Reader Reviews for Echo Burning (Jack Reacher):
|
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Jack Reacher, Modern Day Lone Ranger
Comment: In our hearts, if we're guys, we want to be Jack Reacher. Heck, I bet even a lotta gals wouldn't mind being him. Here's a guy from nowhere, going everywhere, or is he from everywhere going nowhere. Whatever, he always seems to wind up somewhere where there is a damsel in distress, wrongs to right and plenty bad guys between him and truth, justice and the American way. Reacher, travels with only a tooth brush and sometimes not even that. He buys cheap clothes, wears them for a few days, tosses and replaces them. He has no roots, no possessions except his own sense of right and wrong. Laws? They're for other people.
ECHO BURNING opens with Reacher climbing out of the back window of a sleazy motel as the cops drive by the front. Seems he broke the nose of one of them the night before. But it's small town West Texas, hotter than a branding iron outside, and the next town is miles down the road. Reacher sticks his thumb out with visions of spending the next ten years in a Texas slammer when a pretty young woman picks him up.
What are the odds someone like that would pick up someone like him? There had to be a reason, Reacher muses. And before long she gives it to him. Her husband is in jail, gets out any day now and he's a wife beater. He beat her before he went in and she's afraid he'll take up right where he left off. She wants Reacher to kill him. Reacher says no, but agrees to kind of guard her. She brings Reacher home as a hired hand to help take care of the horses.
Big bad guys who work for the ex want Reacher to take off. The husband's brother wants Reacher to split too. The sheriff doesn't like him and it's beginning to look like the woman might have made up the wife beating bit, but Reacher senses something isn't right and that's trouble for whoever gets in his way.
Okay, I know the Reacher character is a little improbable, but I sure like him. I like the way he breezes into the picture, then fades out, a quiet Lone Ranger, only to show up in the next story, righting wrongs, making the unjust just. I like him a lot. I also like the clean and crisp writing style of Lee Child, like it lot.
Customer Rating:
Summary: JACK REACHER NOVEL
Comment: AS USUAL,, THE BOOK WAS LIKE ALL THE JACK REACHER NOVELS FULL OF ACTION AND EXCITEMENT.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: SMELLY JACK - Least Favorite Jack Reacher book so far!
Comment: It's amazing that the author goes out of his way to make it plain that all Jack Reacher carries with him is a toothbrush in his pocket. He has no change of clothes (including underwear or t-shirts). So, with no change of clothing, an incredibly high Texas temperature (noted excessivly by the author), and no deoderant, this must be one EXTREMELY SMELLY, GREASY, DIRTY, DISGUSTING man. Funny how the author doesn't have any character mention this... funny how this avoids being part of the story at all! Also, that two reasonable adults don't agree that Carmen (a) facing her parents (who are rich and have means and raiser her "like a princess"), or (b) simply staying in Texas (because she can't, she just can't bring herself to do that!), or (c) running with her daughter and seeking battered shelter (because she WON'T be a fugutive, she WON'T give up her "legal" status!), are better options than (d) conspiring to commit murder! THAT IS UTTERLY RIICULOUS! Either she's playing Reacher and PLEASE LORD tell me why this character goes from being HIGHLY intelligent to being HIGHLY S-T-U-P-I-D on so regular a basis... or... this is all true and so poorly plotted as to being "throw that darn book against the wall" stupid!!! URRRGGHHHHH!!!! I can't believe I paid cash for this book... I've been cheated.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Feel the Texas heat, but a little contrived
Comment: Once you get into a Jack Reacher book, it is very hard to put down. Lee Child is a master of suspense. The book is set entirely in Texas, and Child vividly makes you feel the heat and feel as though you are part of the vast expanse.
I do wish though that Child could master something else. Without spoiling the story, the plot resolves with a seemingly minor incident that Reacher learns about accidentally becoming the major part of the story. I remember this clearly in the first Reacher novel as well. I'm hoping that Child doesn't continue to use this device throughout the series.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Child's Weakest...
Comment: This was my least favorite Reacher book by a mile...I am shocked it has an average of 4 stars. It is the only one I have only read once and will remain as such.
|
|
