20 January 2011

Die Trying (Jack Reacher #2)

Die Trying is the second book in Lee Child's Jack Reacher series - an ex-military police detective who wants to explore the US now that he has been discharged.

When Reacher is walking down a Chicago street around lunch time on a Monday, a woman coming out of a dry cleaner drops her cane - she is obviously recovering from an injury and is trying to balance her clothes, the cane and the door. He is helping her get situated when two men stick guns in their stomachs and force them into a car.

Now Reacher is in the back of a truck heading who-knows-where with Holly Johnson. She is an FBI agent working financial crimes. Though she has helped to bring down some major players in her short career, there may be another reason she has been kidnapped.

Holly's coworkers do not know she is missing until 5pm that afternoon when she fails to show up at a meeting. When the figure out that Monday is the day she picks up her dry cleaning, the tape shows them a large man (Reacher) grabbing her cane and clothing and shoving her in the car with two accomplices and a driver - at least that is how the FBI sees the evidence.

Holly, and Reacher by mistake, have been kidnapped and are handcuffed together in the back of a truck being driven away from Chicago. So far from the scene of the crime, they will have to rely on each other to get out of a potentially fatal situation.

Child's Jack Reacher is a likable, capable character who can take care of himself. He has the training and physique to get out of almost any bind and readers will love seeing the trouble he gets himself into (and hopefully out of).

Child, Lee. (1998). Die Trying. New York: Jove Books.

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