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Book Nook provides readers with insights into the world of books. Vick Mickunas takes you into the center of the publishing world with the latest book buzz, book reviews, and exclusive chats with authors..Home > Blogs > Book Nook > Archives > 2008 > June > 22 > Entry
when suspense and thrills are Child’s play
“Nothing to Lose,” by Lee Child, (Delacorte Press, 407 pages, $27)
Jack Reacher is a man with few attachments: he has no residence, no partner, no job. Lee Child’s fictional creation is a wanderer. He travels light, very light. “Back when he smoked he might have lit a cigarette to pass the time. But he didn’t smoke anymore. Smoking implied carrying at least a pack and a book of matches, and Reacher had long ago quit carrying things he didn’t need.”
“There was nothing in his pockets except paper money and an expired passport and an ATM card and a clip-together toothbrush. There was nothing waiting for him anywhere else, either. No storage unit in a distant city, nothing stashed with friends. He owned the things in his pockets and the clothes on his back and the shoes on his feet. That was all, and that was enough.”
“Nothing to Lose” is Child’s 12th book in this popular series. As the story begins Reacher is going from Maine to San Diego, hitching rides, seeing the countryside. A salesman drops him off in eastern Colorado near the towns of Hope and Despair. Reacher is curious. He checks out Hope. Then he heads over to Despair. He doesn’t receive a warm welcome there. They bust him for vagrancy.
He finds himself dumped at the border between the two towns. There he encounters Vaughan, a policewoman from Hope. There are some sparks that fly between Reacher and Vaughan. Some women find Reacher quite attractive. He’s a great big fellow without any apparent strings — just passing through.
A retired military police officer, Reacher can be a magnet for violence. His suspicions are aroused by this hostile reception and banishment feels irresistible. He decides to sniff around.
He finds that Despair is a company town. A Mr. Thurman owns everything there. He operates an immense metal recycling operation. He’s also the mayor and the preacher at the only church in town. The citizens seem to have a blind devotion to Thurman that verges on cult-like.
Reacher recruits Officer Vaughan to help him investigate. She tries to understand what motivates Reacher. He says “I have to be somewhere, doing something” and Reacher’s notion of “doing something” frequently involves mopping the floor with the luckless bad guys who get in his way.
He analyzes stressful situations with a mathematical precision. “He hated knives. He would have preferred it if the guy had pulled a pair of six-shooters. Guns can miss.” As this thug circles him, brandishing switchblades, Reacher calmly evaluates the threat. “Knives didn’t miss. If they touched you they cut you.”
“Nothing to Lose” leaves readers teetering on the brink of Despair with an apocalyptic climax that Reacher engineers with cool intellect and sheer force. Lee Child navigates a literary tightrope in thrilling fashion.
Fans of this series know that when the dust settles Reacher will vanish again just as quickly as he has appeared. We’ll wait eagerly for the next book, “Gone Tomorrow.”
Vick Mickunas
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