Ridiculous Plots are Ruining Jack Reacher

I really like the Jack Reacher character that Lee Child has created but his plotlines are starting to become a bit inane and annoying.

In this novel Jack Reacher is once again in a small town, sticks his nose in other people’s business and finds himself neck deep in another battle against evil doers. As Reacher is ambling through an out of the way small Nebraska town he becomes involved in a dispute with the Duncan’s, a family that is involved in some kind of illegal trafficking that stems from them and on up to more organized and evil criminals.

The Duncan’s are an abusive group of men who not only dominate and run the town, but abuse its residents, holding them in subjugation with the threat of violence. As the novel progresses, Reacher starts to unravel the dastardly acts of these men when he seeks to find out what happened to a missing eight year old girl who disappeared decades ago.

After a great deal of violence and using tricks of the trade he used in the military, Reacher battles the Duncan’s to the bitter end.

While this novel is a rather fun read, as most Reacher novels are, it also stretches credulity and has as stale plotline. I mean really, how many small towns are there in American dominated by a corrupt and evil criminal oligarchy using extreme violence to suppress the town’s residents? This plot device is starting to get a little ridiculous.

And for the real kicker, the last Reacher novel, 61 Hours, seemed to have ended on a cliffhanger. Other than seeing that Reacher survived, we really never find out exactly how. That makes 61 Hours a rather tepid and unsatisfying work itself.

I hope Child comes up with a more clever storyline for Reacher in the future.

Archie Sheidan Chases another Weird Serial Killer

In The Night Season Chelsea Cain's continues her promising series of thrillers featuring detective Archie Sheridan and a fascinating cast of characters, with the free spirited reporter Susan Ward being at the epicenter of this adventure.

In this new novel, the Beauty Killer Gretchen Lowell is finally in the background, but she will never be out of the picture as Archie will be forever damaged and sickeningly drawn to this dastardly beautiful female serial killer. But it is time that we all get on with our lives without her.

The Night Season is set around a flooding Portland, Oregon with a weird serial killer on the loose. First, a woman's body is discovered on carousel in small amusement park that appears to be a drowning but the body has been moved. Closer inspection at the morgue reveals some odd things about the corpse. And suddenly, Archie is faced with another killer who has a very unusual way dispatching the victims. Add to that some weird clues and a missing boy, we are set up for another crime thriller. With the water level rising and a flooded city imminent, Archie has to find the killer before he or she strikes again, or escapes without punishment for their deeds.

This novel is has a very clever setting. Susan Ward has written about a skull found in a 1948 flood near Portland that she wants to solve the mystery of, while at the same time facing a present day flood and finding herself involved once again with Archie in the midst of a case. We are left wondering throughout the novel what, if anything, this old skull might have to do with the present case. And we have a very unique killer on the loose with a strange modus operandi and an unknown motive to the very end.

Despite this clever setting and very interesting characters, this novel did not live up the previous three installments. The novel does keep the reader's interest but it simply is not the spellbinding page turner as those featuring Gretchen Lowell more prominently. It seems the characters personalities are stuck in place without much development and plot is interesting but a bit plodding.

While I think this series needs to put Gretchen in the background, it needs to do more to bring the rest of characters to the forefront in a way that advances their stories instead of rehashing the past. While overall I would recommend this novel to fans of the previous installments, I hope to see better in the future.