Never Go Back by Lee Child

Back in 2012, a movie called Jack Reacher came to theaters without a lot of hoopla. A few years later, star Tom Cruise teamed up again with its director Christopher McQuarrie for the fifth entry in the Mission: Impossible franchise, and it was based on my enjoyment of Rogue Nation that I went back and watched Reacher. I didn't have high expectations because on the surface it looked like a rote thriller, but I was pleasantly surprised by the main character, the tight plotting, and the action set pieces that had been praised by critics. Jack Reacher was based on Lee Child's book One Shot. This month, the movie's sequel Jack Reacher: Never Go Back is coming out so I decided to read the book that it's based on.

According to Wikipedia, this novel concludes a storyline that Child began with 2010's 61 Hours and continued in Worth Dying For and A Wanted Man, however Never Go Back stands alone and doesn't require knowledge of the preceding books. Former Military detective Jack Reacher has traveled to Northeastern Virginia to the base of the 110th MP, where he used to be the Commanding Officer. His goal is to meet the current CO Susan Turner because he liked the sound of her voice on the phone. Yes, that's his sole motivation at the start of the story, but somehow it makes sense character-wise. He finds that Turner has been imprisoned and replaced, and in two affidavits, Reacher himself is accused of a 16-year-old homicide and of having fathered a 14-year-old girl. In essence, the past is coming back to haunt a man who has always tried to move forward.

Reacher finds a way to break out of the jail cells with Turner, and the two cleverly escape the base and the District of Columbia together. They make their way from Virginia to West Virginia to Pittsburgh, stopping at diners and hotels on the way. Something that struck me as odd about Lee Child's writing is that he specifically describes the roads that his characters travel turn-by-turn, clearly showing he did research about the cities depicted, but we shouldn't need to visualize a map to understand the plot. Also, when Reacher and Turner enter West Virginia, that state's residents are personifications of stereotypes. And the method by which they acquire money and a vehicle for their travels is a convenience that borders on ridiculous. They just happen to come across a burning meth lab with its "cook" already dead and his cash and keys easy to find.

That being said, I found this book a compulsive read. Every chapter ends with a plot twist and both main characters remain likable and intelligent in their handling of difficult decision-making. Turner is never a damsel in distress and displays just as much competence and gusto as Reacher. To get back to the plot, they choose to fly from Pittsburgh Airport to Long Beach, California. (In that chapter, there's a comment speculating that perhaps there are so many flights between the two cities because of films increasingly being shot in Pittsburgh; I think this is a reference to the location shooting for the first Jack Reacher movie.) LA is their goal location because Reacher's alleged daughter is said to be living on the streets there. Along the journey they piece together who has framed them for the respective crimes, and fight off some relentless pursuers  I can't help wondering how effectively the movie sequel will depict the nation-trotting aspect of the story since apparently it was entirely filmed in New Orleans.

This isn't the kind of book that I would usually seek out, but I enjoyed it enough that I look forward
to seeing the movie adaptation and perhaps read a few more in the series. Since Lee Child has written more than 20 Jack Reacher novels as well as several short stories, the film series could potentially go on for decades. And since some of those stories are prequels, the studio could easily cast a younger actor when Tom Cruise is done. Maybe even someone who is tall and burly like Reacher is described in the books, who knows.

To find out more about Lee Child and the Jack Reacher books, check out leechild.com.