#1 Killing Floor (March 1997) [Amazon]
After hopping off a Greyhound bus to pursue a whim (finding out what happened to a musician, “Blind Blake”). Reacher is arrested and charged with murder.
After an attempt on his life while being held over the weekend in a state prison, Reacher is determined to figure out what happened. Later he finds out that the person he was framed for murdering was Joe Reacher, his brother. Unknowingly, Jack Reacher had stumbled into one of the biggest counterfeiting schemes in the United States. Subsequently, he takes on the vicious and ruthless butchers of a well established town gang operating a massive counterfeit notes racket.
This novel is set in the fictional town of Margrave, Georgia.
#2 Die Trying (July 1998) [Amazon]
While helping Holly Johnson, an attractive young woman struggling with her crutches on a Chicago street, they turn around only to discover two handguns pointing at them.
Reacher and the woman are thrown into a dark van and taken 2000 miles across America, completely unaware why they were kidnapped and where they are going.
Finding themselves trapped in a seemingly remote place, they must work together to find the answers.
#3 Tripwire (July 1999) [Amazon]
Hanging around in Key West, digging pools by hand and moonlighting as a bouncer for a topless bar, Reacher finds himself wanted in New York by a Mrs. Jacob.
She turns out to be the divorced wealthy attorney Jodie Garber, daughter of General Leon Garber, Reacher’s mentor and surrogate father in the Army. Jodie hired an investigator to find Reacher because her father was dying.
Jack and Jodie begin investigating her father’s last project, a search on behalf of the elderly parents of their military MIA son. They soon find themselves hunted by a psychopath businessman and military criminal crippled in the Vietnam War, who has a shadowy business and other secrets to protect.
Reacher inherits a house and a steady girlfriend, and contemplates the joys of sedentary life.
#4 Running Blind (April 2000) [Amazon]
(also published as “The Visitor” in the UK)
It’s tough being a high-flying woman in the Army. Very tough. When Sergeant Amy Callan and Lieutenant Caroline Cook are found dead in their own homes – in baths filled with Army-issue camouflage paint, their bodies completely unmarked – Jack Reacher is under suspicion. He knew them both – and he knows that they both left the Army under dubious circumstances, both victims of sexual harassment.
A former U.S. military policeman, a loner and a drifter, he matches the psychological profile prepared by the FBI, and is arrested by ambitious Special Agent Julia Lamarr. But when the body of another woman, Sergeant Lorraine Stanley, is discovered, killed with similar precision, Reacher is released. Everyone fears there is a serial killer on the loose. But the FBI know something in Reacher’s past and have strong persuasive powers. Before long Reacher finds himself heavily involved in the murder investigation.
He has to find out what these women have in common and why someone is out to do them harm.
#5 Echo Burning (April 2001) [Amazon]
Hitching rides is an unreliable mode of transport. In temperatures of over a hundred degrees, you’re lucky if a driver will open the door of his air-conditioned car long enough to let you slide in. That’s Jack Reacher’s conclusion.
He’s adrift in the fearsome heat of a Texas summer, and he needs to keep moving through the wide open vastness, like a shark in the water. The last thing he’s worried about is exactly who picks him up. He never expected it to be somebody like Carmen. She’s alone, driving a Cadillac. She’s beautiful, young and rich. She has a little girl who is being watched by unseen observers. And a husband who is in jail. Who will beat her senseless when he comes out. If he doesn’t kill her first. Reacher is no stranger to trouble. And at Carmen’s remote ranch in Echo County there is plenty of it: lies and prejudice, hatred and murder.
Reacher can never resist a lady in distress. Her family is hostile, the cops can’t be trusted and the lawyers won’t help.
#6 Without Fail (April 2002) [Amazon]
Reacher arrives in Atlantic City, New Jersey, after hitching a ride with a couple of aging musicians. He is accosted there by Mary Ellen (M. E.) Froelich, a beautiful secret service agent who managed to track him down.
She has a special request for him: she consults him on how he could kill the Vice-President; countering those methods would help her considerably in her job: protecting the Vice-President. He accepts the challenge, and enlists old colleague Frances Neagley to help carry out the mission.
Froelich asked Reacher’s assistance on this matter because of suspicious and threatening letters which had been sent to the Vice-President but instead intercepted by his protective team. Together, they attempt to find the ones responsible.
#7 Persuader (April 2003) [Amazon]
Walking along the street, Reacher sees Quinn, a man who should be dead. Reacher is a man who hates unfinished business.
Ten years ago, a key investigation went sour and Francis Xavier Quinn got away with murder.
Now a chance encounter outside Boston’s Symphony Hall brings it all back.
And Reacher sees his one last shot to finish what was started all those years ago.
#8 The Enemy (April 2004) [Amazon]
On New Year’s Day, 1990, in a North Carolina motel, a two-star general is found dead.
Within minutes, Reacher is ordered to contain the situation. But things soon escalate when Reacher discovers the general’s briefcase is missing and within hours, the general’s wife is killed.
Reacher soon finds himself embroiled in a complex game of tug of war between powerful men in the United States Army, and beyond.
#9 One Shot (April 2005) [Amazon]
In an innocent heartland city, five murders with six shots are done by an expert sniper. The police quickly identify and arrest a suspect, and build a slam-dunk case with iron-clad evidence.
But the accused man claims he’s innocent and says “Get Jack Reacher.”
Reacher himself sees the news report and turns up in the city. The defence is immensely relieved; but Reacher has come to bury the guy.
Shocked by the request of the accused, Reacher sets out to confirm for himself the absolute certainty of the man’s guilt, but comes up with more than he bargained for.
#10 The Hard Way (May 2006) [Amazon]
After witnessing an exchange of $1,000,000. Jack Reacher is hired by the underhanded director of a private military firm to rescue his wife and stepchild, who appear to have been kidnapped.
While Reacher uncovers clues that might lead to a rescue, he learns about the director’s dubious past which involves a murderous plot against two ex-associates.
He meets a beautiful ex-FBI agent converted to private investigator who assists him in the investigation to unveil the shocking truth, and ultimately engages in a showdown on a farm in Norfolk, England.
The novel is set primarily in New York City.
#11 Bad Luck and Trouble (April 2007) [Amazon]
Reacher is content with his choice of being a loner, a wanderer and being almost impossible to find. But someone makes a small anonymous deposit into his bank account, which triggers Reacher’s fixation for math and his investigative instincts.
Reacher finds out the deposit is a signal only the eight former members of his elite team of army investigators would know. Obsessed with math like Reacher, Frances Neagley locates him because of the brutal death of a one of their own. They race to reunite with the survivors of their old team and raise the living, bury the dead, and connect the dots in a mystery that grows more complex with more murders. With tortured murders and lives at stake of those Reacher considers family, his usual emotionless demeanour breaks and he says of the killers, “They are dead men walking.”
The team falls into their old roles and routines with ease, their motto still their sacred rule: You do not mess with the Special Investigators.
From Los Angeles to Las Vegas, Reacher gets his old investigations unit back together to get to the bottom of what’s going on.
#12 Nothing to Lose (March 2008) [Amazon]
Based in Colorado, travelling from the town of Hope to the town of Despair, it soon becomes clear that Reacher is an unwelcome visitor in a town with a lot of secrets to hide.
Reacher cannot resist the opportunity to explore these secrets further.
Especially the peculiar town owner who has employed the majority of the population to work within his recycling factory.
#13 Gone Tomorrow (April 2009) [Amazon]
Reacher takes the subway late at night, and routinely checks his fellow passengers. Four are okay, but the fifth is not. Checking against his mental list for suicide bombers, he comes to the conclusion that the fifth is one too.
He is puzzled with her choice of timing and place, as it is not crowded; on the contrary the subway was exceedingly empty. He reasons with her, but she shoots herself; thereby proving Reacher wrong when he concluded she was a bomber.
He is determined to discover why she killed herself and soon uncovers a massive conspiracy stretching from California to New York City to even Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation of that country.
#14 61 Hours (March 2010) [Amazon]
In South Dakota, a tourist bus crashes during a savage snow storm with Jack Reacher in it.
Jack gets caught up in a hunt for a murderer and the protection of a key witness.
Meanwhile, a link to Reacher’s past comes to his aid and brings a path to redemption.
#15 Worth Dying For (September 2010) [Amazon]
Reacher arrives late one night in a rural Nebraska town. In the town’s fading motel bar he overhears a drunk doctor’s refusal to attend a domestic abuse.
The victim of the abuse is married to the scion of the Duncan clan, which holds that part of Nebraska in its grip, keeping the population cowed and docile.
Reacher talks the doctor into doing the right thing, and ends up embroiled in a smuggling ring and an unsolved disappearance from twenty-five years prior.
#16 The Affair (September 2011) [Amazon]
March 1997. Six months before the events of Killing Floor. Jack Reacher is still in the army. And there’s big trouble in a small town in Mississippi, where a soldier’s girlfriend is found with her throat cut from ear to ear.
Local trouble? Or is the killer from nearby Fort Kelham, a giant base used by elite Army Rangers?
In 1997, Reacher’s orders are: go undercover, keep your distance, monitor the investigation. Eventually the army’s official investigation produces a cast-iron prime suspect—and so does Reacher’s undercover search. But Reacher’s answer is not the same as the army’s. If he keeps quiet, will he be able to live with himself? And if he speaks out, will the army be able to live with him?
#17 A Wanted Man (September 2012) [Amazon]
Four people in a car, hoping to make Chicago by morning. One man driving, eyes on the road. Another man next to him, telling stories that don’t add up. A woman in the back, silent and worried. And next to her, a huge man with a broken nose, hitching a ride east to Virginia.
An hour behind them, a man lies stabbed to death in an old pumping station. He was seen going in with two others, but he never came out. He has been executed, the knife work professional, the killers vanished. Within minutes, the police are notified.
Within hours, the FBI descends, laying claim to the victim without ever saying who he was or why he was there. All Reacher wanted was a ride to Virginia. All he did was stick out his thumb. But he soon discovers he has hitched more than a ride. He has tied himself to a massive conspiracy that makes him a threat—to both sides at once.
#18 Never Go Back (August 2013) [Amazon]
After an epic and interrupted journey all the way from the snows of South Dakota, former military cop Jack Reacher has finally made it to Virginia.
His destination: a sturdy stone building a short bus ride from Washington D.C., the headquarters of his old unit, the 110th MP.
It was the closest thing to a home he ever had.
Why? He wants to meet the new commanding officer, Major Susan Turner. He liked her voice on the phone. But the officer sitting behind his old desk isn’t a woman. Is Susan Turner dead? In Afghanistan? Or in a car wreck?
What Reacher doesn’t expect to hear is that Turner has just been fired from her command. Nor that he himself is in big trouble, accused of a sixteen-year-old homicide. And he certainly doesn’t expect to hear these words: ‘You’re back in the army, Major. And your ass is mine.’
Will he be sorry he went back? Or – will someone else?
#19 Personal (2014) [Amazon]
Someone has taken a long-range shot at the French president but failed to kill him. The suspected sniper has serious skills and is a hard man to find. Reacher tracked him down once and put him in jail. Now he’s asked to hunt him again, and put him away permanently.
Tracking the shooter will take Reacher from France to England after a killer with a treacherous vendetta.
He’ll need to uncover who did the hiring and what’s behind the assassination attempt before executing his orders.
#20 Make Me (September 2015) [Amazon]
“Why is this town called Mother’s Rest?” That’s all Reacher wants to know. But no one will tell him. It’s a tiny place hidden in a thousand square miles of wheat fields, with a railroad stop, and sullen and watchful people, and a worried woman named Michelle Chang, who mistakes him for someone else: her missing partner in a private investigation she thinks must have started small and then turned lethal.
Reacher has no particular place to go, and all the time in the world to get there, and there’s something about Chang . . . so he teams up with her and starts to ask around. He thinks: How bad can this thing be? But before long he’s plunged into a desperate race through LA, Chicago, Phoenix, and San Francisco, and through the hidden parts of the internet, up against thugs and assassins every step of the way—right back to where he started, in Mother’s Rest, where he must confront the worst nightmare he could imagine.
Walking away would have been easier. But as always, Reacher’s rule is: If you want me to stop, you’re going to have to make me.
#21. Night School (2016) [Amazon]
Prequel set when Reacher is 35.
In the morning, they gave Reacher a medal. And in the afternoon, they sent him back to school.
Night School takes Reacher back to his army days, but this time he’s not in uniform. With trusted sergeant Frances Neagley at his side, he must carry the fate of the world on his shoulders, in a wired, fiendishly clever new adventure that will make the cold sweat trickle down your spine.
No Middle Name [Amazon]
Jack ‘No Middle Name’ Reacher, lone wolf, knight errant, ex military cop, lover of women, scourge of the wicked and righter of wrongs, is the most iconic hero for our age. This is the first time all Lee Child’s shorter fiction featuring Jack Reacher has been collected into one volume. Read together, these twelve stories shed new light on Reacher’s past, illuminating how he grew up and developed into the wandering avenger who has captured the imagination of millions around the world.
- Second Son
- James Penney’s New Identity
- Guy Walks Into a Bar
- Deep Down
- High Heat
- Not a Drill
- Small Wars
- Everyone Talks
- Maybe They Have a Tradition
- No Room at the Motel
- The Picture of the Lonely Diner
- Too Much Time [new]
22. The Midnight Line [Amazon]
Jack Reacher takes an aimless stroll past a pawn shop in a small Midwestern town. In the window he sees a West Point class ring from 2005. It’s tiny. It’s a woman cadet’s graduation present to herself. Why would she give it up? Reacher’s a West Pointer too, and he knows what she went through to get it.
23. Past Tense (2018) [Amazon]
His most personal adventure yet, as past and present collide when Reacher goes looking for traces of his family in his father’s hometown in rural New Hampshire.
24. Blue Moon (2019) [Amazon]
“This is a random universe,” Reacher says. “Once in a blue moon things turn out just right.”
This isn’t one of those times.
Reacher is on a Greyhound bus, minding his own business, with no particular place to go, and all the time in the world to get there. Then he steps off the bus to help an old man who is obviously just a victim waiting to happen. But you know what they say about good deeds. Now Reacher wants to make it right.
An elderly couple have made a few well-meaning mistakes, and now they owe big money to some very bad people. One brazen move leads to another, and suddenly Reacher finds himself a wanted man in the middle of a brutal turf war between rival Ukrainian and Albanian gangs.
Reacher has to stay one step ahead of the loan sharks, the thugs, and the assassins. He teams up with a fed-up waitress who knows a little more than she’s letting on, and sets out to take down the powerful and make the greedy pay. It’s a long shot. The odds are against him. But Reacher believes in a certain kind of justice . . . the kind that comes along once in a blue moon.
25. The Sentinel (2020) [Amazon]
Jack Reacher gets off the bus in a sleepy no-name town outside Nashville, Tennessee. He plans to grab a cup of coffee and move right along.
Not going to happen.
The town has been shut down by a cyber attack. At the centre of it all, whether
he likes it or not, is Rusty Rutherford. He’s an average IT guy, but he knows more than he thinks.
As the bad guys move in on Rusty, Reacher moves in on them . . .
And now Rusty knows he’s protected, he’s never going to leave the big man’s side.
Reacher might just have to stick around and find out what the hell’s gone wrong . . . and then put it right, like only he can.
26. Better Off Dead (2021) [Amazon]
Digging graves had not been part of my plans when I woke up that morning.
Reacher goes where he wants, when he wants. That morning he was heading west, walking under the merciless desert sun—until he comes upon a curious scene. A Jeep has crashed into the only tree for miles around. A woman is slumped over the wheel.
Dead? No, nothing is what it seems.
The woman is Michaela Fenton, an army veteran turned FBI agent trying to find her twin brother, who might be mixed up with some dangerous people. Most of them would rather die than betray their terrifying leader, who has burrowed his influence deep into the nearby border town, a backwater that has seen better days. The mysterious Dendoncker rules from the shadows, out of sight and under the radar, keeping his dealings in the dark.
He would know the fate of Fenton’s brother.
Reacher is good at finding people who don’t want to be found, so he offers to help, despite feeling that Fenton is keeping secrets of her own. But a life hangs in the balance. Maybe more than one. But to bring Dendoncker down will be the riskiest job of Reacher’s life. Failure is not an option, because in this kind of game, the loser is always better off dead.
27. No Plan B (October 2022) [Amazon]
In Gerrardsville, Colorado, two witnesses to the same tragedy give two different accounts. One guy sees a woman throw herself in front of a bus in what authorities will call a suicide. The other witness is Jack Reacher. And he sees what actually happened: A man in a gray hoodie and jeans, moving like a shadow, pushed the victim to her death – before swiftly grabbing the dead woman’s purse and strolling away.
Reacher follows the killer on foot, not knowing that he is part of something much bigger and far-reaching . . . a secret conspiracy with many moving parts, with powerful people on the take, all involved in an undertaking that leaves no room for error. If any step is compromised, the threat will have to be quickly and quietly and permanently removed.
Because when the threat is Reacher, there is No Plan B….
28. The Secret (2023) [Amazon]
A string of mysterious deaths. A long-classified mission. A young MP with nothing to lose.
1992. All across the United States respectable, upstanding citizens are showing up dead. These deaths could be accidents, and they don’t appear to be connected—until a fatal fall from a high-floor window attracts some unexpected attention.
That attention comes from the secretary of defense. All of a sudden he wants an interagency task force to investigate. And he wants Jack Reacher as the army’s representative. If Reacher gets a result, great. If not, he’s a convenient fall guy.
But office politics isn’t Reacher’s thing. Three questions quickly emerge: Who’s with him, who’s against him, and will the justice he dispenses be the official kind . . . or his own kind?
29. In Too Deep (2024) [Amazon]
Reacher had no idea where he was. No idea how he had got there. But someone must have brought him. And shackled him. And whoever had done those things was going to rue the day. That was for damn sure.
Jack Reacher wakes up, alone, in the dark, handcuffed to a makeshift bed. His right arm has suffered some major damage. His few possessions are gone. He has no memory of getting there.
The last thing Reacher can recall is the car he hitched a ride in getting run off the road. The driver was killed.
His captors assume Reacher was the driver’s accomplice and patch up his wounds as they plan to make him talk.
A plan that will backfire spectacularly . . .
I’m afflicted and in catch up ( but not too fast) mode.
Listened to THE ENEMY while reading PERSONAL. Wow!
How do you get him out of your head the rest of the time?
haha, good to hear from a new addict 🙂 That’s an intense way to consume them!
Not sure how to initiate a question, so I am asking within someone else’s comments. I want to get my elderly father the Jack Reacher books IF they are clean. He would not like bad language or sex. He is pretty conservative. Can you tell me what you would rate these books if books had a rating system, from a moral standpoint. (I wish there was a website that rated books). I am not a fiction reader, so I have never read his books. Thank you
Very little, almost zero bad language. There is no detail in sex scenes and they are very infrequent anyway. But the violence is a bit graphic, but morally justified because only bad guys get killed. Definitely worth trying on him.
I like the Jack reacher series as a relatively “clean” read. It has mild sexuality, infrequently, with nothing exceptionally explicit. Language is pretty mild to me. Some scenes can be a little graphic, but it is
in context to the nature of Jack’s job and not done to be intentionally disturbing to the reader.
Very little foul language, one book had a sex scene, don’t remember which one. Rate 8 as far morality. Mostly fighting and solving crimes. Better than whats on TV. Good luck, enjoy
There’s a book of short stories:
Second Son…around the time of the Son of Sam killings.
Blackout in NYC, Reacher is is a car with an ally-lady….BJ was hinted at during stakeout.
Give him 61 hours.
Very little sex. What there is is usually very brief and not a lot of intense description. Language includes some swearing,but not a huge amount. certainly nothing like a Samuel L. Jackson movie where every other word is mf this and mf that. Some of the plots are very graphic. I would not recommend Tripwire. That’s a nightmare producer. Start with some of the short stories.
perfectly clean.
I’m almost there 🙂 I’ve read them out of order and discovered only two to catch up.
And no, you can’t put him out of your head.
Reacher is too sticky…
Yep, an addict too. Shame they didn’t consider Gerard Butler ( 300-King Leonidas ) for the movie role of Jack. Your thoughts?
I agree. Actually, they could have used just about anybody but Tom Cruise! I usually like his movies but I was SO mad when I found out he was playing Jack Reacher. My family did not understand my frustration but Tom Cruise is just NOT Jack Reacher! I even refused to watch it for a while but I’m a Reacher addict
I just found this site. I’ve been a JR fan for years, but I’ve never had the luxury of reading them all in order. But I had the exact same response to Cruise being cast as Reacher. I remember when he was (mis-)cast as Lestat in Anne Rice’s “Interview with the Vampire.” Even though the author did a 180 after first angrily objecting to the casting, I knew there’d never be a film made of the second book (and the best, IMHO). And while there have been movies made of various later sequels, I was very sadly right.
I don’t know which of the books was used in that movie (I’m terrible with names, and need to see the synopses to know if I’ve read them, with a few exceptions), but I will NEVER understand how a casting agent could read just a brief bit of ANY of the series and think, “Hmm, I think short, dark-haired, hyper Tom Cruise would be the perfect choice to play the 6’4″ tall and HUGE blond ex-MP major who seldom gets rattled or raises his voice.”
Easy, Tom Cruise bought the movie rights to all of the Reacher books and cast himself as a diminuitive Jack Reacher, there was no casting agent, just Cruise.
Yup – Tom Cruise ? – the casting director must have had some sort of incentive I guess.
Further to my previous uninformed comment ……….. nice one Lee Child – You must have seen him coming? (as we say in the UK)
Unfortunately, Tom Cruise bought the rights to make the film and cast himself. It’s impossible (no pun intended) see him as Reacher when his physical description in the first chapter of nearly every book.
Just listen to Author Interview (recorded after ONE SHOT was published) and Lee Child (Jim Grant) said he would like to see Clint Eastwood play Jack if a movie was ever made. Wish he would have stuck with Clint!
Haha…agree that Tom Cruise is a bit of a stretch for Reacher but still not the worst actor they could have picked. How about Matt Damon…but Tom C. owns the movie rights. Oh well.
At this point, anyone other than Alan Ritchson to play Reacher in a movie ir series would be a boneheaded mive!!!
I thought he would’ve played a great jack reacher after I read them. He was the first person I thought of.
The first person I thought of was Dwayne Johnson. That’s who I picture when I read the books, not tiny Tom cruise.
channing tatum all the way!
Gerard Butler or Karl Urban would have been my choice. Not the little Mr Cruise
Hi Sheldon,
I have read almost all the Reacher novels and am currently reading Without Fail. Joe Reacher is talked about a lot in this one. Is there a novel that actually covers his death or does that happen “off camera”. (You can reply in private if this is spoiler information)
Thanks!
Killing Floor
I believe his brother a treasury agent was killed in the “Killing Floor”. Jack found his body but didn’t see him killed.
sorry…having to use rely to initiate a question: which Reacher novel centers around an old nuclear materials plant?
I’m looking and looking but can’t find it.
Actually the perfect Reacher, in my mind, was Clint Walker (from the old TV show Cheyenne). Unfortunately he’s way too old now. But he should have been the gold standard – not Mr. Cruise.
Tis sad that I must confess, I thought I was alone. Without humour I read into the night and then go early to the charity shops with my list of the ones not yet read. I never knew that other sad and bewildered people were out there drawn to the life of JR. I whisper the name in hushed tones and she who must be obeyed thinks I am doing things that I should not be doing. Now I know I am not sad, is there a secret societal meeting place that we can go and talk in private like an AA meeting?
Sign me up
Well my addiction to the character and the novels, came full force when I acquired an RCMP Tahoe SUV at an auction. When asked what I was going to call ‘her’ , I quickly responded that the vehicle was a ‘he’ and his name was REACHER.
Had the pleasure of being able to get the three novellas Second Son, High Heat, & Deep Down with Jack Reacher’s Rules on CD from my local library. If you get the opportunity, I highly recommend reading these novellas. All are set prior to the novels in the Jack Reacher series; two while Reacher is only a teen, and Deep Down while yet an Army Captain. High Heat is remarkable for Reacher not consuming any coffee; the title helps explain why. It is likely my favorite of the three as Child sets the story amid some real historical events with Reacher once again using his fascinating logical thoughts to limit possibilities and close the case(s).
Jack Reacher’s Rules was a little disappointing. While filled with familiar excerpts from Jack Reacher novels, it is simply a listing of various guides that lead Reacher to act the way he does. It includes some of the typical Reacher humor in things that you won’t find Reacher saying or doing, i.e. packing his suitcase. Perhaps I was expecting something more personal that this. Interesting, but I probably won’t pick it up again.
Now it’s time to hunt down some more Reacher short stories; Guy Walks into a Bar…, James Penney’s New Identity, and Everyone Talks. Only 3 more novels until I can join the 100% club; I’m trying to delay that and treasure each page of every story.
haha, excellent KD 🙂
I believe Lee Child is releasing a volume with all the Jack Reacher short stories in it, check out Amazon.com or subscribe to the Lee Child website’s newsletter Leechild.com. They just sent me a downloadable link to the latest Lee Child interview.
the other book Jack Reacher Rules was a big waste of money.
Started reading Jack Reacher in order. Which means I must wait since I receive them online. But, I do enjoy them. The start from some initial action that just grows and grows. I got my husband interested, also. I like the Clint Walker for Reacher. How about Lee Pace? He is 6’5″. And fairly muscular. And he is a current actor. So, I continue to wait. Plus, I am reading Craig Johnson’s Walt Longmire series. Longmire is another 6’5″ character. What fun!
haha, awesome Jenny 🙂
So got the perfect Reacher… Howey Long
Former football Hall of Fame DE
I can’t think of this one Reacher book where He might have a kid. Someone approaches Reacher and asks him about this woman, but he can’t remember her name or anything else. He goes to where this woman lives and sees this girl who might be his daughter. Ringing any bells?
Never Go Back
wish i had googled before reading the other 34 books again looking for this one…. Thank you ‘G’.
Never Go Back
I always have Ray Stevenson in my mind when picturing Reacher.
Ah yes!!
nup
Just found this discussion. I’m an absolute fan too & so agree with all the Tom Cruise comments! I got my first book in a charity shop & couldn’t put it down. His plots are fab, such good stories and initially I read them as I found them in shops. When I realised there was a chronology, I began reading them in order. Have just started on the short stories too & recommend these also.
Yes! Thanks Rosie 🙂
Tom Cruise is an awful choice for Reacher.
The actor who plays him in the Netflix series is much better and the plots are more like the books themselves.
Cruise has emasculated Reacher.
So I read some random Reacher books and the decided I wanted to read them in chrono order. So I read The Enemy and became confused as in it Reacher’s dad is dead; but I remember one of the random books Joe Reacher being in prison for treason and he and Jack Reacher were working together to stop a nuclear disaster, but their father was alive? I think in a couple of books he was alive , but if he was dead for 2 years in The Enemy in 1990 just not sure how it’s working out.
oh! Good point Robin :/
I you are thinking of the David Baldacci series with John Puller. Zero Day is the title.
I think you are confusing this Jack Reacher novel with David Baldacci’s John Puller character…. Puller is the one with the brother in prison for treason and the father who was a General but is suffering from dementia
dad might have been a joe but so was his brother who was accused of treason.
However, in one book he sets a mountain of one dollar bills on fire and it burns but a real pile of money that big would burn only top layer then smolder for days
Hi Sheldon. Thanks for this site. Imho Jason Statham would have bee a better JR. Just my 2c’s worth
Ooo. Same height but more ferocious. Great suggestion Koos 🙂
he is only 175cm!! nup…………..
I wanted Chris Hemsworth (Thor) for Reacher. He knows how to get across thoughtful and bigger-squish-you-like-a-bug
Oooo great suggestion!
I think we are getting warmer….
When is the next Jack Reacher movie coming out? Can we hold a public poll and convince Tom Cruise that he should leave the part of Jack Reacher to another actor?
Hi June, next movie comes out at theatres 21 October 2016: Jack Reacher: Never Go Back
Poll sounds good. You start it and spread the word here? 🙂
When I met Reacher for the first time long time ago, I imagined him as Dolph Lundgren. Of course Dolph is a bit too old now for pying Reacher, but I think that he is what Reacher supposed to look.
Good suggestion Miroslav 🙂
yep
Which of the novels is about Reacher avenging the death of his brother Joe? I want to read it again, but can’t remember the title.
Killing Floor
Just finished “Night School” and have a question about Frances Negley. I have enjoyed her character in many previous books always proving loyal and capable to Jack but just didn’t realize until his new book that she very smart and cunning and was a real bad ass. Was anyone else surprised? Can anyone tell me in which book she was first introduced. I thinking it was ” the enemy”. I need to re-read it.
Go Frances!!! How about a spin-off Lee?
Yup Frances Neagley came across as a great partner to Reacher when I first met her. In “Without Fail” I think… And then she was back in “Bad Luck and Trouble”
She was his 2IC when he was an MP. Any book when he was in the army, she was with him.
I’m rereading Gone Tomorrow. Spoiler stuff for others, but when Reacher goes back (double backs) to Lila’s Townhouse/apartment building , the ground floor space is a restaurant.
Reacher looks around and sees a table that had frayed ropes and realizes that is where Lila Hoth killed/Gutted Peter Molina.
My question, I thought Peter was out in SoCal playing football for USC? Did Lila somehow fly him out to New York City?
It’s unanimous–Tom Cruise is NOT Jack Reacher! My choice, back in the day, would have been Steven Seagal; unfortunately, he’s too old now. Dolf Lundgren also a good choice if not for the foreign accent. Not Dwayne Johnson though, he just looks wrong.
Re Reading The Affair, observation about Major Jack Reacher. While he was in the US Army, he would have had to have a closet full of uniforms and stuff as part of standard issue stuff of a Soldier. That must have drove him nuts. You have to keep stuff current with accoutrements and stuff.
Now when he traveled to Fort Kelham in Mississippi, he just bought some cheap pink shirt and trousers and a Tooth Brush and looked civilian..
Also as a US Army Major with no bills, he must have had a very large bank account. No vices, no car, no house, no girlfriend, no stereos and music, no cable no phone ect.ect. just food for thought. LOVE JACK REACHER!
haha, living the dream huh Spencer 🙂
I am a diligent Reacher fan and have read nearly all of Lee’s books, mostly in order. But I just finished reading Trip Wire way out of sequence and have a question about the Jodie Garber character. Was she only in this book never to return or does her character appear in another book and what happens to her?
Thanks
Haven’t see her since, but there are a handful of references to her. I think Reacher does miss her!
Hugh Jackman is the perfect Jack Reacher… though he’d need to beef up to play the movie “Tripwire” if it goes to film.
Hugh Jackman is only 6′ 2″, not tall enough. It’s a shame that Lee Child gave away the movie rights to Tom {i’m small}Cruise.
Hugh Jackman is only 6′ 2″, not tall enough. It’s a shame that Lee Child gave away the movie rights to Tom {i’m small}Cruise.
I’m on my second go around on reading Never Go Back, I’m always amazed how Reacher never gets rattled when being confronted with violence or people in authority giving him crap. So cool and collected he stays.
Now I have to go look for the movie.
Glad to find this site !
Spoiler Alert:
Bought the No Middle Name short story book. Awesome reading fills in alot of Reachers life.
In the James Penny New Identity, body in trunk was Francis Xavier Quinn?
Small Wars, who knew Joe Reacher was so cold blooded, and Reacher showed a different side of himself
Everyone Talks, did Reacher get shot or not? Or was the hospital all in the conspiracy to hide Reacher? I feel like the female detective. Not knowing what happened.
Hi,
Re: “Everybody Talks”: spoiler alert!
After watching a protection payment being made in a bar, Reacher decided to help the the investigation into the bad guy’s business by faking a GSW with the help of the bar owner’s sister(?) who worked at the hospital. Neat!
Regards,
Dick-san
Belgium
Just finishing this very addictive series and luckily found this site. I;m hoping someone can answer my question. It seems to me that Jack encounters his brother Joe’s girl friend in more than one story, she is a government agent (treasury or fbi). In one Molly dies in Jack’s arms in an airport baggage area but in another later story they meet and as I recall have a bit of an affair. Were there 2 or more ex-girlfriends ?
Jack Reacher all time favorite character. I don’t know why people hate Tom Cruise, why the call him the tiny Tommy cruise. But personally I love Tom Cruise- he is my all time actor- right from mission impossible.
Compare to other actors, I have a feeling that Cruise is a great actor.
I think most people recognize Cruise as a great actor but he is just plain wrong for this role due to his size. Jack Reacher in the books is six foot five and 250 lbs of solid muscle. The dynamics of a room change when he enters.
Just finished the Diane Capri book, Don’t Know Jack. Interesting read from a different perspective of FBI agents looking for Reacher 15 years after the Killing Floor… Reacher has a lot of relationships…is Jack Roscoe his?
Can anyone tell me which Reacher book had the concrete nuclear factory that was accessed through the fire house? Much thanks!
That sounds like 61 Hours?
All I can do is to repeat a comment made by a friend of mine. All Reachers carry a double edged sword. All at once you can’t wait to finish each one to see how it ends and hating to finish them because the end will be the end.
I’ve read all the books in order and am now listening to them randomly on audio book. Just finished listening to “The Visitor” and now jumped ahead 7 years to “Bad Luck and Trouble”
Does anyone know what happened to all of his money? In the Visitor he has a spendy car he is going to sell, the Generals house he’s going to sell and 7 years later he is totally broke.
Also in the Visitor he keeps looking at his army watch to tell time, then later in the series he has no need for a watch because he knows the time precisely in his head. When did that start happening?
Hi,
While looking for French versions of the Reacher stories, I found a piece on Lee Child:
http://grantland.com/features/lee-child-jim-grant-jack-reacher/
Regards,
Dick-san
Belgium
On my way to the 100% club, I recently finished Past Tense. I don’t know about any other readers but I’m a bit disappointed. I almost think Lee Child used a ghost writer. Sure, the clock in his head is exactly on time, but he uses his fists a number of times. Whoa! Fists? They have small bones easily broken as has been noted in a number of Reacher stories. And while the storyline is nothing to complain about, it was weird the amount of the book spent on the “unfortunates” that Reacher has to help. I’ll have to go back and look but it would seem that easily 1/2 the book is devoted to the couple in trouble. But Reacher uses his weaker hand to give the bad guy a left hook. So not the Reacher I know!
I don’t think its out of character, he’s always been the one to fight for the underdog and right the wrongs. Don’t forget, his fists are like hams!
An awful lot of right handed boxers use the left hook as the knockout punch, with the right jab setting it up.
Surely the author has enough mileage now, to start to tie some loose ends together and I would like to see Jodie come back into his life. NCIS can do it, take note Mr Child
WHICH OF JACK REACHER VOVELS ENVOLVE JACK TRYING TO DETERMINE IF HE HAS A DAUGHTER
Never go back. I just read the answer in an earlier comment.
I was looking for something to read and found the Jack Reacher books in a local book store. I could not find the whole set but started to read them according to the publishing order in the front the book. Luckily the first one “Killing Floor” was one of the books I could get. I was about a quarter trough the book and realized I know this story about the counterfeit money. Then it dawned on me, I have read a Readers Digest condense version of this book about 20 years ago. I even stlll have the book in my collection.
I am trying to complete the whole collection.
In which Novel do we read about the female MP Jack sent alone to arrest a man but she got killed and mutilated by the man?
Persuader
What an outstanding effort, Sheldon! Kudos!
I found my first Reacher (coincidentally it was The Killing Floor) book by chance in an old book store and I was hooked. Have read every book, first in the order in which I could get them and later in sequence.
A Jack Reacher book for me is an instant energy booster while I am reading it, though I am usually pretty glum when I finish a book. But then, there is another one waiting.
Tom Cruise was absolutely the worst choice for Jack Reacher, IMHO. Even Bruce Willis would have made a better Reacher. And probably closer to Reacher’s age.
When are we going to get some more books? I thought Andrew Child was supposed to keep things going after Lee’s retirement.
I think I’ve read all the novels, but there’s a couple storylines I don’t recognize, so I’m going to read them now
Does anyone have any other books they can recommend after Reacher? I really like Elvis Cole and Joe Pike, but I’ve read all their stories at least twice.
Thanks
Try “You Don’t Know Jack” by Diane Capri. It’s well done and recommended by Child. It’s about two FBI agents trying to track down Reacher and wind up in “The Killing Floor” town. I think she’s written 4 or 5 total.
Try Jeff Carson’s books. Take place in Summit County Colorado. I liked them.
Joanie K
Hi, I’m Joanie and I’m a Reacher Addict! I read whatever books I can find and so not in order. Doesn’t matter! They are all excellent reads! I think the TV Reacher, Alan Ritchson is perfect! In an interview he said he didn’t think he’d get the role because he’s only 6’3″!! Can’t wait for the next episodes!! More, please!!