Reviewed by David J. Montgomery
Having written seventeen books in the Jack Reacher series, most of them big best-sellers, Lee Child is the very definition of an old pro; a master of keen suspense, tricky plots, and beautifully choreographed violence. Unlike a lot of writers in his position, though, he never phones it is. His latest Reacher thriller, A Wanted Man, is as deftly plotted and polished as his first or his tenth.
The events of A Wanted Man pick up right after the conclusion of a previous book in the series, The Affair. Reacher is hitch-hiking across Nebraska, trying to get to Virginia to meet a woman. He gets picked up by a car that turns out to have some very bad dudes in it. Once he figured this out, he needs to do something about it. But solving the problem without putting innocent lives in danger is going to be tricky.
At the same time, an FBI agent is investigating an especially bloody murder in a town in the middle of nowhere. The victim was a State Department official. Or maybe he was a CIA agent. Or maybe he was nobody at all. Regardless, Julia Sorenson is going to figure it out. (What do you suppose the chances are that this situation is somehow connected to the one that Reacher is in?)
A welcome change from some of the Reacher novels of a few years back is that Jack is no longer acting as much like Superman. Sure, he still figures it all out in the end, and kicks a lot of ass along the way. But he's no longer quite the lethal savant he was there for a while. It turns out a more human Reacher is a more interesting one. As a result, A Wanted Man is highly recommended to all thriller readers.