61 Hours by Lee Child (Reviewed by Brian)

Reacher, the ex-military police vagabond, faces another mission in Bolton in South Dakota.

It's winter. Reacher gets stuck in the 'small' village with the largest prison in the U.S.A., Bolton, due to the wreckage of the bus that he has been on. As he stays a night in the house of the police officer, Andrew Petersons, he discovers that an important witness, Janet Salter, is being threaten by a mob of bike gangs and agrees to aid local police, led by Cheif Holland, to help protect the witness.

61 Hours is the fourteenth book in the 'Jack Reacher' series. As always, our half-French, half-American action hero fights through a challenging and unfair environment, thinks ahead of the enemy, and solves the problem. The story is well-presented, entertaining, and intense - all you can ask for in/from a thriller. It is totally engrossing, like the other books from the series.

However, unlike previous novels, the ending is unusual because Reacher does not achieve all of his goals. Also, in the last chapter, both Reacher and his enemy suddenly disappear, and it just says "To be continued", which, as far as I know, has never happened before in the series. Where is Reacher? Why hasn't Mr Child given us a conclusion? This ending was a bit frustrating, because I have to wait until the next book, 'Worth Dying For', comes out at the end of the year, to find out what happened.

Apart from the random ending, there are two things I found boring about the style of writing. First, though I have said it is 'well-presented, entertaining, and intense', it is also predictable. If you have read Lee Child's books, you know who the bad guy is and how the story will progress. It will be another repetitive story of the smart hobo helping civillians. Secondly, conversations in the book are too repetitive. It is like 20 major and minor characters share the same personality with slight intellectual differences. A certain situation or conversation just repeats in different scenes. For instance, when Reacher says something smart, Anderson will say "Ok." and when Anderson tells Reacher about the bike gangs, Reacher ends the conversation with "Ok.". After Reacher teaches Janet Salter how to shot, she ends the tuition by saying "Ok.".

To sum up, 61 Hours is entertaining and has everything that you can ask for in a thriller; 'well-presented, entertaining, and intense'. However, the random ending and its typical "Jack Reacher" progression and conversation can kill the fun for those who have read any previous novels. I would rate it 7/10 and strongly encourage those who haven't been through a Reacher adventure before to grab the book immediately and experience his 61 hours.

By Brian