As mentioned on the first book "Killing floor" review, i was almost halfway into "Die tying", the second one in the Jack reacher series by Lee Child. It had such a curious premise that, even while reading was able to visualise scene by scene how the story was progressing. It was probably the influence of watching movies made at that time this book was written or possibly the book got inspired by the movies, either way, this is one racy thriller that streams across genres and plots like a forest river.
The initial setup resembles that of Rambo - first blood, a lot to say the least. A stranger thrown into a situation and is at his wits end to not just save himself but also the mysterious lady who is kidnapped along with him. In fact, she being the target and him being caught in the cross fire makes it all the more cinematic. For almost a good 60% of the book, the captives get transported in a wagon, while the law agencies break their head over the kidnapping with the lady being not just the daughter of the army chief but also the god daughter of the US president. By the time the travel ends, Jack has already killed and buried one of the kidnappers and before he could do more harm, the story takes a turn into Rambo - part 3 territory, where it gets the setup for an all out war. Instead of the friendly general who supports Rambo as the captive, it is both Reacher and the lady who have to escape a megalomaniac of a guy, hell bent on carving an independent nation of a town out of America. He is armed to the teeth with missiles and weapons and conveniently has moles across every law agency trying to nab him, including one in the special team meant to rescue the lady. How Reacher manages to save not just the lady, but also himself and a part of America as well in the process, from becoming an independent entity forms the crux of the remaining portion of the story.
I didn't like the finishing sections where the story takes a turn towards Rambo 3 for i felt, even though it just dealt with 2 people tied up on a moving vehicle, that portion had lot of potential and it kept the readers interested. This kind of a setup i've rarely come across in any novels i had read before and only on movies. Even though i didn't enjoy it out and out, it was enough to hook me on to "Trip Wire" the third of the Reacher series, which is nearly done. Hope to catch up with a post on that review soon.
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