New York City. Two in the morning. A subway car heading uptown. Jack Reacher, plus five other passengers. Four are okay. The fifth isn’t. And if you think Reacher isn’t going to get involved…then you don’t know Jack.
Susan Mark was the fifth passenger. She had a lonely heart, an estranged son, and a big secret. Reacher, working with a woman cop and a host of shadowy feds, wants to know just how big a hole Susan Mark was in, how many lives had already been twisted before hers, and what danger is looming around him now.
Because a race has begun through the streets of Manhattan in a maze crowded with violent, skilled soldiers on all sides of a shadow war. Susan Mark’s plain little life was critical to dozens of others in Washington, California, Afghanistan . . . from a former Delta Force operator now running for the U.S. Senate, to a beautiful young woman with a fantastic story to tell–and to a host of others who have just one thing in common: They’re all lying to Reacher. A little. A lot. Or maybe just enough to get him killed.
--Gone Tomorrow by Lee Child, Copyright ©2009 by Lee Child, published by Jove Books
My Review
Gone Tomorrow is the 13th book in Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series.
Jack Reacher is back in New York City, riding the subway in the early hours of the morning. Being a former Military Police officer, he can’t help but study the five other passengers in his car. Four of them seem perfectly normal. The fifth, a woman, exhibits all the signs of a suicide bomber.
Reacher figures he has two choices. One, leave the train at the next stop, saving himself and leaving whomever might get caught in the blast to their fate, or two, try and stop her.
He tries to stop her.
Only the large object in her bag isn’t a bomb mechanism, but a gun. And though she initially points it at Reacher, she turns it on herself and pulls the trigger.
When the police arrive, they question everyone. The others on the train, of course, knew nothing, saw nothing. But the police believe the woman, identified as Susan Mark, passed something to Reacher just before she ended her life. She didn’t, but he can’t convince the NYPD of that. Nor can he convince the three Feds or the four shadowy “protection service” gentlemen that she didn’t. Everyone is convinced she gave him something and he can’t convince them that she didn’t. When he’s contacted by a woman named Lila Hoth (the employer of the “protection service”), he finds out that Susan Mark and she had become friends and Susan was coming to New York to deliver some information to Lila regarding a man her mother, Svetlana, met during a trip to Berlin in the early 1980’s.
She told a good story, but Reacher doesn’t quite believe her. For one thing, why would Susan drive all the way from Virginia to New York just to deliver information that could have been sent in an e-mail or relayed over the telephone. Second, Lila says she invited Susan to stay a day or two, maybe take in a show. But Susan had no overnight luggage with her. Third, Lila’s story just doesn’t add up to Reacher. But he received nothing from Susan Mark and therefore, doesn’t want to be involved.
He tries to stay out of it. Really, he does try, but everyone involved in the mysterious “it” keeps dragging him in until Reacher has no choice but to dig in and investigate. And when Jack Reacher investigates, he doesn’t stop until he gets his answers.
Jack Reacher is back in New York City, riding the subway in the early hours of the morning. Being a former Military Police officer, he can’t help but study the five other passengers in his car. Four of them seem perfectly normal. The fifth, a woman, exhibits all the signs of a suicide bomber.
Reacher figures he has two choices. One, leave the train at the next stop, saving himself and leaving whomever might get caught in the blast to their fate, or two, try and stop her.
He tries to stop her.
Only the large object in her bag isn’t a bomb mechanism, but a gun. And though she initially points it at Reacher, she turns it on herself and pulls the trigger.
When the police arrive, they question everyone. The others on the train, of course, knew nothing, saw nothing. But the police believe the woman, identified as Susan Mark, passed something to Reacher just before she ended her life. She didn’t, but he can’t convince the NYPD of that. Nor can he convince the three Feds or the four shadowy “protection service” gentlemen that she didn’t. Everyone is convinced she gave him something and he can’t convince them that she didn’t. When he’s contacted by a woman named Lila Hoth (the employer of the “protection service”), he finds out that Susan Mark and she had become friends and Susan was coming to New York to deliver some information to Lila regarding a man her mother, Svetlana, met during a trip to Berlin in the early 1980’s.
She told a good story, but Reacher doesn’t quite believe her. For one thing, why would Susan drive all the way from Virginia to New York just to deliver information that could have been sent in an e-mail or relayed over the telephone. Second, Lila says she invited Susan to stay a day or two, maybe take in a show. But Susan had no overnight luggage with her. Third, Lila’s story just doesn’t add up to Reacher. But he received nothing from Susan Mark and therefore, doesn’t want to be involved.
He tries to stay out of it. Really, he does try, but everyone involved in the mysterious “it” keeps dragging him in until Reacher has no choice but to dig in and investigate. And when Jack Reacher investigates, he doesn’t stop until he gets his answers.
I give this story FOUR STARS.
And with this, believe it or not, I’m going to take a little break from my buddy Jack. I've been reading a lot of heavy stuff lately and I need some light, summer fun. Also, I have a lot of books I want to read/listen to and I need to give the others their chance to make it here on A(nother) Year in Reviews. Besides, I have only two books left in the Jack Reacher series, so I want to stretch them out a little. I figure I’ll listen to 61 Hours in late July and then Worth Dying For in September. That’ll set me up nicely for The Affair which will be released in mid-October. Can’t wait!
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