My mother also reviewed this novel here. We had similar feelings.
Above-average, even for Reacher. I loved this one. It’s set back in the time when Reacher was still serving as a military police detective – maybe we need more of those; they make up a minority of the canon. Here’s the set-up: fresh off receiving a medal for “the thing in Bosnia,” Reacher is sent back to school for a course in “Impact of Recent Forensic Innovation on Inter-Agency Cooperation.” He finds himself in a room with two guys from the FBI and the CIA, respectively, in similar positions: good competent agents who’d expected better than some bullshit course in cooperation. Luckily it’s not what it seems. Reacher and his counterparts are instead assigned a top-secret mystery involving an unknown American trying to sell something to someone for an unknown reason. They can have anything they need; so Reacher gets Sergeant Frances Neagley, who we know from books like Without Fail and Bad Luck and Trouble (among others). I like her.
The action of Night School takes Reacher and Neagley (and some of his new teammates) to Hamburg, back to Virginia, and back to Hamburg again, where they tangle with some far-right Nazi-types and the mostly pretty good Hamburg police. Plus of course the mystery American and the mystery foreign interest who wants to buy the mystery thing.
I thought this one was excellent fun. I enjoyed seeing Reacher do the kind of mental detective work he excels at (a la Criminal Minds), and I enjoy seeing him still in the Army’s grasp; that system gives him something to push-and-pull with in ways that I think serve the narrative well. There is a little less physical ass-kicking here than in some Reacher novels, and that’s fine with me; that action stuff is fun here and there but it doesn’t make a story the way the mental game does. There’s also a little sex (as usual) but not in a way that takes over the novel, either. And again, I really like Neagley. The mystery itself has elements of unreality, but welcome to Child’s fiction: it’s escapist-realism, not hyperrealism.
Without spoilers, I will say that I often thought this was one of the more cinematic efforts of the series; I especially enjoyed thinking of the final action’s setting onscreen. But as long as they keep Tom Cruise as the big screen’s Reacher, nah.
This is the most enjoyment I’ve gotten out of a Reacher novel in some time. Maybe it just caught me at the right time.
Filed under: book reviews | Tagged: mystery, Reacher, thriller |
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I appreciated thorough your review of Night Child. I’m a big Reacher fan, but I am with you on the Tom Cruise idea. He doesn’t have the chops to play against type. In no universe is he in any way like Jack Reacher. Not sorry, Tom! Meanwhile what did you think of the new title collaboration with his brother Andrew, The Sentinel? Do you know why he chose to collaborate? Not a fan.
Hi, Annie. Thanks! I haven’t gotten to The Sentinel yet. I share your concern; I expect things will go downhill from here (although I’d love to be proved wrong). Child’s trying to get out of the biz, and the collab, as I understand it, is his transition toward letting Andrew take over entirely. I’ll get to this title eventually, and you’ll read about it here! Thanks for your interest.