I would have to rank this as one of my favourite Lee Child books, even if I thoughs the start was dubious. For the first chapter or two, I worried this might even be a Reacher novel of a standard to rival the disaster that was Nothing to Lose. Then, of course, we got a little farther into the book and I was able to reassure myself that no book could be as bad as Nothing to Lose. I think if Lee Child were to write another book as bad as Nothing to Lose, I'd have to give up on him. Anyway, Persuader was a terrific novel, definitely up there with the best of Reacher.
The book begins with Reacher witnessing and intervening in a kidnapping. Immediately, we know something about the situation is not quite right. Reacher is acting in ways that we know are not congruent with his character. For instance, Reacher doesn't stroll around with two huge revolvers in his pants on any normal day, and (this was the most alarming) he most definitely does not drive a van. Also, without giving anything away, his reactions to certain events do not fit with what we know of the character.
For these reasons, I feared that Child may have, for some unknown reason, decided to disregard everything we know about the character, just so events would fit the story. But I should have known better than to doubt Child. Soon enough, we were back to the Reacher we know and love.
Soon after the chaotic events of the first two chapters, Reacher is working undercover, infiltrating a heavily guarded mansion in an attempt to rescue a DEA agent held hostage by a ruthless criminal. Reacher's motives in taking part in this operation are slowly revealed throughout the book, as we learn that he is trying to settle an old score with an old enemy figure from his past, one long thought dead.
One of the main reasons I found this book to be one of my favourite in the series was that this role had good deal of character building for Reacher. His desire for justice and the lengths he will go to achieve it play a huge part of the story, particularly in the final chapters.
The other reason I like it is that Reacher comes up against a situation we very rarely (if ever) see. In most instances, Reacher is the biggest and strongest guy in the room. He's able to knock down enemies with only one or two blows, easily defeating those who get in his way. However, in Persuader, there is (get ready for it) someone bigger than Reacher! Our hero comes up against a huge mountain of a man, a four-hundred-pound, seven foot tall, steroid using thug with arms that look as though they've had basketballs stuffed inside of them. This is a guy who makes Reacher feel as Reacher makes most other people feel. This scenario reveals a completely new side of the character. Not many people could take one of Reacher's kicks and stay standing.
However much I enjoyed this book, there is one or two little problems I had with it. First of all, the romance seemed rather pointless. I didn't like the character Duffy in the first place (she seemed rather dim witted) and it appeared to me that the romance between her and Reacher was placed only so Child could have a sex scene in the book. It didn't really seem to mean anything, and both characters acted as though it had never happened afterwards. Saying this, I did, however, enjoy the scenes between Reacher and Kohl (a character I liked much better than Duffy). This romance was actually relevant to the plot, and it seemed more meaningful than the Duffy-Reacher romance.
My second minor problem was was that there was a sequence of scenes towards the end of the book that seemed drawn out and pointless. Basically, it involved a few of the characters running around looking for the bad guys only to end up back where they started. This just seemed dumb, and served only to set up the next sequence of scenes (which I admittedly loved; I just think Child could have found a far better way to get to them).
Overall, Persuader was an excellent edition to a series I love and a great development to a character I love. There were a few minor things that annoyed me, but not enough to drop my rating from five stars to four. Overall, a great read for any thriller fans.