Book review: Lee Child: Past Tense – A Jack Reacher novel

I confess to having been a fan of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher character for years and look forward to the next installment of his adventurous life.

You know that Reacher does not go looking for trouble – trouble comes looking for him. Reacher’s meanderings around America with only his passport and a toothbrush in his pocket, lead him to backwoods places you have to look hard to find on a map.

In this latest episode, Reacher plans to follow the autumn sun on an epic road trip across America, from Maine to California. He doesn’t get far.

On a country road deep in the New England woods, he sees a sign to a place he has never been – the town where his father was born. He thinks, what’s one extra day? He takes the detour, and so the adventure begins. It’s a great read, as all Child’s books are, and you have to slow down to avoid finishing the book too quickly.

In an interview with the BBC, Child admitted that he sat down to write a new Reacher novel on February 1 each year, without having a clear plot mapped out.

That sort of developed as he went along, he said.

Asked how he had invented Reacher, the author said he had always been fascinated by the Biblical story of David and Goliath – and he felt the big, strong Goliath had received bad press.

So, he wanted to take Goliath’s side and had created a character in his image – a big, tough guy with muscle and brain.

Those who have enjoyed the two Reacher films but have wondered how diminutive pretty boy Tom Cruise landed the role, Child disclosed that Cruise would not take the lead in the next movie. He didn’t name the successor, but I hope he will be rougher and tougher.

Penguin Books: R290