Personal by Lee Child

Personal by Lee Child
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Surprisingly, still as good as ever. Reacher's funny, cool, and always a little bit smarter and faster than his opponents.

Don't Know Jack by Diane Capri

Don't Know Jack by Diane Capri

I just purchased "Don't Know Jack" as an e-book. I'll probably read it, because I paid for it, but because of the outrageous "License" terms, I won't review it, and I won't be buying any more of your books.

"This ebook may not be resold or given away to other people". I refuse to accept any author's or publisher's right to apply "terms" to the way I read books. I don't "share" ebooks. I don't post them on websites. But I absolutely reserve the right to give away my only copy, just as I would with a paper book. I actually support the idea of paying royalties on every transfer of any work of art (though how it would ever work, I can't imagine), but authors and publishers neither have a moral right nor (in most countries) a legal right to demand that I can not give away a book I have purchased.

I do not "agree" to your terms.

Never Go Back by Lee Child

Never Go Back by Lee Child

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

For all the incredible feats Reacher accomplishes, I don't generally have a problem with suspension of disbelief. I just treat it as fantasy. In this particular story, taking on eight hillbillies at once or disabling two men in a full commercial airliner, without anybody else noticing, isn't the problem. The thing that really didn't work was getting a law firm receptionist to give up the address of a client (without violence). Sorry, that just wouldn't happen!

Still, I love the stories and will keep reading them as long as Child keeps writing them.

Second Son by Lee Child

Second Son by Lee Child

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


A very interesting peek at the life of young (13 years old) Jack Reacher.

Reacher admits to a military-base bully that he's probably a psychopath, and he's probably right — but as Elliott Leyton, author of Hunting Humans: The Rise of the Modern Multiple Murderer, tells us, the majority of psychopaths aren't Hannibal Lecter. As with any psychological diagnosis, there must be a range of psychopathy, from those who are merely empathically challenged to those who have no empathy at all. Young Jack Reacher exhibits many of the signs of psychopathy, but he does care for his family. Can he empathize with them? Perhaps not, but he fakes it well.

Another Canadian Elliott, Elliott Barker, says of The Partial Psychopath: "For about half a century, we have known one unfailing recipe for creating psychopaths -- move a child through a dozen foster homes in the first three years." I wonder if it even requires foster families: could moving a child as frequently between military bases, even with a loving but emotionally stunted mother, have some of the same effect.

This story shows that, even at 13, Reacher was dividing the world into Us & Them, and consequences to "Them" were never important, while he would protect "Us" (his family) at all costs. For the rest of his life, the attitude clearly never changes, though his definition of family does.