Running Blind

Running Blind @ Amazon.com

There are numerous Jack Reacher novels by Lee Child that have a higher body count, and others where there is more thinking and figuring things out. “Running Blind” is one of the latter. Reacher does not rack up a high body count of bad guys, but he still makes for a tough guy hero you may cheer for, and one that has his own difficultnesses and demons inside.

This book picks up shortly after “Tripwire” and proceeds with numerous of the story that started in that novel. However, the new house and girlfriend from the former book don’t make everything a bed of roses for our hero. There are difficultnesses on the home front, as well as an FBI investigation when it comes to a serial killer that Reacher gets caught in the middle of. The “perfect” crimes that have the FBI stumped cause Reacher to scratch his head more than once too. The investigation that has Reacher and the FBI “Running Blind” takes them back and forth all over the country witch with temptations and sensations that don’t make things having little impact for Reacher back home in New York.

Child’s reputation Reacher is a thinking tough guy, and Child writes in an engaging and agreeably diverting manner that keeps you turning pages to find out what happens next. There are a few twists and turns to keep the reader guessing as to where the story is going and who the clever killer will turn out to be. The dealings with the FBI might not be over, so I’m marveling if any of the agents will show up again, peculiarly Agent Harper. It will also be interesting to see where the kinship that started in “Tripwire” in the long run ends. (Having read galore of the newer Reacher novels, I know, but am looking forward to seeing how Child does things with the story line.)

I ran into this series two years ago by reading a couple of the series from the middle, and have since read the most recent Child books, but likewise went back to commence the series from the beginning and throw one into my reading each now and again. This is the fourth book in the series, and I enjoyed it rather a bit. It was a fun read, just like I’ve found all of them. I’m looking forward to reading the fifth book, “Echo Burning” as well as the new ones that come out as Child proceeds to write them.

Across the country women are being murdered by a killer who leaves no evidence, no fatal wounds, no signs of struggle, and no clues to a motive. They are, truly, perfective crimes. In fact, the only thing that links the victims is the man they all knew: Jack Reacher.

ReviewJack Reacher is back, dragged into what looks like a series of grisly serial murders by a team of FBI profilers who aren’t exclusively sure he’s not the killer they’re looking for, but believe that even if he isn’t, he’s smart sufficient to help them find the real killer. And what they’ve got on the ex-MP, who’s starred in three former Lee Child thrillers (Tripwire, Die Trying, Killing Floor), is sufficient to assure his grudging cooperation: phony charges stemming from Reacher’s inadvertent involvement in a shelter shakedown and the threat of hurt to the woman he loves.

The killer’s victims have only one thing in common–all of them brought sexual harassment charges versus their military superiors and all resigned from the army after winning their cases. The manner, if not the cause, of their deaths is gruesomely the same: they passed away in their own bathtubs, covered in gallons of camouflage paint, but they didn’t drown and they weren’t shot, strangled, poisoned, or attacked. Even the FBI forensic specialists can’t figure out why they seem to have gone willingly to their mysterious deaths. Reacher isn’t sure whether the killings are an elaborated cover-up for corruption involving stolen military hardware or the work of a maniac who’s smart sufficient to leave perfectly no clues behind. This compelling, iconic antihero dead-ends in a lot of alleys before he at last figures it out, but each one is worth exploring and the suspense doesn’t let up for a second. The ending will come as a finish surprise to even the most careful reader, and as Reacher strides off into the sunset, you’ll wonder what’s in store for him in his next adventure. –Jane Adams

From Publishers WeeklyJack Reacher, the wandering folk hero of Child’s superb line of thrillers (Tripwire, etc.), faces a baffling puzzle in his latest adventure: who is the specially cunning villain murdering women throughout the country, leaving the naked bodies in their bathtubs (which are filled with army camouflage green paint), escaping the scenes and leaving no trace of evidence? The corpses show no cause of death and Reacher’s sole clue is that all the victims therefore far were sexually harassed while serving in the military. There’s got to be galore sort of grand system behind the killings, but with no physical evidence, FBI agents bumble around until they in the end question Reacher, a former military cop who handled each of the dead women’s harassment cases. After Reacher convinces investigators he’s innocent, theyAcuriouslyAask him to stay on as a case consultant. Reacher doesn’t like the ideaAhe’s too much of a lone wolfAbut he has little choice. The feds threaten him and his girlfriend, high-powered Manhattan attorney Jodie Jacob, with all sorts of legal entanglements if he doesn’t help. So Reacher joins the FBI team and without delay attacks the feds’ approach, which is based solely on profiling. Then he breaks out on his own, carrying out or participate in enigmatic theories and hunches that lead him to a showdown with a veritably surprising killer in a tiny village outside Portland, Ore. Some of the concluding elements to Child’s fourth Reacher outingAhow the killer gains access to the victims’ homes, as well as the revelation of the elaborated MOAfall into place with disappointing convenience. Yet the book harbors two elements that distinguished it from the pack: a brain-teasing puzzle that gets put together piece by arousing and attention holding piece, and a central reputation with Robin Hood-like integrity and an engagingly eccentric approach to life.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library JournalChild’s Jack Reacher series has bettered with each successive book, of which this is the fourth (following Tripwire). A serial murderer is on the loose, killing women throughout the country in the same bizarre fashion: there are no fatal wounds on the corpse and no proof or clues. Other than the killer’s unknown method, the only thread tying the victims together is that they have all served in the militaryDand they all knew Reacher. What is the motive? What is the murder weapon and manner of death? How does the killer gain entrance to the to a great extent secured homes of these fearful and distrustful women? Why is each corpse immersed in a tub full of paint? Reacher, the archetypal loner/wanderer, seems more domesticated here, altho he fights powerfully versus it. With a great deal of plot twists and turns, Child puts Reacher through his paces brilliantly, arriving at an strange solution. Highly commended for all public libraries.
-.DFred M. Gervat, Concordia Coll. Lib., Bronxville, NY
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Most helpful customer reviews

84 of 90 people found the following review helpful.
Jack Reacher the Epitome of Excitement!
By R. Watkins
I have just finished reading the latest in this great series by English author Lee Child. Just like Killing Floor and Die Trying, this novel flies along at a frantic pace that you try hard to keep up with.

Reacher is the suspect in a bizarre series of murders in which ex-army women (who left the force because of a variety of sexual harassment cases) are left naked in their bathtubs filled with green army paint. The killer leaves no clues and what is even more bizarre, they have no idea how the women died.

Even after Reacher’s name is cleared, he is blackmailed by the FBI into unravelling this bizarre case. He must get to the killer before more women die, or face the consequences of the FBI’s fury.

Read and Enjoy

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful.
An Exciting, Well-Done Thriller
By A
I have now read all of the Jack Reacher novels by Lee Child and I believe this one to be the best of them all. Not that it doesn’t have flaws – some of the activities carried out by the FBI are pretty questionable, Reacher at times approaches super-human in his skills, and there are probably a few too many red herrings and digressions. Nevertheless, for what it is, this is an extremely fast-moving and exciting thriller. It is genuinely hard to put down and the ending will likely surprise you (though admittedly a careful reader will probably see it coming; there are clues aplenty). Child plays fair, however, and you buy the whole thing. I do wish Child’s novels “reached” (pun intended) a wider audience; he is a good writer who has created an interesting and charismatic character. This book is well worth your time.

42 of 50 people found the following review helpful.
Robin Hood and the Lone Ranger meet the 21st century
By Rennie Petersen
This is the first Lee Child book I’ve read, which is perhaps unfortunate, as several of the other reviews indicate that this book is not as good as some of the others in the Jack Reacher series. (By the way, this book has two different titles: “Running Blind” in the USA and Canada, and “The Visitor” in the UK and elsewhere.)