Pun Salad

Finally got around to reading the latest Reacher novel, Better Off Dead, not to be confused with the old John Cusack movie. Shocked at the beginning: Could this be the end of Reacher?

Small spoiler: no, it wasn't. Probably shouldn't have worried, they ain't going to kill off a predictable layer of golden eggs.

Already have the next one on order at Amazon.

Ahem. Sorry, I found myself writing Child-style there for a bit. It's been awhile since a Reacher book was first-person narrated, but that's the case here for all chapters except the first. And Reacher drops his "I"s a lot.

Most things are the same, though. Reacher continues his uncanny knack of happening on massive criminal conspiracies while simply wandering around on his aimless tour of America. Here he happens on an apparently unconscious woman in an apparently crashed Jeep. He goes to offer assistance, and… she pulls a gun on him. Hate it when that happens.

Pretty soon, we get a better idea of what's going on. The woman, Michaela Fenton, is looking to rescue her twin brother Michael, who's gotten himself involved in that massive criminal conspiracy mentioned above, involving a shadowy sadistic mastermind with the unlikely name of "Dendoncker". Her car crash was staged as part of her plan to find him. It doesn't go as planned. She's despondent, Reacher—of course—offers to assist.

And we're off on that crazy scheme described in Chapter One. That doesn't go as planned either. But it keeps the pages turning.