Without Fail by Lee Child (Jack Reacher #6)

Originally published 2002 by Bantam Press; this edition 2003, date printing

Publisher: Bantam Books

MA15+

(V, S, L, D)

Violence {MA}

Sexual References {MA}

Coarse Language {M}

Drug Use {PG: Caffeine, Alcohol}

Representations

Gender:

Third-person following male protagonist, there is at least one scene where two women talk about their lives in his presence. Treatment of gender interpreted as intended-egalitarian.

Sex:

Some speculation a character may be homosexual, not borne out. Some speculation some characters may be in a polyamorous relationship, not resolved. Major characters heterosexual as far as shown. Liberace used as a comparison standard of lesser killitivity.

Race & Ethnicity:

Some relatively minor characters (cleaners) are hispanic. Some acknowledgement that it makes sense for them to be wary around hostile white folk. A minor character is Russian.

Disability, Physical Diversity and Health:

Nothing I noticed.

Awards

Shortlisted: CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, 2002

Nominee: Barry Award, 2003

Nominee: Dilys Award, 2003

Thanks to that Steel Dagger shortlisting I found the name of another author for my reading tour which had been eluding me - Jeffrey Deaver. This book was another one from my mother's bookshelves. I hope she will get round to reading those someday, I think she will enjoy them. But her to-read collection is of similar size to mine, and she is reading about as quickly as I was until the middle of last year. So it may take a long time.

Anyway, I especially liked that in this one Reacher works with a compatriot from his army days, Frances Neagley (for some reason memory kept giving her name as Anna Navarre). I think I have a bit too much distance to be witing about this one now.

It put me in mind a bit of The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb, although perhaps not for the right reasons. Mostly I remember being ahead of the characters in many ways, mentally urging them to follow leads or pursue directions which later proved important, although ultimately it is maybe impossible to solve the book as a mystery ahead of the characters - the antagonists are not even introduced to be suspects until the final act, although I suppose someone sharper than I could discover a lot about them up to that point.

There is an especially telegraphed security hole toward the end which of course pays off, and I found the result wrenching. That part went a long way to the final rating this story received.

There's another Jack Reacher novel for next week, probably the last for a long time due to my systems, so I will try and remember to write something of the musings the series has prompted in me so far for then. I hope I will get to see Neagley again in further instalments of the series, and I hope she won't suffer from character decay.

I don't think I outright said I enjoyed this novel yet, but I did. It was a fun thriller, and I don't ask for more than that from thrillers.