Pun Salad

Another page-turning Jack Reacher novel from Lee Child.

It's set back in Reacher's Army days. He's called out of his current duties to attend a vaguely-described school. Which turns out to be a cover story for a small task force to investigate some chilling news out of Hamburg Germany. An infiltrator of a Saudi terrorist cell has reported an overheard snippet of conversation: "the American wants 100 million dollars." And it's in a non-bullshit context.

It's extremely important to find out: who's the "American"? And what can the American possibly offer that's worth $100 mil?

We don't get the answer to that last question until around page 368 of this 442-page book. (And a little Wikipedia-trolling shows this particular Maguffin to be fact-based, but considerably embellished.)

But along the way, there's a lot of international skulduggery, deduction, violence, and Reacher ignoring explicit orders when he needs to do so. Also, wannabe Nazis provide a major plot complication. Everybody hates those guys, and Reacher is no exception. A familiar face from previous books in the series, Sergeant Frances Neagley, plays a major role.

Good stuff. Lee Child makes it look easy, but if it were easy there would be a lot more people doing it.