There's deadly trouble in the corn country of Nebraska ... and Jack Reacher walks right into it. First he falls foul of a local clan that has terrified an entire county into submission. But it's the unsolved case of a missing child, already decades-old, that Reacher can't let go. The Duncans want Reacher gone—and it's not just past secrets they're trying to hide. They're awaiting a secret shipment that's already late - and they have the kind of customers no one can afford to annoy. For as dangerous as the Duncans are, they're right at the bottom of a criminal food chain stretching halfway around the world.

After a brief stop in New York City (Gone Tomorrow), Jack Reacher is back in his element—Smalltown, U.S.A.—in bestseller Child's fine 14th thriller to feature the roving ex-military cop. When a tour bus on which he bummed a ride skids off the road and crashes, Reacher finds himself in Bolton, S.Dak., a tiny burg with big problems. A highly sophisticated methamphetamine lab run by a vicious Mexican drug cartel has begun operating outside town at an abandoned military facility. After figuring out the snow-bound, marooned Reacher's smart, great with weapons, and capable of tapping military intelligence, the helpless local cops enlist his assistance, and, as always, he displays plenty of derring-do, mental acuity, and good old-fashioned decency. While the action is slower than usual, series fans will appreciate some new insights that Child provides into his hero's psyche and background as well as a cliffhanger ending

New York City. Two in the morning. A subway car heading uptown. Jack Reacher, plus five other passengers. Four are okay. The fifth isn't. In the next few tense seconds Reacher will make a choice--and trigger an electrifying chain of events in this gritty, gripping masterwork of suspense by #1 New York Times bestseller Lee Child. Susan Mark was the fifth passenger. She had a lonely heart, an estranged son, and a big secret. Reacher, working with a woman cop and a host of shadowy feds, wants to know just how big a hole Susan Mark was in, how many lives had already been twisted before hers, and what danger is looming around him now. Because a race has begun through the streets of Manhattan in a maze crowded with violent, skilled soldiers on all sides of a shadow war. Susan Mark's plain little life was critical to dozens of others in Washington, California, Afghanistan . . . from a former Delta Force operator now running for the U.S. Senate, to a beautiful young woman with a fantastic story to tell–and to a host of others who have just one thing in common: They're all lying to Reacher. A little. A lot. Or maybe just enough to get him killed. In a novel that slams through one hairpin surprise after another, Lee Child unleashes a thriller that spans three decades and gnaws at the heart of America . . . and for Jack Reacher, a man who trusts no one and likes it that way, it's a mystery with only one answer–the kind that comes when you finally get face-to-face and look your worst enemy in the eye.

At the start of bestseller Child's solid 12th Jack Reacher novel (after Bad Luck and Trouble), the ex-military policeman hitchhikes into Colorado, where he finds himself crossing the metaphorical and physical line that divides the small towns of Hope and Despair. Despair lives up to its name; all Reacher wants is a cup of coffee, but what he gets is attacked by four thugs and thrown in jail on a vagrancy charge. After he's kicked out of town, Reacher reacts in his usual manner—he goes back and whips everybody's butt and busts up the town's police force. In the process, he discovers, with the help of a good-looking lady cop from Hope, that a nearby metal processing plant is part of a plan that involves the war in Iraq and an apocalyptic sect bent on ushering in the end-time. With his powerful sense of justice, dogged determination and the physical and mental skills to overcome what to most would be overwhelming odds, Jack Reacher makes an irresistible modern knight-errant.

At the start of bestseller Child's winning 11th Jack Reacher adventure (after The Hard Way), the bad guys unceremoniously dump Calvin Franz, a former MP, from a Bell 222 helicopter "[t]hree thousand feet above the [California] desert floor." Trouble is, Franz was a member of the army's special investigation unit headed by Reacher—a one-time military cop who left the service to become a solitary drifter par excellence. A former colleague sends Reacher a coded SOS; the two rendezvous in L.A. and the game's afoot. More members of the band get back together, only to discover that Franz isn't the group's only casualty. As usual in Reacher's capers, practically nothing is what it seems, and the meticulously detailed route to the truth proves especially engrossing thanks to the joint efforts of this band of brothers (and two sisters). The author carefully delineates Reacher's erstwhile colleagues, their smart-ass banter masking an unspoken affection. The villains' comeuppance, a riveting eye-for-an-eye battle scene (hint: helicopter), is one of Child's more satisfying finales.

In bestseller Child's 10th novel to feature ex-army MP Jack Reacher (after 2005's One Shot), a sidewalk cafe encounter in New York City plunges Reacher into one of his most challenging—and thoroughly engrossing—adventures to date. Acting out of "reflex and professional curiosity" (and the promise of a generous fee), Reacher agrees to help sinister ex-army officer Edward Lane, whose posse of six Special Forces veterans are even more ominous than he, track down his kidnapped daughter and trophy wife. Since the kidnapping of wife number one five years earlier ended in her death, Lane cautions Reacher that he will not brook police interference ("You break your word, I'll put your eyes out"). From Lane's quarters in the West Side's venerable Dakota apartment building to the shady sections of SoHo and Greenwich Village, the author's atmospheric descriptions make Manhattan a leading player, with menace lurking at every intersection. The inevitable showdown, on a farm outside a tiny English village, ranks as one of Child's most thrilling finales.

The final sentence of Child's ninth suspenser (after The Enemy)—"Then he could buy a pair of shoes and be just about anywhere before the sun went down"—is quintessential Jack Reacher, the rugged ex-army cop who practically defines the word "loner" and kicks ass with the best of 'em. In the book's gripping opening, five people are killed when a shooter opens fire in a small unnamed Indiana city. But when ex-infantry specialist James Barr is apprehended, he refuses to talk, saying only, "Get Jack Reacher for me." But Reacher's already en route; having seen a news story on the shooting, he heads to the scene with disturbing news of his own: "[Barr's] done this before. And once was enough." Nothing is what it seems in the riveting puzzle, as vivid set pieces and rapid-fire dialogue culminate in a slam-bang showdown in the villains' lair. (And what villains: a quintet of Russian émigrés, the stuff of everybody's worst nightmares, led by a wily 80-year-old who makes Freddy Krueger look like Little Lord Fauntleroy.) As usual, Child makes the most of Reacher's dry wit, cut-to-the-chase psychology and stubborn taciturnity—in short, this is a vintage double play for author and leading man.

The latest entry in what is arguably today's finest thriller series (Persuader, etc.) flashes back to series hero Jack Reacher's days in the military police. It's New Year's Eve 1990, the Soviet Union is about to collapse and the military is on tenterhooks, wondering how a changed globe will affect budgets and unit strengths, when the body of a two-star general is found in a motel near Fort Bird, N.C. Investigating is Reacher, 29, an MP major who's just been transferred from Panamaâ€"one of dozens of top MPs swapped into new posts on the same day, he later learns. Missing from the general's effects is a briefcase that, it's also revealed later, contained an agenda for a secret meeting of army honchos connected to an armored division. Then the general's wife is found bludgeoned to death at home and, soon after, a third body surfaces, of a slain gay Delta Force soldier whose murder contains clues pointing to Reacher as culprit. With Summer, a young black female lieutenant MP at his side (and, eventually, in his bed), Reacher digs deep, in his usual brilliant and violent way, butting against villainous superior officers, part of a grand conspiracy, as well as against members of Delta Force who think that Reacher killed their colleague. Unlike recent Reacher tales, the novel is as much mystery as thriller, as Reacher and Summer sift for and put together clues, but the tension is nonstop. There's a strong personal element as well, involving Reacher's relationship with his brother and dying mother, which will make the novel of particular interest to longstanding fans of the series. Textured, swift and told in Reacher's inimitably tough voice, this title will hit lists and will convince those who still need convincing that Child has few peers in thrillerdom.

The promo copy on the ARC of Child's new thriller proclaims, "We dare to make this claim: Lee Child is the best thriller writer you're probably not reading-yet." Hopefully the "six-figure" marketing campaign promised by Child's new publisher will make that statement obsolete, because readers will be hard-pressed to find a more engaging thriller this spring season. Child is a master of storytelling skills, not least the plot twist, and the opening chapter of this novel spins a doozy, as a high-octane, extremely violent action sequence sees Child hero Jack Reacher rescue a young man, 20-year-old Richard Beck, from an attempted kidnapping before the rug is pulled out from under the reader with the chapter's last line. The rest of the novel centers on the Beck family's isolated, heavily guarded estate on the Maine coast where Reacher takes Richard. Richard's father is suspected by Feds of being a major drug dealer and the kidnapper of another Fed, and also seems to have ties to a fiend who killed Reacher's lady 10 years before, someone Reacher thought he'd killed in turn, in a vengeance slaying. Tension runs high, then extremely high, as Reacher, ingratiating himself with the dealer and hired on as a bodyguard, pokes around the estate, looking for the kidnapped Fed and evading and/or disposing of in-house bad guys as they begin to suspect he's not who he seems. But then little in Child's novels is as it at first seems, and numerous further plot twists spark the story line. What makes the novel really zing, though, is Reacher's narration-a unique mix of the brainy and the brutal, of strategic thinking and explosive action, moral rumination and ruthless force, marking him as one of the most memorable heroes in contemporary thrillerdom. Any thriller fan who has yet to read Lee Child should start now.

The sixth time's a charm for thriller meister Child, whose latest escapade starring ex-military cop Jack Reacher is handily his most accomplished and most compelling to date. The suspense-laden plot kicks off with U.S. Secret Service agent M.E. Froelich telling Reacher: "I want to hire you to assassinate the Vice President of the United States." V-p-elect Brook Armstrong has received a series of anonymous death threats, and Froelich needs to uncover their source and ascertain the effectiveness of Armstrong's security detail. Reacher agrees to masquerade as an assassin because he can't resist a challenge and because Froelich had loved his older brother, Joe, a Secret Service colleague killed in a botched operation. As Reacher pieces together an increasingly frustrating puzzle, Child ratchets up the excitement with several breathtaking set pieces, including a Thanksgiving dinner for D.C.'s homeless that turns deadly, a jaw-dropping coup de th‚ƒtre and a slam-bang finale in Wyoming's mountains. He even extracts tension from mundane events, as when Reacher searches for clues on a security video of an office cleaning crew. The novel's detailed insider's view of political skullduggery is certain to intrigue readers, and the various characters' relationships, handled with careful restraint, provide an added layer the growing attachment between Froelich and Reacher; both characters' recollections of Joe; Reacher's regard for Frances Neagley, a former colleague whom he calls in for help. And then there's Reacher himself, the stolid, flawed man's man who gives no quarter on any level. Indeed, the novel's final line serves as a pr‚cis of this quietly fascinating character: "He headed west for the Port Authority and a bus out of town." This Child's play will be a tough act to follow.

Jack Reacher, the vagabond freelance lawman who never hesitates to stick his nose into private business, takes his lively act to Texas, embroiling himself in what starts as a messy domestic dispute before turning far more ominous. The rugged former army cop comes to the aid of Carmen Greer, who picks him up on the side of the road one morning outside Lubbock, then asks him to kill her abusive husband. Sloop Greer is getting out of prison in a few days, and Carmen fears he will start beating her again. Reacher declines, but agrees to protect Carmen, hiring on as a cowhand at the couple's remote ranch in Echo County, Tex., far outside Pecos. Within hours of Sloop's return from prison, where he was serving time for tax evasion, violence strikes. But the victim isn't Carmen; it's Sloop. He's found shot dead, and Carmen is arrested. End of story? Hardly. Most wandering heroes would move on at this point, but not Reacher. He begins taking a hard look at both Carmen and Sloop's past, as well as local history. What he finds ugly secrets, human suffering, political evil is repulsive to a man who's been around as many blocks as Reacher. Child (Running Blind; Tripwire) has developed a fine franchise with Reacher, who comes from the Robin Hood mold, but has enough personal quirks and moments of unusual insight to separate him from the pack. Set in a literally and figuratively smoldering landscape, this is a clean, infectious story that taps deeply into two troubling human emotions the psychology of abuse and the desire for retribution. Author tour. (July)Forecast: Reacher's fifth adventure a BOMC, Literary Guild, Mystery Guild and Doubleday Book Club selection is among his strongest, and should hook even those who haven't read the other novels in the series.

Jack Reacher, the wandering folk hero of Child's superb line of thrillers (Tripwire, etc.), faces a baffling puzzle in his latest adventure: who is the exceptionally crafty villain murdering women across the country, leaving the naked bodies in their bathtubs (which are filled with army camouflage green paint), escaping the scenes and leaving no trace of evidence? The corpses show no cause of death and Reacher's sole clue is that all the victims thus far were sexually harassed while serving in the military. There's got to be some sort of grand scheme behind the killings, but with no physical evidence, FBI agents bumble around until they finally question Reacher, a former military cop who handled each of the dead women's harassment cases. After Reacher convinces investigators he's innocent, theyAcuriouslyAask him to stay on as a case consultant. Reacher doesn't like the ideaAhe's too much of a lone wolfAbut he has little choice. The feds threaten him and his girlfriend, high-powered Manhattan attorney Jodie Jacob, with all sorts of legal entanglements if he doesn't help. So Reacher joins the FBI team and immediately attacks the feds' approach, which is based solely on profiling. Then he breaks out on his own, pursuing enigmatic theories and hunches that lead him to a showdown with a truly surprising killer in a tiny village outside Portland, Ore. Some of the concluding elements to Child's fourth Reacher outingAhow the killer gains access to the victims' homes, as well as the revelation of the elaborate MOAfall into place with disappointing convenience. Yet the book harbors two elements that separate it from the pack: a brain-teasing puzzle that gets put together piece by fascinating piece, and a central character with Robin Hood-like integrity and an engagingly eccentric approach to life.

Jack Reacher, the hulking ex-soldier readers will remember from Child's first two thrillers, Die Trying and Killing Floor, can kill with his bare hands, and sports chest muscles thick enough to stop bullets. He's actually a dynamo of a character, wily in an innocent sort of way, and the anchor to one of the best new series in thriller fiction. Here, Reacher is incognito, living the life of a drifter and digging swimming pools in Key West. When a PI from New York comes looking for him, and shortly afterwards turns up dead with his fingertips sliced off, Reacher flies north and discovers that the instigator of the search is Leon Garber, his former army commanding officer. But Garber has died the day before Reacher arrives. As Reacher finds out from Jodie Jacob, Garner's beautiful attorney daughter, Garber was helping an elderly couple to locate their son, who supposedly died in a helicopter crash during the Vietnam War. The military won't confirm the death, however, or even classify the soldier as missing in action. Pursuing the search together, Reacher and Jacob narrowly escape murder attempts by a pair of dark-suited thugs who work for an evil corporate loan shark named "Hook" Hobie, who has a hideously disfigured face and a metal hook for a right hand. Hobie is harboring a terrible secret linking him to the couple's vanished son, and he'll kill anyone who tries to discover his diabolical past. A showdown between the two men is inevitable, and when it happens, it's a beautAalmost as good as Child's skillfully laid surprise ending and the crisp and original dialogue throughout. Reacher is a complex, contemplative brute whose aversion to social and material entanglements entail very peculiar habits and ideas. He never cleans his clothes, preferring to buy new ones (going to a dry cleaner implies a commitment to return); and he's spellbinding whether kicking in doors or just kicking around a thought in his brain. Literary Guild featured alternate; feature film rights for Killing Floor and the character of Jack Reacher optioned by Mark Johnson/Polygram; rights to Jack Reacher series sold to 18 countries.

Television writer Lee Child's otherwise riveting first thriller, Killing Floor, was criticized by some reviewers because of an unconvincing coincidence at its center. Child addresses that problem in his second book--and thumbs his nose at those reviewers--by having his hero, ex-military policeman Jack Reacher, just happen to be walking by a Chicago dry cleaner when an attractive young FBI agent named Holly Johnson comes out carrying nine expensive outfits and a crutch to support her soccer-injured knee. As Holly stumbles, Reacher grabs her and her garments--which gets him kidnapped along with her by a trio of very determined badguys. "He had no problem with how he had gotten grabbed up in the first place," Child writes. "Just a freak of chance had put him alongside Holly Johnson at the exact time the snatch was going down. He was comfortable with that. He understood freak chances. Life was built out of freak chances, however much people would like to pretend otherwise." Lucky for Holly--whose father just happens to be an Army general and current head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, thus making her a tempting target for a bunch of Montana-based extremists--Reacher still has all the skills and strengths associated with his former occupation. And Child still knows how to write scenes of violent action better than virtually anyone else around.

When Jack Reacher suddenly decides to ask a Greyhound bus driver to let him off near the town of Margrave, Georgia, he thinks it's because his brother once mentioned that the famed blues guitarist Blind Blake died there. But it doesn't take long for the footloose ex-military policeman to discover that there are plenty of strange--and very dangerous--things going on behind Margrave's manicured lawns and clean streets that demand his attention. This first thriller by a former television writer features some of the best-written scenes of action in recent memory, a crash course in currency and counterfeiting, and a hero who is just begging to be called on for an encore.

There's deadly trouble in the corn country of Nebraska ... and Jack Reacher walks right into it. First he falls foul of a local clan that has terrified an entire county into submission. But it's the unsolved case of a missing child, already decades-old, that Reacher can't let go. The Duncans want Reacher gone—and it's not just past secrets they're trying to hide. They're awaiting a secret shipment that's already late - and they have the kind of customers no one can afford to annoy. For as dangerous as the Duncans are, they're right at the bottom of a criminal food chain stretching halfway around the world.

After a brief stop in New York City (Gone Tomorrow), Jack Reacher is back in his element—Smalltown, U.S.A.—in bestseller Child's fine 14th thriller to feature the roving ex-military cop. When a tour bus on which he bummed a ride skids off the road and crashes, Reacher finds himself in Bolton, S.Dak., a tiny burg with big problems. A highly sophisticated methamphetamine lab run by a vicious Mexican drug cartel has begun operating outside town at an abandoned military facility. After figuring out the snow-bound, marooned Reacher's smart, great with weapons, and capable of tapping military intelligence, the helpless local cops enlist his assistance, and, as always, he displays plenty of derring-do, mental acuity, and good old-fashioned decency. While the action is slower than usual, series fans will appreciate some new insights that Child provides into his hero's psyche and background as well as a cliffhanger ending

Pures Adrenalin – Jack Reacher ist zurück Keine feste Adresse, kein Telefon, keine Vergangenheit. Seit er die Eliteeinheit bei der Army verlassen hat, führt Jack Reacher ein Leben, fast ohne Spuren zu hinterlassen. Doch eines Tages liegen 1.030 Dollar auf seinem Bankkonto, und Reacher weiß: Seine Vergangenheit hat ihn wieder. Als er auf den codierten Notruf reagiert und seine Exkollegin Frances Neagley kontaktiert, erfährt er von der brutalen Ermordung ihres einstigen Partners Calvin Franz, der erst gefoltert und dann aus einem Helikopter über der Wüste Nevadas abgeworfen wurde. Auf der Suche nach dem Rest des früheren Teams müssen sie feststellen, dass Calvin nicht das einzige Mordopfer war. Eiskalt vor Zorn rüstet Reacher zum Rachefeldzug. Unversöhnlich, unerbittlich, unschlagbar: Jack Reacher, der einsamste und eigenwilligste Ermittler der amerikanischen Thrillerliteratur.

Jack Reacher, der wohl härteste, kompromissloseste und einzelgängerischste Ermittler, den die gegenwärtige Thrillerliteratur zu bieten hat, stolpert eher zufällig in seinen zehnten Fall: In einem Café in Manhattan sitzend, beobachtet der ehemalige Militärpolizist eine Geldübergabe. Kurz darauf wird er von dem undurchsichtigen Edward Lane engagiert: Die Ehefrau dieses dubiosen Mannes, der mit dem "Verleih" von Söldnern an im Krieg oder Bürgerkrieg befindliche Staaten viel schmutziges Geld verdient, und ihre Tochter sind mitsamt ihrem Fahrer am helllichten Tag entführt worden. Lane bietet Reacher eine Million, wenn er ihm hilft, die Entführer zu fassen. Dass Lane sie dann sicher nicht der Polizei übergeben, sondern auf seine Art bestrafen wird, ist Reacher klar – und er hat kein Problem damit. Eine Million Dollar Lösegeld hat Lane bereits bezahlt – die Übergabe hatte Reacher beobachtet. Die nächste Forderung, fünf Millionen, bezahlt Lane ebenfalls – wiederum ohne dass die Geiseln freigelassen werden. Als die Entführer die dritte Forderung stellen, viereinhalb Millionen, eine ungewöhnlich krumme Zahl, wird Reacher klar, dass hier keine gewöhnliche Entführung vorliegt, sondern die Gesamtsumme von 10,5 Millionen eine symbolische Bedeutung hat und es um einen persönlichen Rachefeldzug gegen Lane geht. Dieser Verdacht verhärtet sich, als Reacher herausfindet, dass Lanes erste Frau vor Jahren ebenfalls entführt und trotz Lösegeldzahlung getötet worden ist... Das Besondere an der Figur Jack Reacher ist, dass er sich als außerhalb des Gesetzes stehend begreift und nicht davor zurückschreckt, illegal und brutal zu operieren, um das durchzusetzen, was er für Gerechtigkeit hält. Diese Eigenschaft kommt speziell im Showdown deutlich zum Tragen und sorgt für ein atemberaubendes Finale. Die zweite Besonderheit an den Jack-Reacher-Thrillern ist der Stil: Stakkatohaft, in so kurzen, abgehackten Sätzen wie möglich wird die Handlung in einem schwindlig machenden Tempo vorangetrieben. Kein überflüssiges Wort, nur Dialoge und Action – das ist großartig gemacht und trägt als dritte Komponente neben Hauptfigur und Plot zur kristallinen Härte des Romans bei. Ein nahezu perfekter Thriller, an dem einfach alles stimmt.

James Barr hat es schlimm erwischt. Einst war der ehemalige Scharfschütze ehrenhaft aus der Army entlassen worden. Jetzt liegt er in einem überhitzten Krankenzimmer, "in dem man Hähnchen hätte braten können", und kann sich an gar nichts mehr erinnern. Vor allem kann er nicht glauben, was er getan haben soll. Das sagt er auch Jack Reacher, ehemaliger Top-Ermittler der Militärpolizei, der Barr schon lange kennt und der ihn im Zuge seiner Ermittlungen besucht. Aber es gibt nun einmal eindeutige Beweise, und fünf davon sind tot. Barr soll als "Sniper" wahllos auf Passanten geschossen haben. Am Tatort in einem Parkhaus finden sich Kugeln seiner Waffe, ein Markierungskegel aus seiner Garage und DNA-Spuren seines Hundes. Für die ermittelnden Polizisten ist es der klarste Fall der Kriminalgeschichte -- und gerade das macht Reacher stutzig. Einziges Problem: Barr hatte schon zu Army-Zeiten als Sniper eine tödliche Spur des Grauens hinterlassen und war damals trotz seines Geständnisses nur aus politischen Gründen davongekommen. Reacher ist also der Letzte, der ein Interesse daran hätte, Barr rauszuboxen. Aber warum hatte dann Barr gegenüber seinen Anwälten ausdrücklich nach Reacher verlangt? Und: Warum leugnet er die heutige Tat, wo er damals doch so geständig war? "Holt Jack Reacher": das erbittet nicht nur Barr im Roman. Die Rückkehr Reachers ersehnten sich Tausende von Thriller-Fans rund um den Globus. Jetzt ist er zurück -- und er ist besser denn je. Sniper ist ein packendes, bewegendes, beunruhigendes Buch. Nicht nur der Umstand, dass es von der ersten Seite an fesselt, hebt es aus der großen Zahl ähnlicher Bücher der Unterhaltungsschriftstellerei deutlich heraus.

Der Beginn einer Legende: Jack Reachers erster Fall! Silvester 1989/90. Die Mauer ist gefallen. Der Kalte Krieg? Geschichte. Die US-Army hat keinen Feind mehr. Und Jack Reacher hat Bereitschaftsdienst, als das Telefon klingelt. Keine Neujahrsglückwünsche. Ein toter Zwei-Sterne-General, zwischen heißen Laken. Herzinfarkt. Doch Reachers Misstrauen erwacht, als der Fall unter den Teppich gekehrt werden soll. Weitere Morde sprechen eine erbarmungslose Sprache. Und plötzlich steht Reacher selbst unter Verdacht. Wer will ihn aus dem Weg räumen? Seine Suspendierung kann Reacher nicht aufhalten, er gräbt tiefer und tiefer. Und er kommt einer Militär-Verschwörung ungeahnten Ausmaßes auf die Spur. Es ist ein neuer Krieg – gegen Feinde innerhalb der Army. Und Jack Reachers persönlicher Krieg: gegen den Verrat ... Packend und temporeich lockt Lee Child mit immer neuen Hinweisen, überrascht mit spektakulären Wendungen und erzeugt eine Spannung, die die Nerven bis nach der letzten Seite vibrieren lässt.

Ein gemeiner Mord macht Schlagzeilen Sechs Jahre sind es nun, seit Jack Reacher als Spitzenermittler aus dem Militärdienst ausgeschieden ist. Seitdem ist er unterwegs. Ohne Familie, ohne offizielle Adresse, ohne Telefon, ohne Bankkonto. Bis er eines Abends in Boston zufällig einem Mann begegnet, der eigentlich tot sein müsste. Ein Schatten aus seiner Vergangenheit. Und Jack Reacher hasst unerledigte Geschäfte. Er will wissen, wem der Cadillac gehört, in den Quinn eingestiegen ist - der Mann mit den unverwechselbaren Narben auf der Stirn. Die Anfrage bei seiner alten Dienststelle beschert ihm den Besuch zweier Agenten. Ihr Interesse gilt Zachary Beck, einem Top-Rauschgiftdealer, in dessen Haus Quinn lebt. Und schon findet sich Reacher mitten in einer hochriskanten Ermittlung wieder - als Leibwächter in Becks Haus, das einer Festung gleicht. In einem mörderischen Showdown... Das Ende scheint klar. Alles scheint offensichtlich in diesem Fall - nichts ist es. Denn Lee Child ist ein Meister unerwarteter Wendungen, wenn man sie am wenigsten erwartet - bis zur letzten Seite.

Jack Reacher, ehemaliger Spitzenermittler der Militärpolizei, schied vor Jahren auf eigenen Wunsch aus dem Dienst aus. Seither ist er untergetaucht, führt ein Leben ohne offiziellen Wohnsitz und ohne persönliche Bindungen. Dennoch gelingt es M.E. Froelich, verantwortlich für den Personenschutz beim Secret Service und Ex-Freundin seines ermordeten Bruders, Reacher aufzuspüren. M.E. hat ein Problem, und sie ist entschlossen, für dessen Lösung Reachers legendäre Fähigkeiten als Ermittler in Anspruch zu nehmen: Ihr wichtigster Schutzbefohlener ist der amerikanische Vizepräsident Brook Armstrong. Und Reacher soll durch einen fingierten Anschlag auf ihn die Schwachstellen im Sicherheitssystem aufdecken. Doch der Auftrag weitet sich rasch aus: Eines Morgens liegt tatsächlich die Ankündigung eines Attentats auf dem Schreibtisch von M.E.s Vorgesetztem. Schon bald drängt sich Reacher jedoch der Verdacht auf, dass der Täter nicht von politischen, sondern von persönlichen Motiven getrieben ist. Und als er endlich auf ein lange übersehenes Detail stößt, liefert der Attentäter auch schon den Beweis dafür, dass er zu allem entschlossen ist...

Ganz gegen seine Gewohnheit beschließt Jack Reacher, der ehemalige geniale Ermittler der Militärpolizei, in der sengenden Hitze von Texas per Anhalter zu fahren. Tatsächlich stoppt ein weißer Cadillac mit der schönen jungen Carmen Greer am Steuer - die ihn anheuert, ihren Ehemann umzubringen. Doch was sich so perfide anhört, ist eine aus tiefer Verzweiflung geborene Idee. Jacks Interesse - und Mitgefühl - ist geweckt. Er verdingt sich als Hilfsarbeiter auf der Ranch, um Carmen zu beschützen. Mit mäßigem Erfolg, denn der gewalttätige Ehemann wird im gemeinsamen Schlafzimmer erschossen - und die Ereignisse überstürzen sich mit tödlichen Konsequenzen...

Sergeant Amy Callan und Lieutenant Caroline Cook haben einiges gemeinsam. Beide wollten Karriere bei der Armee machen, beide waren Opfer sexueller Belästigung durch Kollegen, beide ließen sich anschließend vom Dienst suspendieren – und beide sind jetzt tot. Wiederum in Übereinstimmung wurden sie beide in ihrer eigenen Badewanne aufgefunden, in Armee-Tarnfarbe schwimmend, die Leichen scheinbar völlig unberührt und ohne ein einziges Anzeichen für die Todesursache. Hochrangige Profiler des FBI beginnen fieberhaft die Jagd nach einem Serienmörder: einem Angehörigen der Armee, einem hochintelligenten, einsamen, unbarmherzigen Mann, der beide Frauen kannte – und wahrscheinlich noch ein paar weitere, auf die Amys und Carolines Opferprofil ebenfalls zutrifft. Auf Jack Reacher, einen ehemaligen Spitzen-Ermittler der Militärpolizei, passen diese Merkmale auffallend perfekt. Das FBI kreist ihn ein, muss aber rasch erkennen, daß er nicht der Täter ist - sondern vielmehr der einzige, der bei der Lösung dieses scheinbar unlösbaren Falles helfen kann. Doch Reacher hat nicht die Absicht, sich vor den Karren des FBI spannen zu lassen...

Tiefe Trauer - und erhöhte Wachsamkeit veranlassen Jack Reacher, den genialen Ex-Ermittler, an der Beerdigung seines ehemaligen Vorgesetzten und väterlichen Freundes bei der Militärpolizei, Leon Garber, teilzunehmen. Weshalb ließ dieser nach so vielen Jahren unter dem Namen seiner Tochter Jodie nach ihm fahnden? Und was hat sie, Jacks unerfüllte große Liebe, damit zu tun? Jodie, bildschön und eine clevere Anwältin, steht selbst vor einem Rätsel. Erst die unangenehme Begegnung mit Killern und verstümmelten Leichen bringt die beiden auf eine heiße Spur - und ins Fadenkreuz der Mörder.

Ein Plan mit der Logik des Wahnsinns: Ein Mann und eine Frau treffen zufällig auf einer Strasse in Chicago zusammen. Plötzlich tauchen zwei Fremde auf und entführen beide mit vorgehaltener Waffe. Mit Handschellen aneinander gekettet werden sie in einen Lieferwagen geworfen. Ein Horrortrip beginnt.

Auf dem Weg von Tampa nach nirgendwo ist Jack Reacher in einer Kleinstadt in Georgia aus dem Bus gestiegen. Wenige Stunden später findet er sich im Gefängnis wieder. Er steht unter Mordverdacht. Doch statt einer schnellen Lösung hat Detective Finlay bald ein noch größeres Problem: einen Hauptverdächtigen, der seine Unschuld beweisen kann, und das Geständnis eines Bankers, der die Tat nicht begangen hat.