Night School

Night School: Book 21 in the Jack Reacher series by Lee Child     Audio Book: 13 hours, 7 mins.     Paperback Book: 496 pages             

I’ve heard of Jack Reacher, I think some years ago I watched a film with Tom Cruise playing the part of Jack Reacher, but, this is the first book with Jack Reacher as lead character I have experienced and I am now a fan of Jack Reacher.    I’m usually not big on spies nor espionage stories but this one intrigued me although I didn’t realize I was #21 in a series, but, this is surely a stand alone story as I imagine they likely all are, though, the reader probably picks up a good bit of background on John Reacher with each succeeding tome.   Mr. Reacher seems like a pretty fun guy, I like his sense of humor a lot.   And his assistant is like the Army’s Wonder Woman.    The story starts off with Mr. Reacher receiving accolades and a(nother) medal that morning then he is assigned to attend Night School that same evening.  He is wondering why Night School?   But goes along with his orders.   When he gets to class there are 2 other agents there.   One from the FBI and one from the CIA.   It seems the Government ie. the President wants a cooperative mission between the Army which Jack Reacher is a highly placed special operative in and the other two agencies being the FBI and CIA.    The President wants them all to play nice, work together, share information that each has specific access and specialization in and find a loose cannon who sources have alerted that Jihadists are working with to buy a hundred million dollars worth of “something,” and the Jihadists are willing to pay the price for whatever it is.     The mission is to find out who has whatever it is for sale then find out what in particular are they selling?    The story keeps the reader’s attention from beginning to end.   It is fascinating how the info is tracked between all of the agencies and how much can be accomplished with all of the contacts at each agency’s disposal.   Jack Reacher is this strong presence yet very down to earth and witty who will drop to his favorite thing – street fighting – with very little provocation.    Jack Reacher is a very likeable character someone you would be able to have a beverage with and a few laughs before he had to go fight bad guys and save the world.   This story takes the reader along from Langley, Virginia to Jalalabad, Afghanistan to some very miltant cells of Reichers working toward raising the 4^th Reich in Germany and are not at all shy about their anti-Semitic tendencies.   Searching and researching for who, what and when goes global with stop offs in Kiev, Ukraine, Saudi Arabia and other global hot spots for arms dealing.    It really is a good well told story and I enjoyed getting to know the character Jack Reacher.    Lots of possibilities as to what is going on and author Lee Child swoops you up in all the action and carries you right along as if you are decked out in full armour to face any faction lurking in the shadows, sand dunes, or at the local bar or bistro.    Excellent story telling here.   I think I might just check this series out, I like Jack Reacher.    I would definetly recommend this series to anyone who likes Mission Impossible type stories, military stories, spy,  suspense, iintrigue or an open mind to be introduced to something you might never check out on your own, but might find Lee Child’s writing to your taste.   I would not have sought this story out.    I was just browsing when I came across it and decided to check it out.   I’m glad I did.    It is a worthy story.    I highly recommend it.

 - Shirley J.