Worth Dying For by Lee Child

 Book:  Worth Dying For

Author:  Lee Child

Grade:  B

Recommended To: Jack Reacher fans - he is superhuman! 

This is my second Lee Child novel and my second in the Jack Reacher series.  I really like when authors create a great character and realize that they've got a good thing going and then they keep that good thing going for more novels than anyone can count.   That's what the Jack Reacher series is for Lee Child.  A gold mine!

Let's face it, none of these books are going to be on your kids 10th grade english reading list.  Are they stellar fiction?  No.  Are they fabulous for the train when it's busy and you don't want to try very hard to keep track of what's going on?  Absolutely!

This book places Reacher in the middle-of-no-where, Kansas where he discovers a group of townspeople being terrorized by a family that runs a transportation company.   The family extorts the farmers through fear and intimidation to make more profit for hauling away their crops.  Of course it wouldn't be interesting unless the family was also doing something illicit.

Jack Reacher is basically superhuman in this novel.  He takes on whole teams of football players and crazy middle eastern thugs.  He is somehow the smartest man in entire place because he can figure out exactly what the next move is before it even happens.

This is a good book.  It is entertaining, fast and fun.  Reacher is gorgeous (in my imagination) and he's probably the perfect man.   In parts the story is not that believable - why wouldn't these people just call the police if they are terrorized?  It's not super plausible that the police are "60 miles away."  Really?  That's an hour, tops.  Someone could call - no one has that much power. 

The one thing I didn't like about this book was that it was incredibly violent.  Reacher is a take-no-prisoners kind of guy and there were many unexpected deaths.  I thought it was a little over the top.

 This book is a solid B.  I definitely recommend it for people who love Lee Child and for those who think Jack Reacher wins the sexiest fictional man award.

Happy Reading!!