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Better Off Dead review - MAJOR SPOILERS!
Nov. 18th, 2021 09:13 amThis is the second Jack Reacher book that was written by Lee Child in collaboration with his brother, Andrew.
And it was okay.
It starts with an anonymous stranger (who is obviously Reacher) having a fight with some bad guys and then apparently being killed. But you know he's not dead. And the lack of context for the fight means that it holds no significance, because you don't know why he's fighting the bad guys. And then the whole fight is described again later in the book, once you know what's going on. So, not a great start.
But - after that, it develops into a gloriously ridiculous Reacher adventure, whereby he comes across a woman on a random country road, and then inveigles himself in her troubles, which involve some very bad guys doing something very bad in a nearby small town.
There are two main differences between this book and previous instalments in the Reacher series, though - which may indicate some different preferences from Andrew Child. Whilst Reacher teams up with the woman to fight the bad guys (very standard), he doesn't sleep with her!! I don't mind about this either way, but the other difference was troubling. I don't remember Reacher really killing all that many people in the previous books (perhaps I'm misremembering, but I thought he generally went out of his way to avoid it) - but the body count in this book if very high, both with random goons being shot without a thought, and also more prevalent bad guys being targeted specifically.
Ah well, the book was reasonably entertaining overall, so I'll continue with the series for the time being. But it definitely wasn't a top entry, so I'll be interested to see what happens once Andrew is left to his own devices with the books.
And it was okay.
It starts with an anonymous stranger (who is obviously Reacher) having a fight with some bad guys and then apparently being killed. But you know he's not dead. And the lack of context for the fight means that it holds no significance, because you don't know why he's fighting the bad guys. And then the whole fight is described again later in the book, once you know what's going on. So, not a great start.
But - after that, it develops into a gloriously ridiculous Reacher adventure, whereby he comes across a woman on a random country road, and then inveigles himself in her troubles, which involve some very bad guys doing something very bad in a nearby small town.
There are two main differences between this book and previous instalments in the Reacher series, though - which may indicate some different preferences from Andrew Child. Whilst Reacher teams up with the woman to fight the bad guys (very standard), he doesn't sleep with her!! I don't mind about this either way, but the other difference was troubling. I don't remember Reacher really killing all that many people in the previous books (perhaps I'm misremembering, but I thought he generally went out of his way to avoid it) - but the body count in this book if very high, both with random goons being shot without a thought, and also more prevalent bad guys being targeted specifically.
Ah well, the book was reasonably entertaining overall, so I'll continue with the series for the time being. But it definitely wasn't a top entry, so I'll be interested to see what happens once Andrew is left to his own devices with the books.
