One For the Reacher Creatures

No Middle Name: The Complete Collected Jack Reacher Short Stories – Lee Child (Dell)

One of the oldest of pieces of advice for writers is “write what you know.” While I am a fan of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher books, I can’t say I am all that familiar with his Reacher short stories. So as I cracked open Child’s new, collection of Reacher short stories, No Middle Name: The Complete Collected Jack Reacher Short Stories, I was pleasantly surprised to run through one that features a soon-to-be seventeen year old Reacher, not surprising on the road, traveling to meet his older brother at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Reacher is passing through New York City when he confronts a man who slapped a women in Central Park. The guy just happens to be a “made man” and promises to bring a world of hurt to Reacher. Much like the man he will later become in the series, teenage Reacher only sweats, because the Big Apple is in the midst of a heat wave. The story offers great insight into Child’s development of the Reacher character.

Clearly someone as complex and fully realized as Jack Reacher didn’t just happen, or evolve along the way; Child put serious thought into the background and the story arc for this character. Child clearly writes about what he knows. While fans hoping for a new full length Reacher outing, may be disappointed with this collection, I think it’s perfect that these stories have been collected under one cover.

The set does include one new piece, Too Much Time, which is Reacher on very familiar ground and putting his keen observational skills to good use, not mention his power of persuasion to convince a small town Maine cop to see things his way. Great story with a killer twist that will have long time Reacher creatures thinking they should have saw that coming.

Hang On for the Twists and Turns

The Samaritan: A Novel – Mason Cross (Pegasus Books)

There is a serial killer plying his trade on the streets of the City of Lost Angels and as the body count rises the killers signature, a jagged knife wound to the neck, connects the dots to other murder across the United States, there’s no telling how high the body count might go.

That is where Mason Cross’ protagonist, Carter Blake, the mysterious stranger with a particular set of skills; the ability track and hunt down men and predict there next moves comes into play. The Samaritan, Cross’ follow up to The Killing Season packs all the punch of a stiff shot to the gut and enough dizzying twists and turns that it’s sure to keep you guessing right to the final chapters.

Others have compared Blake to Lee Child’s Jack Reacher and it’s easy to see why when you ponder the fact that both share an ability to track down the truth all the while baring a striking resemblance to the people they are hunting. Blake clearly fills the bill of The Samaritan enough to bring him squarely into the cross hairs of the law enforcement types investigating the case.

If your anything like me and you pride yourself on the ability to figure out the mystery of the story, then you may end up kicking yourself in the end for missing the hints Cross sprinkles in a seemingly stingy manner along the way.