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Apr 01, 2019MB_kcls rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
I've long been a fan of Jack Reacher, but less so since someone approved Tom Cruise to play him - what an absolute disaster he is as Reacher. You know who would have made a GREAT Reacher? Gary Sinise (Lt Dan, Forest Gump). He has the intense, piercing look of Reacher... After Clancy sold the rights to Jack Ryan with Harrison Ford playing him, it felt like Clancy was writing more to fit Ford than to be true to Jack Ryan. I haven't seen that with Lee Child, YET, probably because the Cruise movies are a compilation from several books not just one. Still horrendous, although after the first mess on film I refuse to watch when my husband brings home the DVD. That said, 'The Midnight Line' is typical Reacher (and I'm not sure that's a compliment to the writer) finding trouble or having it find him in this case by a lost West Point ring. The story of the ring went off in all directions and then, of course, at the end completed the circle that caught all the bad guys and put Reacher with his thumb out in some remote place looking for a ride. Part of me suspects (maybe even hopes) Reacher is going to have a breakdown one of these days. He's too smart to be so simple and if he compartmentalizes as he is presented to do, eventually that compartment explodes. Will I keep reading? You betcha! I've learned a lot from Reacher, not the least of which is situational awareness, and was entertained in the process! 4 stars, mid-B because the frame work for the stories are beginning to look formulaic: start with a bus... be confronted with a damsel in distress or an angry guy looking for trouble, take out a bunch of people using geometry and run it all through your head in the seconds before your fists hit a throat and/or your head butts someone across the nose (which, my husband tells me, is very effective) which leads to a police officer and curiosity about what the guy with the punched throat/bleeding and broken nose is trying to hide... How many times can one great, good guy end up in the wrong place? I would hope for a little introspection, but alas, that leads us back to compartmentalizing. And Lee Child squares the circle again.