I’ve not read this Lee Child author before (real name, Jim Grant), but I do see a number of his books in the hands of my fellow Metro-North riders. His protagonist across several of his escapist novels is Jack Reacher–a Jack Ryan-esque fellow who knows a thing or two about counter-terrorism, and also can kick some serious ass.
Times book critic/Pleasantville resident Janet Maslin says Child’s latest, Gone Tomorrow, starts with Reacher thinking he’s sitting across from a suicide bomber lady on the New York subway.
I don’t typically go for the escapist stuff–my life of wake up-commute-work-commute-dinner-bed is exciting enough as it is. But this actually sounds kind of fun:
He is riding in a New York City subway car at 2 in the morning when he spots a woman who alarms him. The book’s lean, mean opening paragraph: “Suicide bombers are easy to spot. They give out all sorts of telltale signs. Maybe because they’re nervous. By definition they’re all first-timers.”
Reacher, being Reacher, knows Israeli counterintelligence’s 11-point list of telltale signs for spotting female terrorists. He also knows the exact specifications of the R142A Kawasaki-built New York City subway car, down to its automated announcement system, which gives orders in a man’s voice and information in a woman’s. Much of the guilty pleasure delivered by Mr. Child’s books comes from their fine-tuned, obsessively deductive use of data…
When the subway-riding woman, who is not a suicide bomber, winds up dead because of Reacher’s meddling, he attracts the interest of the Police Department. But something about the dead woman’s identity puts larger forces into play. Soon, by the improbably upward-spiraling logic that drives these books and would give readers pause if pausing were possible (it’s not), Reacher has become a target for secretive foreign agents, federal officials and certain persons from the Pentagon. One of this book’s high-powered, intricately wrought suspense sequences brings together three groups of Reacher catchers, Reacher and Reacher’s knowledge of the New York subway system.