Reacher), which firmly grounds the story in its time interval whereas permitting readers to wax nostalgic.

The Secret appears a perfect entry level into this venerable collection—however must also fulfill Reacher’s longtime legion of devotees. The plot comprises a mess of hooks and stands alone properly whereas teasing bits of backstory which may entice newbies to take a look at earlier works (with out unduly complicated them). And Reacher himself is a formidable mixture of brains and brawn who makes use of all of his colleges to ship justice as he deems applicable. It’s actually no secret, then, why these books proceed to demand consideration and acclaim almost three a long time after first delighting readers.   

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