Ali Karim was a Board Member of Bouchercon [The World Crime & Mystery Convention] and co-chaired programming for Bouchercon Raleigh, North Carolina in 2015. He is Assistant Editor of Shots eZine, British correspondent for The Rap Sheet and writes and reviews for many US magazines & Ezines.
It opens “Rusty Rutherford emerged from his apartment on a Monday morning, exactly one week after he got fired……” With the reins handed over to Andrew, the opening line makes the long-term Jack Reacher reader smile, because the same circumstances brought Lee Child into writing novels.
The burning question is “well is the twenty-fifth book any good?” I have to say that “indeed it is”, though written in a more engaging manner, but one that traps the reader’s attention making the pages turn, and the mind engage just like the preceding twenty-four adventures.
The plot is convoluted, like earlier Jack Reacher thrillers, the narrative prescient and the action fast and furious with a cathartic flourish when the bad guys get a damn good biffing.
Like the preceding novels that chronicled the adventures of the loner / avenger Jack Reacher, The Sentinel finds a vivid backdrop for our hero; this time we’re on the outskirts of Nashville, Tennessee. What could have been an expose of the Country Music scene, instead the Child brothers explore the linkage with Information Technology, Elections and Cyber-Terror threats. As co-writer Andrew Child* has a technical background in IT, the believability factor that underpins The Sentinel is so vivid, at times it terrifies.
There will be voices in the stalls who may disagree with this reviewer, but this latest work is indeed different from what preceded; but I found it more engaging, more anxiety-inducing and more thought-provoking. We have the same Jack Reacher, a menace lurking in small-town America but we have an elegance, more sparkle in the short chapters and terse narrative flourishes. It was good to see Jack Reacher diffracted through a different lens, one that traps more energy, one that races through the plot complexity with a firm hand on the rudder.
In the same fashion of previous work, Jack Reacher becomes involved with a character facing Bad Luck and Trouble - Rusty Rutherford, because the former IT Engineer is a pivot-point, one that could spell trouble, big trouble that is alluded to, but not revealed until much later.
“Time is an issue,” Reacher Said. “Rusty has a lot to do to prepare for the next chapter in his life.”
And so, the chronicles of Jack Reacher are in safe hands with Andrew Child, as his big brother enters the next chapter in his life.
Editor’s note: Co-written by *Andrew Child, a pseudonym for thriller writer Andrew Grant.
