Book Reviews and More: Echo Burning - Lee Child

Echo Burning
Jack Reacher Book 5
Lee Child
Penguin Random House Canada
ISBN 9780515143829
eISBN 9781101146323
ASIN B000OIZUWG

In the last 23 weeks I have read and reviewed 25 Reacher stories. It started on a whim by picking up the current release because the description caught my attention when I was looking at it for my father. Not since reading that first one, Past Tense, have I enjoyed a Reacher novel as much as this one. And being honest, this is one of the few where I prefer the US covers over the UK editions, which is a rarity. Also because this is one of the earliest Reacher novels there are now about a dozen different covers for this book in English alone, across various formats and editions.

This story is in many ways different than most of the Reacher stories. First, he is offered sex and turns it down, in part I believe because the woman was married. Second, he is attracted to a young lawyer, and finds out she is gay. And in part because Reacher spends a lot of this time trying to figure out the puzzle, that soon becomes a series of overlapping problems. But it all begins with Reacher avoiding a rock and hard place situation. He broke the nose of a guy in a bar who challenged him. The next morning, he discovers the guys was cop and him and some other officers are looking for him. So, Reacher hops in the first car that will stop for him. And thus, Carmen Greer enters his life. And soon she is asking him to kill her husband who is getting out of jail in a few days. But Reacher will not kill in cold blood. Be he finds that he believes Carmen about thus spousal abuse. She he decides to stick around.

The story is set in Texas and Carmen is of Latino descent. Her Husband and family are white and appear to have been in Texas as long as Whites have. The racial slur Beano is used often. And the story portrays some of the discrepancy in the application of the law between whites and non-whites. One of the subplots had to deal with the Border Patrol supposedly having killed between 25-33 people about 12 years before these events. A dead man, an accused wife, blackmail, the IRS, and trust being broken. There is a lot of action packed into this tightly written story.

In my opinion one of the best of the Reacher stories!

Books by Lee Child:
Jack Reacher Books Publishing Order:
Killing Floor
Die Trying
Tripwire
The Visitor /Running Blind
Echo Burning
Without Fail
Persuader
The Enemy
One Shot
The Hard Way
Bad Luck and Trouble
Nothing to Lose
Gone Tomorrow
61 Hours
Worth Dying For
The Affair
A Wanted Man
Never Go Back
Personal
Make Me
Night School
The Midnight Line
Past Tense
Blue Moon
The Sentinel

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