Lee Child’s thriller One Shot, was released in 2005, but has now been
re-released as Jack Reacher - One Shot (ISBN 978-0-857-50119-6, Bantam
Editions, 2012) following the release of the movie taken from this book
called just Jack Reacher and starring Tom Cruise.
To me this does sound rather odd as the fictitious Reacher is 6’5" whereas
Tom Cruise is 5’7", but has a strong following in action movies after the
Mission Impossible series. Apparently the Cruise Reacher works OK on the
silver screen. (Perhaps he stands on telephone directories?)
Like all of these Jack Reacher books, author Lee Childs has developed the
Reacher persona into someone believable. As well as his height and weight,
Reacher is supremely logical. He can look at a threatening group of five
assailants and work out the ringleader who will move first, then the second
and third who will be wary after seeing the ringleader go down, and the
fourth and fifth will run away, so he has only one to hurt and the fight is
over. That sounds logical, the way Childs has written it, but I admit I have
never been that brave, personally adhering to the dictum, “He who fights and
runs away, lives to fight another day.”
In this book, a small town in America is awakened with a mass shooting in
the center of town. The police wrap up the investigation in a couple of
hours and the DA is primed, ready to proceed with this watertight case.
There is only one problem, and that is the fact that the guilty party
refuses to respond to questions, but only says, “Get Jack Reacher for me.”
It turns out that the guilty chap and Jack Reacher were at one stage both in
the military, though they were strangely in opposite corners. It is these
series of conundrums that Childs lays out for you that makes the reading
irresistible. You know he’s wrong, using your own logic, but using Jack
Reacher’s logic, you are the one that is wrong, because you are not such a
student of human nature as Reacher is portrayed.
To complicate the situation even further, the accused is set upon in the
city jail and ends up with concussion, bleeding into the brain, leading to a
coma and multiple fractures.
Other characters include the daughter of the DA trying to make her way in
the legal world, a TV anchor lady who is (almost) ready to do anything to be
noticed by one of the major networks. Even to the stage of lending her Ford
Mustang to Reacher to go off on what might have been a wild goose chase. And
someone known as the Puppet Master with his half dozen minions.
Reacher does not manage to go a complete novel without receiving a few body
blows himself. He bleeds!
At B. 385 on the Bookazine outlet shelves in Big C Extra, it is an
inexpensive read for a weekend, and you will curse every time you are
interrupted! If the film is anywhere near as good as the book, it will be a
blockbuster!
