Review: Die Trying

Die Trying by Lee Child
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ahhhhhh...

WELCOME BACK, my dear Jack Reacher. Missed ya loads, love.

Anyway I've loved your recent adventures in civilian life. Let me tell everyone else about em too.

So.

The cover - Bullets cover every inch of the background, red dots the background, and yellow flashes throughout..close to looking like a traffic light but whatever. It's so fierce, mysterious and dangerous, it's got me all shivering and goosebumps up. SO yup, I loved it, hence the stars.

The summary - "A Chicago street in bright sunshine. Jack Reacher, strolling nowhere, meets an attractive young woman, limping, struggling with her crutches, alone. Naturally he stops to offer her a steadying arm and then they turn together—to face twin handguns held level and motionless and aimed straight at their stomachs.

Chained to the woman, locked in a dark, stifling van racing 2,000 miles across America, Reacher needs to know who he's dealing with. The kidnappers are saying nothing and his companion claims to be Holly Johnson, FBI agent. She's fierce enough and tough enough, but he knows there must be more to her than that. And at their remote, hostile destination, they will need to act as a team and trust each other, pitting raw courage and cunning against insane violence and seemingly hopeless odds, with their own lives and hundreds more at stake."

Definitely sounds more action-packed than mysterious, but eh it was the perfect blend, and I drank up every page of it. Hence the stars.

The characters - Jack Reacher is Jack Reacher. Our silent, thoughtful, and quick timed hero as ever, is back in the picture, ready to stroll through civilian streets once again, so there's not much change. Our heroine, Holly, is not what she seems, even more so than her FBI background, I'll give you that as a hint. The rest of them are necessary though and everyone has a part to play, so nothing is left out. Overall they're all intriguing in their own right, so it was hard not to get completely absorbed in the novel itself. Hence the stars.

The mystery - Fast paced mostly, and no the plot is not missing. We get tons of information about government workings, police procedures, double lives, what it is to start a whole new brave new world thing, etc...It's all intriguing and makes it doubly enjoyable. Not much to be disappointed over. Hence the stars.

The ending - Yes we all know Jack Reacher solves a lot of shit, but still knowing the reason why it all happened and what led to it being happened, all leave you wandering around and head spinning for hours. So it's definitely predictable but so worth it.

The only problem - I felt there was too much filler, like about the guns, the government, police, people, past experiences...this could have been shortened 40 pages definitely. I know this was all important but for someone who doesn't read a lot of political thrillers, this gets boring at one point. SO yeah my only problem was this.

The rest was great though, overall. A high recommend for sure.

Until the next read,

TMR

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