Books & Literature

Book Review: The Midnight Line, by Lee Child

The 22nd Jack Reacher novel finds the title character searching for the owner of an inscribed West Point ring that he finds in a pawn shop during a routine stop.

It’s been 12 months since the last Jack Reacher novel – the retrospective Night School – and two years since we left Jack Reacher after the events of Make Me. As usual, Reacher is on the move and moving on.

During a routine stop on a Greyhound Bus route, Reacher discovers an item of little financial value but immense personal significance in a Pawn Shop in the middle of nowhere. So begins a hunt to find the owner. The item is a small ring with the inscription West Point 2005 and Reacher knows two things: these personal items don’t come easy and aren’t let go without a very good reason.

The methods employed by Reacher in finding out what he needs to know aren’t the hard and fast ones of the earlier novels, showing us that – like all of us – time has taken the edge off and sometimes you need to work smarter, not always with flying fists and sweeping legs.

Reacher’s search and journey takes him deep into a covert world of legal drugs, illegally distributed and finds him teamed with a diminutive detective of Asian descent and former FBI man, turned private investigator – all seeking differing answers about the same truth.

Lee Child’s new Jack Reacher novel is without the fast-paced and rapid fire physical scenes of other novels but, rather, demonstrates a personal conviction to a fellow West Point graduate and a maturity of purpose that reflects the impact of events in Make Me on the title character (as well as the subsequent personal loss).

It will be interesting to see where Reacher goes – and, indeed, where Child takes him – from here and if we continue to see a mature approach, or a return to fists and fury.

The Midnight Line is Lee Child’s 22nd Jack Reacher novel and his 23rd release, including the recent No Middle Name, a collection of Jack Reacher short stories.

Reviewed by Glen Christie

Distributed by: Penguin Australia
Released: November 2017
RRP: $49.99 hardback, $32.99 trade paperback, $16.99 eBook

Rating out of 10:  8

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