The Enemy

They year is just turned over from 1989 to 1990 and the military is changing.  The Berlin Wall is coming down, the Soviet Union is dissolving and Jack Reacher is almost 10 years younger than he was in the first book in the series, The Killing Floor.

After being transferred from Panama to Ford Bird in North Carolina Reacher is not enjoying a quiet New Year’s Eve when the call comes in that a two-star general has been found dead in a pay-by-the-hour motel.  No foul play is suspected except that this general is 100 miles away from where he’s supposed to be.

And so begins my least favorite Jack Reacher novel.  In case you didn’t already know, I ♥ Jack Reacher.  He is better than Arnold Schwartzenegger, Sylvester Stallone and Bruce Willis all rolled into one.

But this book, for me, sucked.

I think it was because of two things.  For one, it was waaaaaay more military fueled than any of the other novels so far.  By the time the series begins, it’s almost 10 years after this prequel & Reacher has mustered out of the Army months before.  Here, it is all about the military.  And I’ll concede that yes, this was a very tenuous time for the military.  With the end of the Cold War meant that the way the military did things was going to have to change.  Apparently, not everyone in the military enjoys change.  Who knew?

The second reason I didn’t like this book so much?  I figured out the whole thing 2 pages after the second body dropped.  Seriously.  Everything.  The book no longer held any suspense or surprise for me and I was kind of disappointed that it took Reacher that long to figure it out.

I did like how we got to see his brother in action a little and find out more about his mother.  He never really had much reason to talk about her in the novels before.  Still, I hope this is the last flashback novel I’ll ever see from Lee Child.