Gone Tomorrow - Lee Child (audio)

I wasn't blogging last summer when I went on my Lee Child binge. I discovered this series, featuring ex-military policeman and overall badass Jack Reacher, and read them all, number one through number twelve. Now just for a little background on Mr. Reacher, a character who is larger than life. He's a big man...250 pounds of muscle mass. He doesn't have a home per se, he just travels around with some cash and a toothbrush in his back pocket, and lends his services to the downtrodden. Generally, his adversaries are involved, within a stone's throw, of something military. He likes his women (there are always one or two hotties in each story) and they like him, although he tends to be a bit of a commitment-phobe. And in a tussle, even if it is 1 against 10, you can bet on Reacher coming out on top. This is what Stephen King refers to as "man fiction". Which is a genre I happen to love, whatever that means.

The 13th book in the series starts out with Reacher on a subway in NYC at 2am. He is analyzing a woman across from him whose behavior indicators scream "suicide bomber". Before he can talk her down, she shoots herself. Anyone can see that there is a story here, and this is really all Reacher needs to get involved. He is soon involved up to his elbows, as usual. This round, he is face-to-face with tangled mess that involves a military hero running for the Senate, a hot female NY police officer, a dead Pentagon Human Resource clerk, an exotic and mysterious Ukrainian woman, some scary, hard-core terrorists, and even scarier FBI agents. It's one of those situations where you have a hard time separating the bad guys from the good guys.

I will take a Jack Reacher novel any day. It satisfies my need for some old-fashioned good over evil, a high body count, butt-kicking, head-bashing, clever clue-solving, steamy love-making, mystery thriller. A girl needs this now and again. I found this particular plot to be somewhat more complicated than the average book in this series...something about Russians and Afghanistan and stolen weapons. Never did completely figure it out. No matter, the ride is thrilling and good for the circulation.

Any of the Jack Reacher audios are an amazing treat, due to three-time Audie winner and narrator Dick Hill. He IS the voice of Jack Reacher, with his impeccable timing, deadpan delivery and mastery of accents. And did you know that most, if not all, of these books are going to be translated into film in the near future? Can we all say "heart palpitation"?