The writing style is so matter of fact and basic that it's boring. The characters are caricatures, and the plot is ludicrous. I barely made it through. ( )

Gifted: Michael Holman

Pardon my French, but Jack Reacher is a Grade-A, Number One Badass. He has to be in order to go up against the psychotic, killer slime balls he encounters in the little town of Margrave, Georgia. He's the guy you want on your side in a fight.

The author does a good job of making him a likeable and sympathetic badass, just a guy minding his own business when things go horribly wrong and then go even more horribly wrong. Good thing, because he's the first-person narrator and you spend the entire novel with him. The body count is high when he has to fight back, first to survive, then to exact revenge. Perhaps it's a bit higher than it needs to be. But don't forget that Reacher's foes are psychotic, killer slime balls.

It's all over the top stuff. But it's well written and all seems highly plausible as the story unfolds. It's only afterward that you start thinking, waitaminute whatif...? Wouldn't...? But then you decide not to think about it too much and wonder what sort of trouble Reacher will be finding and fighting next. ( )

Read a third of the way in. Not bad, but really not my thing. ( )

It's not often when I say that the "movie is better," but in this case, I'm surprised anyone ever bothered paying for the rights to adapt this. ( )