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Frances Neagley

kevinburtonsmith

Created by Lee Child
Developed for Television by Nick Santora & Nicholas Wootton

The Jack Reacher Industrial Complex continues to spread, with this spinoff of Amazon Prime’s Reacher TV show. It follows former military cop turned tough-as-nails Chicago private eye FRANCES NEAGLY (played by Maria Sten), as she works cases in “The World of Reacher.”

A close and trusted ally of Jack Reacher from his army days leading the 110th MP Special Investigations Unit, Neagly was first introduced in the Reacher novel Without Fail way back in 2002,  and has since appeared in several other books, as well as a Reacher short story or two. She has, however, appeared (so far) in every season of the television show.

In the books, the focus is definitely on Neagley’s formidable investigative chops and her phobia of being touched. Not just sexually, but in any way — she suffers from haphephobia, a rare and intense psychological fear of physical contact. Refreshingly, we’re reassured it’s not the result of any sort of past assault or trauma— she just doesn’t want to be touched.

Meanwhile, both the TV shows tend to paint her as a relentless, hardass action hero, lean and mean, in a world with far more explosions and asskicking (and vast conspiracies threatening life as we know it) than in the books.

Oh, and she went from being white (but tanned) in the books to being, um, of color? Black? Or maybe multi-racial? (Sten, a former Miss Denmark, is of Danish and Congolese heritage). Not that it matters that much to me (Hell, I  thought Tom Cruise pulled it off), but there have been grumbles among some of Reacher’s Creatures.

And of course, perhaps sniffing the Amazon breeze, Dan Ames, the shining star of the Jack Reacher Industrial Complex, beat everyone to the punch by jumping on the bandwagon before almost anyone even knew there was a bandwagon, launching yet another spin-off series of novellas, months before the show was announced. The Neagly books are Ames’s fourth series to be set in “The World of Reacher,” and as always, have been approved by Lee Child himself.

TELEVISION

JACK REACHER BOOKS IN WHICH NEAGLEY APPEARS

JACK REACHER STORIES IN WHICH NEAGLEY APPEARS

  • “Small Wars” (August 2014, digital) | Kindle it! | Buy the audio
  • “Over Easy” (2024, Safe Enough and Other Stories)
    Co-written with Tess Gerritsen, featuring  Reacher Gerritsen’s Maggie Bird.

THE NEAGLY BOOKS BY DAN AMES

FURTHER INVESTIGATION

THE DICK OF THE DAY

  • September 6, 2026
    THE BOTTOM LINE: Can’t touch this. Jack Reacher’s former colleague in the 110th finds new work as a lean, mean Chicago private detective out to set the world right in a brand new series on Amazon, set to debut in a few days, as well a series of spin-off novels from the ubiquitous Dan Ames set in “The World of Reacher.” Asses will be kicked.
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.

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