DIE TRYING
by Lee Child
I wish I’d written this ...
... because the social commentary is scathing!
This was first published in 1998 but feels like it was written yesterday as a response to Donald Trump's hideous presidency. It's the second Jack Reacher novel, and this time the wandering warrior finds himself up against a group of Trump supporter-like militia men who're out to claim independence from the "World Government" … who believe every conspiracy theory out there … and who intend to commit an atrocious act of terrorism during the 4th July celebrations. It's all horribly plausible, which had me investing fully in the implausibly indestructible and talented Reacher. There were scenes that had me delivering a punch to the air. I may have "whooped" once or twice. That's how much of a damned enjoyable novel this is. Top of the "dumb fun" league! And, incidentally, the Hollywood casting of 4'3" Tom Cruise as 6'5" Jack Reacher still causes me considerable mirth.
From the publisher
In a Chicago suburb, a dentist is met in his office parking lot by three men and ordered into the trunk of his Lexus. On a downtown sidewalk, Jack Reacher and an unknown woman are abducted in broad daylight by two men — practiced and confident — who stop them at gunpoint and hustle them into the same sedan. Then Reacher and the woman are switched into a second vehicle and hauled away, leaving the dentist bound and gagged inside his car with the woman's abandoned possessions, two gallons of gasoline ... and a burning match. The FBI is desperate to rescue the woman, a Special Agent from the Chicago office, because the FBI always — always — takes care of its own, and because this woman is not just another agent. Reacher and the woman join forces, against seemingly hopeless odds, to outwit their captors and escape. But the FBI thinks Jack is one of the kidnappers — and when they close in, the Bureau snipers will be shooting to kill.
