Book - 61 Hours

61 Hours (Jack Reacher 14) cover

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61 Hours (Jack Reacher 14)

by Lee Child

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Synopsis: South Dakota is shivering under an icy winter, and the roads are particularly treacherous. As a snow storm gathers force, the tyres of a bus skid and there is a crash, stranding the bus and its passengers. And if you think that this atmospheric set-up sounds like the perfect introduction to a Jack Reacher novel, how right you are: Lee Child’s granite-tough hero has hitched a ride in the back of the bus, and finds himself (like the other passengers – a particularly ill assorted group) facing the problems of surviving in sub-arctic weather. Needless to say, Jack is able to draw on more resources in such a situation than many of his fellow passengers. Some 20 miles away from the crash is a small town, where a key witness is being guarded against sinister individuals bent on murder. And another elements in this combustible mix includes an omniscient figure who is to have a crucial role in the dramatic events that follow – even though this figure is many miles from the frigid landscape that Jack Reacher is marooned in.

Pretty good, but not really a typical Reacher book with other strong characters that you have empathy. You knew the sheriff was a baddy. You knew the old woman was going to die. You never really cared about the Mexican drug lord either. You never have reacher meet the MP. Ah well, perhaps the sequel will clear things up a bit.