Site icon The Thrilling Detective Web Site

Jack Reacher

kevinburtonsmith

Created by Lee Child
Pseudonym of James Grant
(1954–)

“My name is Jack Reacher. No middle name. No address.”

“I’m not looking for trouble. I like a quiet life.”
— Reacher in Blue Moon (2019)

The audacious breadth and scope of this series continues to amaze me. One book, the ex-MP drifter (Silver Star, Purple Heart) with the enigmatic past and way too much training is digging swimming pools or trying to help a rancher’s wife out of a domestic jam; the next time he’s hired to try and kill the Vice President designate. JACK REACHER may not want trouble, but it sure seems to find him. Reacher’s absolute confidence in his abilities, and his unerring sense of what is and isn’t right stands out in a world of conflicted detectives. No, really — this guy makes Spenser look like he has self-esteem issues.

There’s also no doubt that Reacher is a wingnut. His almost psychotic obsession with being his own man means he has no fixed address (he refers to himself simply as “a guy who doesn’t like to stick around”), and carries nothing but a passport, his bank card and almost literally, the shirt on his back. Every few days he buys a new outfit and throws the old one in the trash. No laundromats for Jack. And his most cherished possession may be a portable toothbrush. In Bad Luck and Trouble (2007), an old army buddy, having watched Jack trash his old clothes and buy equally cheap replacements, points out that he could have kept the old shirt.

“Slippery slope,” Reacher said. “I carry a spare shirt, pretty soon I’m carrying spare pants. Then I’d need a suitcase. Next thing I know, I’ve got a house and a car and a savings plan and I’m filling out all kinds of forms.”

And yet, there’s a lot of wit here, too, and even a certain amount of playfulness. In Without Fail (2002), for example, there’s a great Forrest Gump-like scene, where Jack’s sucked into a press interview, and asked his thoughts on the use of overwhelming force. (“Yes, I still support overwhelming force. That’s for sure. I support it big time. Always have, believe me.”)

And there’s a small, tender scene a little bit later on of such powerful but unspoken tenderness between a man and a woman that the fact it doesn’t lead anywhere will crack your heart.

I’ve read several in this series and I’m heading back to find the others. This is a Mens’ Adventure book for men (and women) who can read with their mouths closed and their minds (and hearts) open. Smart, literate and just good old-fashioned thrilling. And always fascinating. Reacher seems capable of being anywhere, doing anything, and each book finds him somewhere else down the road, travelling through an America where the bad moon is always on the rise.

A fantasy fugure? Maybe. But oh what fun. Imagine Ross Macdonald’s Lew Archer locked and loaded, and coming to town near you. Or picture David Janssen’s character in the old The Fugitive TV series as a basass. Or Tarzan in a cheap T-shirt. Or maybe Bulldog Drummond, that perennial British action hero (the author is a Brit, after all, even if he does now live in New York City) , updated and shipped across the Atlantic.

Heartily and highly recommend.

* * * * *

In 2012, Paramount released Jack Reacher, a feature film adaptation of Child’s novel One Shot (2005), starring Tom Cruise, of all people. A surprising casting choice, with the hue and cry spreading throughout the land. How could Cruise possibly play Reacher? The actor was 100 pounds — and a foot shy — of the ex-MP’s intimidating over-sized stature. But damn, he pulled it off. It was an enjoyable romp, and what Cruise lacked in physical size, he made up for in other ways. For a couple of hours, anyway, you could believe Cruise indeed could kick your ass — or anybody else’s. I guess that’s why they call it acting. That closing scene, that moment on the bus at the end of first film, with Reacher heading out of town, when he rises out of his seat, like a weapon unsheathed? I could easily believe some hurt was about to be delivered. It was easily one of my favourite movie scenes of the year, and hopefully a promise of more to come. Which came about in 2016, when Never Go Back, also based on one of the novels, was released. Once again, Cruise delivered, and the film was, once again, entertaining.

Unfortunately for Cruise, in 2019 it was announced that the franchise was moving to television (or, more likely one of the streaming services) and that they were looking to cast a more Reacheresque-sized actor.

In fact, citing his involvement in a couple of television projects, in 2019, Child announced that he would be retiring from writing, and handing the Reacher series over to Andrew Child on future Reacher novels. “Andrew Child” is actually  Andrew Grant, Child’s brother, who is also a thriller novelist. The game plan is for the two of them to collaborate on the next few novels, before Andrew takes over completely.

As for the television project, Reacher made its debut in early 2022 on Amazon Prime, with a six-episode mini-series, starring a suitably sized Alan Ritchson as the big man himself. He’s definitely bigger than Tom Cruise — he’s a man mountain, and there are plenty of loving close-ups of his ample physical attributes, while Maria Sten as his old army buddy (now a P.I.) Frances Neagley is a recurring character. The show seems to have sidestepped Reacher’s whole wandering drifter/trouble magnet aspect in favor of his forays into assembling a “team” to carry out a “mission” (all based, if loosely, on various novels) — a disappointment for those, like me, who prefer the wandering shit kicker aspect of Reacher’s character.

And say what you will about size, but I find Cruise still more credible as Reacher.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)

Lee Child was born James Grant on October 29, 1954 in Coventry, England and raised in nearby Birmingham which he’s described as ” a grey industrial landscape”. While studying law, Child became interested in theatre and ended up working as a successful television technical director for 18 years, until he was canned by Granada Television as a result of corporate “restructuring.” Suddenly unemployed, he bought a few notepads and a pencil for roughly £3.99 and began writing The Killing Floor, the first Jack Reacher novel, claiming “fear and hunger” were what drove him. He supposedly chose Lee Child as a pen name because it would appear between Raymond Chandler and Agatha Christie on the bookstore shelves.

Andrew Child (born Andrew Grant)  is the kid brother of Lee Child, and has been slowly taking over the writing of Jack Reacher series since 2001.

EVIDENCE

HUH?

NOVELS

SHORT STORIES & NOVELLAS

COLLECTIONS

FILMS

TELEVISON

ALSO OF INTEREST

FURTHER INVESTIGATION

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.

 
 

 

Exit mobile version