Its been a while since i finished reading the book but had been away from blogsphere for quite a while. Hence the delay. The previous book Echo burning was a literal disappointment and hence no review for that book. Without fail was slightly more engaging when compared to the previous one.
It starts as a typical Reacher novel, now i can use this phrase i guess after 6 books into the series, with Reacher being outsourced with the task of analysing the security cover for the next potential VP of USA. His job is to figure out gaps in the setup provided by the secret service. When he digs further he realizes that there are credible threat to the VP's life per the several threat mails that appear one after another, right at the desk of the head of security. What follows next is an investigative analysis, that is as tedious as it comes, with Reacher making several lucky guesses and hitting jackpot each time. The final reveal about the perps was a terrible let down when compared to the effort it took to identify them. It was a needle in haystack scenario with Reacher and co successfully finding the right needle from the right haystack. The other novel element being, Reacher's brother having a spiritual presence almost throughout the first half of the book with physical support provided by his girlfriend, who falls for Reacher and gets killed, providing the revenge angle for additional motivation. For a book running into almost 400 plus pages and killers getting revealed almost towards the final 50 pages, the book is quite a tedious read and is somewhat salvaged by the way they approach security covers and the detailing around the same.
Persuader is up next and has an interesting start which would rival 90's under cover movies. Curious to see where it leads from here!!
Comments
You have gone down the black hole of Reacher novels, like I have done.Every single book can be covered with the review - "It's not like the initial ones. Somewhat disappointing. Bring back the original Reacher. I may stop reading this series if it goes like this".
And of course, you will pick up the next one come what may. There are 20+ and counting in the series and you will read every one of them !!
Thank you for your kind words. Ungalala thaan kadai oding still.