Blue Moon

Reviews

It is tremendously comforting to be in the hands of Child and his hero - a good man who we know will save the day in the end before moving on, toothbrush in pocket, "just the clothes on his back. No particular place to go, and all the time in the world to get there." Lee Child is the absolute master of the story of a lone stranger arriving in town to save the innocent, and this is one of the best of his series...as always, the violence is ferocious and fast-moving. Anyone feeling hard done by or facing insuperable odds will be comforted by this novel, which is also the best advertisement for the NHS I have ever seen. Forget Marvel - we all know Jack Reacher is the only avenger that matters...Child has found his mojo again. There's only one Jack Reacher. Accept no substitutes. Jack Reacher, the 21st-century knight errant who over 23 books has proved himself the most reliable excellent basher of bad guys since [James]Bond...And good work, Lee Child. If you're at all partial to his revenge fantasies, this is one of the best for a while...your hands keep turning those pages, drawn in by storytelling that knows fancy words count for less than clarity and rhythm...It's nonsense. Yet it's compelling nonsense, a vicarious clearing away of life's obstacles via a hero who has no moral qualms, no physical or emotional vulnerability and no interest in what shampoo he uses. There is a mythic heft to all this...Resolution will come, and Reacher will ride out of town once more, taking absolutely nothing with him. The body count, 24 books in, is into the hundreds...a fundamental part of the stories' appeal to women[is] their understated feminism. Reacher respects and likes women...In some ways, Blue Moon might be read...as female revenge drama...But do women fancy Jack Reacher?....the real point is that women want to be him. That's the fantasy: to abandon all responsibilities. To be physically invincible. To be justifiably fearless. An über-thriller in which things turn out just right...it provides a satisfying climax and leaves you breathless, glad to be alive in a wicked world. Drifter hero Jack Reacher on trigger-happy form in an action adventure which ramps up the violence and body count. Reacher is nigh-invincible here (and certainly smarter than his thuggish opponents), and the body count is even more prodigious than in earlier books, which is saying something. Still, it is dispatched with the author’s customary panache. Expand reviews