No Middle Name: Reacher: Stories (Jack Reacher Book 21)

I'd been meaning to read something in the Jack Reacher world for a while now, encouraged by various reader friends who can't get enough of him. When this book came on sale, it seemed like the perfect chance to dip into the Reacher mythos and see what I thought about it. So, my friends were right: it's totally addictive. I've been told the novels are better than the short stories, which I can believe, but the stories are riveting enough. Reacher's a macho kind of an action/thriller guy, but somehow Child makes him seem believable and sympathetic enough to follow along. However, it's not so much Reacher himself who's interesting as the plotting and pacing. The stories are masterfully done in that respect, setting up mysteries or other suspenseful scenarios, heightening the suspense with some vivid action sequences--the hand-to-hand combat sequences are all gripping and highly detailed--and then solving the problem with an interesting twist. The descriptions are also excellent, as is the norm for high-level mystery/suspense books, which thrive on well-chosen details. Child, like Robert B. Parker or Sue Grafton, has an eye for telling detail that sets the scene. In something like this, the stories can get a bit formulaic or repetitive. It's not too much of a problem here, although I wouldn't recommend reading every single story in one sitting. Some people, though, may not be able to stop themselves.

When I'm not reading books germane to my profession as a minister and religion journalist, I like to read mysteries and thrillers. At the top of my list of must-read authors is Lee Child, who has written twenty-one novels featuring Jack Reacher, as well as the twelve short stories contained in No Middle Name: The Complete Collected Jack Reacher Short Stories, just released by Delacorte Press on May 16. The book contains one new story, "Too Much Time," and eleven previously published stories, the oldest, "James Penney's New Identity," having been written in 1999. With the exception of "Too Much Time," the stories start with Reacher as a youth and end in the present day. They are of uneven quality, in my opinion. "Too Much Time" is Lee Child at his best, as Reacher is arrested for a crime we all know he didn't commit. "Maybe They Have a Tradition" and "No Room at the Motel," both Christmas-time stories involving pregnancies, are, well, just okay. The number one rule of fiction is the willing suspension of disbelief, which is especially important when reading Reacher stories of any kind. Reacher is a decorated, West Point educated, ex-military police officer who now travels the United States (and world) with little more than some cash, his passport, and a foldable toothbrush in his pocket. Along the way, he gets himself into scrapes with miscreants, whose crimes he detects and whose just sentence he metes out, often violently, even lethally. In other words, he's a homeless sociopath whose rough justice happens to be directed at targets who had it coming. What keeps you from thinking about Reacher's shortcomings too long, in addition to the fact that the targets of his beatdowns are deplorable, is Lee Child's prose, which I can only describe as kinetic. Child has a way of pulling you along word after word, sentence after sentence, page after page. He makes you want to know what will happen next because you're right there with Reacher, who's wondering that too. If you haven't read any Jack Reacher stories, I wouldn't start with No Middle Name, which I generally liked. Start at the beginning with The Killing Floor. The novels will make you a fan. No Middle Name is for the already convinced.

It is Lee Child, a later effort pushing 490 pages but a pleasure to read

Lee Child can weave an interesting tale about Jack Reacher but may drive readers who are familiar with proper sentence structure and use of punctuation to the brink. I know that’s the case for me. I purchased the entire Jack Reacher series of books after seeing the first season of the series. I never would have read so many of his books if I hadn’t already paid for them. I have often wondered why, with all the money that Lee Child must have brought in from his writing, he can’t seem to afford a staff who will proofread and correct the many mistakes throughout his books. Same goes for his publisher. I held onto hope with each successive book that he might learn something about writing and make his books easier to read. I hoped, with the addition of his brother on the last couple, that the books would improve but seemed to get only worse. Sometimes, 2 whole pages of back-and-forth banter are written with nothing to occasionally let you know who is speaking, so multiple readings may be needed at times to sort it out. I think almost all, if not all, of the pages have sentences with commas where none are needed, periods where commas are needed, clauses used as sentences, and a new paragraph starting from a clause that belongs in the previous sentence of the preceding paragraph. As I said, hard to read if you understand basic sentence structure. There are often times where I wish Lee had done one iota of research to get facts right. I refer to passages in the stories where it was apparent that Lee Child had no experience or knowledge; I guess, more or less, the writing is off the top of his head. Some problems are: 1: He thinks the flashing emergency lights of vehicles in the western states are the same as in much of the New England states (blue on fire trucks and red on police). 2: He didn’t know what the average shoe size in America is actually 10 ½ (stating it as 9) 3: He thinks a large man like Jack Reacher would have what Lee evidently thinks of as a large foot size of 11, instead of something closer to 14 or 15 (I am 6’1” and wear a 13.) I assume Lee has a small foot. 4: Lee has never been near a fast-moving train, thinking there is violent ground movement when the train is even over a mile away and hurricane force winds near one traveling 60 mph. 5: He seems to think that all gas stations and quick marts sell khaki pants and various shirts, packs of socks, and underwear. 6: Jack Reacher can knock anyone unconscious and very often dead with one punch. I can remember only a couple times when it took two. 7: He thinks face bones will “shatter” from a Jack Reacher punch and can knock out a gorilla or even an elephant. Jack also never has injuries to his hand or elbow from such amazing blows. 8: Jack Reacher’s hands are said to be as large as a dinner plate and his fists as large as Thanksgiving turkeys…really? Yes, his books are hard to read for these and other reasons caused by lack of oversight by his publisher and lack of staff. Please, I hope never to find out he has a staff that lets this stuff through. Good storyteller, other than the lack of research on details and no idea as to sentence/paragraph structure.. Rating would be five for the story.

As someone who has been a fan of the Jack Reacher series for quite a few years I am always seeking more to read on this unusual retired Army police officer who travels around the country and always seems to find unusual people and incidents to investigate. I love short stories and when I saw this book (No Middle Name: The Complete collected Jack Reacher Short Stories by Lee Child) on Amazon for a bargain price I immediately sent for it. I recently received the book and found this Jack Reacher collection to be absolutely fantastic. I always try and make it a habit to begin a book from the first page and move on to the end of the book, unlike some people to jump around the chapters etc. This book begins with novella, “Too much time” which turned out to be an interesting story where a crooked cop attempted to frame Jack, but of course he is way too smart for that to happen. I moved on to read the rest of the wonderful short stories (Second son, high heat, deep down, small wars, James Penney’s new identity, everyone talks, not a drill, maybe they have a tradition, guy walks into a bar, no room at the motel and the picture of the lonely diner. Even though I love a good action novel, but there are times I also like reading short story collections rather than full size novels, and I especially loved this Jack Reacher collection. If you are a fan of Jack Reacher you should check out this fantastic short story collection. Rating: 5 Stars. Joseph J. Truncale (Author: Tactical Principles of the most effective Combative Systems).

I have read several Reacher novels, and they are pretty good. I wondered how his short stories sounded. Not as good as a novel because it became repetitive of this super person repeating himself over and over, just under different scenarios.

Great Reacher stories, as expected.

Reliable as can be. I don't think there is a more reliable, dependable character in all of fiction than Jack reacher. He's always true especially to himself. He rarely drinks anything except coffee. He's always polite around women. He doesn't often start a fight but when a fight is about to happen he leads, you can depend on that. A long ago important and instinctive character trait. Probably the number one reason it's never lost a fight. I found all of the short stories to be exceptionally enjoyable and had the remarkable distinctive reacheresq traits of his incredibly instinctive mind. He can look at a situation and Intuit exactly how it came about, and what's about to happen. Got to love it.

Racconti brevi che colgono totalmente lo stile di scrittura di Child ance in poche righe

Jack Reacher, Lee Child, what more do you need to know!? If you’ve read Jack No Middle Name Reacher stories before, you don’t need to be told how good these stories are. These are NO exception. If you HAVEN’T read one yet, where have you been? What have you been reading? Why are you even reading this review? Get into them, get started and once you do you’ll be as completely hooked, entertained, satisfied and delighted as the millions who already have had this experience. Go on, what are doing...? Go... now!

良かった

Die Kurzgeschichten geben Hintergründe und Einblicke in Reachers familiäre Hintergründe und seinen Werdegang.

Great book