Reacher: Exit Strategy by Lee Child & Andrew Child

Review of Jack Reacher: Exit Strategy (Book 30). Lee & Andrew Child deliver a high-octane thriller as Reacher uncovers an international war-for-profit conspiracy in Baltimore.

I’ve finally joined the ‘Jack Reacher’ books bandwagon! Technically, I joined the Reacher Fan Club after watching the series on Amazon Prime. I’ve also watched the two Tom Cruise starrers—Jack Reacher (2012) and Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016). But I got hooked to Jack Reacher, created by Lee Child, after the OTT series. And this is probably the first time in my life that I’ve watched a series before I read the book.

Normally, books and series are mismatched, and one of the two definitely lacks intensity or deviates from the plot. But in this case, the authors and scriptwriters have stuck it out together. The Jack Reacher I met in Exit Strategy was definitely the Reacher that’s running on Amazon Prime. This book may not have been adapted yet, but the essence of the character remains the same.

Exit Strategy is the 30th novel in the series, and I liked it for the reasons that I like thrillers. It’s fast-paced, Reacher remains his imposing, stoic, superhero self—out to help the underdog, butting in for justice, and ruthless with people intent on harming society. Added to this is the avoidance of law enforcement, an international angle, and the shadow of real-world conflicts that America has been involved in—Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam. It gives the plot a broader canvas.

Other catchy angles are the villains—full of greed, hungry for power, psychologically twisted, and up against a protagonist who smells them out like a pack of hungry wolves. The sidekick is an expert in current tech tools, as Reacher is old-world, not biologically old though, more of an analogue person.

With Reacher, even the mundane turns exciting, thanks to his good heart. His observation skills, the knack of tuning into the gut without calling it intuition—just a sensation in his brain that makes him privy to things others don’t notice. He’s not emotional, drifts along life, leaving behind goodwill and lots of broken bones. Personally, that mix of detachment and unexpected kindness is what makes Reacher oddly endearing despite his brutality.

Authors Lee Child and Andrew Child are very descriptive in the scenes—the fights and the exact moves the characters make, where the arms twist, where the blood sprays, where the gun creates a hole. One actually starts visualising the fight and the goriness of the scenes where bloodshed comes to the forefront. It often felt like I was watching a cinematic sequence unfold right on the page.

Given the crisp pace, the high-octane thriller opens in a coffee shop in Baltimore. On one of his drifting stopovers, Jack Reacher sees an elderly couple caught in a bogus investment scam. He becomes their anonymous saviour.

Immediately after, he receives a note from Nathan Gilmour (the man who slipped a note into his pocket, mistaking Reacher for his intended contact, who had died).

From these two seemingly trivial coincidences, the plot becomes a complex web leading to a deeply entrenched scheme of earning from wars, created to extort millions from the government. The plot centres on the villain, Morgan Strickland, owner of Strickland Security Solutions. Strickland is orchestrating a plan to smuggle illegal cargo to fuel an armed conflict between Turkey and Armenia (or a similar major international dispute), purely for personal financial profit at the cost of young inexperienced aspiring soldiers.

Strickland, a victim of the Iran war, is a strategic and cunning villain whose real intentions are unearthed only closer to the finale.

Sidekick Nathan Gilmour (the Port Administration co-worker) is not entirely useless and contributes on the technical side, providing a suitable contrast to Reacher’s stoicism. They discover Gilmour was extorted due to a large gambling debt, forcing him to leak cargo information. Gilmour and Reacher connect with Sabrina Patton, another Port Authority employee who is also being blackmailed.

The women characters—Kathryn Kasselwood, Sabrina Patton, and Taylor—are fleshed out as intelligent and brave women, ready to take on any brutal force for justice.

The battle at the end in an old limestone mine is the grand finale. It’s gritty, claustrophobic, and suitably explosive.

While the buzz says that Andrew Child’s addition as co-author has changed the dynamics a bit, for me, someone beginning with a book co-authored by two brothers, it has been a positive start to knowing the minimalist avenger called Jack Reacher. And this definitely won’t be my last Reacher novel; I’m already eyeing which one to pick next.

About the Authors

Lee Child is one of the world’s leading thriller writers. Born in Coventry and raised in Birmingham, he now lives in England’s Lake District. It is often said that a Reacher novel is sold somewhere in the world every nine seconds. His books have sold more than 100 million copies and regularly top bestseller lists globally. He was named Author of the Year at the 2019 British Book Awards and appointed CBE in the 2019 Queen’s Birthday Honours.

Andrew Child is the author of nine thrillers written under the name Andrew Grant and the younger brother of Lee Child. Born in Birmingham, he lives in Wyoming with his wife, the novelist Tasha Alexander.

Book Details
Publisher: Bantam, Penguin Random House Ireland Limited
Language: English
Paperback: 352 pages
Price: INR 899
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