No Plan B

Jack Reacher #27

by Lee Child, Andrew Child

In Gerrardsville, Colorado, a woman dies under the wheels of a moving bus. The death is ruled a suicide. But Jack Reacher saw what really happened: A man in a gray hoodie and jeans, moving stealthily, pushed the victim to her demise—before swiftly grabbing the dead woman’s purse and strolling away.

When another homicide is ruled an accident, Reacher knows this is no coincidence. With a killer on the loose, Reacher has no time to waste to track down those responsible.

But Reacher is unaware that these crimes are part of something much larger and more far-reaching: an arsonist out for revenge, a foster kid on the run, a cabal of powerful people involved in a secret conspiracy with many moving parts. There is no room for error, but they make a grave one. They don’t consider Reacher a threat. “There’s too much at stake to start running from shadows.” But Reacher isn’t a shadow. He is flesh and blood. And relentless when it comes to making things right.

For when the threat is Reacher, there is No Plan B.

Genres: Thriller, Fiction, Mystery, Crime, Audiobook, Action, Suspense

464 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published November 25, 2022

About the author

Lee Child was born October 29th, 1954 in Coventry, England, but spent his formative years in the nearby city of Birmingham. By coincidence he won a scholarship to the same high school that JRR Tolkien had attended. He went to law school in Sheffield, England, and after part-time work in the theater he joined Granada Television in Manchester for what turned out to be an eighteen-year career as a presentation director during British TV's "golden age." During his tenure his company made Brideshead Revisited, The Jewel in the Crown, Prime Suspect, and Cracker. But he was fired in 1995 at the age of 40 as a result of corporate restructuring. Always a voracious reader, he decided to see an opportunity where others might have seen a crisis and bought six dollars' worth of paper and pencils and sat down to write a book, Killing Floor, the first in the Jack Reacher series.

Killing Floor was an immediate success and launched the series which has grown in sales and impact with every new installment. The first Jack Reacher movie, based on the novel One Shot and starring Tom Cruise and Rosamund Pike, was released in December 2012.

Lee has three homes—an apartment in Manhattan, a country house in the south of France, and whatever airplane cabin he happens to be in while traveling between the two. In the US he drives a supercharged Jaguar, which was built in Jaguar's Browns Lane plant, thirty yards from the hospital in which he was born.

Lee spends his spare time reading, listening to music, and watching the Yankees, Aston Villa, or Marseilles soccer. He is married with a grown-up daughter. He is tall and slim, despite an appalling diet and a refusal to exercise.

Reviews

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

No Plan B by Andrew Child is full of intrigue!

Reacher's journey starts in Gerrardsville, Colorado where he witnesses a woman being pushed under a bus, and a man in a hoodie took her purse and left the scene. Another "reliable" (non-drifter) eyewitness said she lunged into the bus, a definite suicide. The police took his word and close the case. Reacher knew what he saw. Being a former MP, he's not letting this go. Reacher meets Hannah who recently lost someone close where both deaths seem to connect.

Reacher and Hannah formed an alliance to find out the truth. A father in Chicago loses his son. A fifteen-year-old foster boy from Los Angeles searching for his dad. Everyone heads to Winson, Mississippi.

I guess I was being very cocky, I thought I figured it out at 20%. Haha, wrong!! I should've seen it coming though, but it was better this way.

This is full of action and intrigue and can be read as a standalone. I think this is the best Andrew Child yet. I squirm at a certain scene...brutal, but Reacher is still my hero.💓

Thank you Random House - Ballantine, Delacorte Press, and Netgalley for my DRC.
Published Oct 25, 2022!

[Terence M [on a brief semi-hiatus] · Rating 1 out of 5]

1-Star - "I Did Not Like It" - Dnf @ 39%

No Plan B (Jack Reacher, #27)
by Lee Child, Andrew Child
Audiobook - 11:03 Hours - Narrator: Scott Brick
Heard: 04:16 Hours 39% - Balance: 06:47 Hours

Having been dissatisfied after listening to the first 'official' collaboration between Lee (Grant) Child and his brother, Andrew (Grant) Child, "#25, The Sentinel" (3-Stars, but on re-reading my review, I think I was being generous), I decided to skip "#26, Better Off Dead" and see what delights awaited me in "#27, No Plan B".

I listened to an uninspiring four+ hours (39%) of another "Not-A-Jack-Reacher" novel, and decided that was enough.

After the first half an hour or so, the "difference" in the sound of the writing was noticeable. I know it was a Jack Reacher audiobook because it said so on the front cover, but otherwise I could have been listening to any ordinary action/crime novel. This perception was not helped by a lacklustre narration by Scott Brick, usually one of my favourite interpreters and readers in the genre.

Back in the 1990's and early 2000's I would look forward to the end of a year because a new Jack Reacher novel was due. By the end of the 2010's the anticipation diminished, but I still bought and read/listened to any new release. This worked until "#24, Blue Moon", which was a shocker, in my opinion. These days, I think I have most likely reached the end of my tether with Jack Reacher.

[LIsa Noell "Rocking the chutzpah!" · Rating 3 out of 5]

My thanks to Random House/Ballantine and Netgalley.
It's a typical Reacher book. Even with an extra added author, nothing changes.
Reacher sees a bad, hunts them down "kicking ass and taking names!"
Still.. Sadly, all these stories are the same.
Always a quick and easy read.
Been there and done that.

[Sonja · Rating 1 out of 5]

I never write or leave bad reviews, but I'm making an exception with this one. SPOILER ALERT*

I love the Jack Reacher books and opened this one with a ton of excitement already built up. Then page one was pure setting with elaborate descriptions of buildings/rooms, written in passive voice with too many short, choppy sentences. Page two contained more of the same. It displayed all the thrills of an accounting business meeting minutes—and didn’t improve. Previous Reacher books start with our hero in the midst of something interesting. Why start this one with something so mind-bogglingly dull?

Half the fun of Reacher books is his unique and unpredictable personality. The way he plays with numbers in his head, running through primes, seeing codes in chaos. That’s not in this book. The way he assesses a scene before he has to kick some ass, telegraphing minimal moves for maximum damage, sometimes with anecdotes from past teachers or past fights. That’s not in this book, either. The way he has flashbacks of previous cases, former bad guys he’s put away, or heart-warming memories of his family, as odd as they were, that are pertinent to the current plot. None of that in No Plan B. The way he’s always got a sarcastic or witty comeback. Not in this story. In previous books, Reacher can wake himself up when he wants to. In this book, someone had to wake him up once. Why? No clue. It wasn’t explained. In previous books, if Reacher decided to kill a bad guy (it happened a few times), he chose a quick bullet to the head. In No Plan B, Reacher goes for the most over-the-top violence that was inconsistent with his character. Reacher is one-dimensional now, with none of the charm or wit I’d expect, and it was the same-old plot of a female victim who has no advocate, so Reacher steps up. I like that about him, but in this story, I didn’t feel the same connection to the victim, and I really didn’t feel that he did, either. The only thing that made the victim truly sympathetic was the existence of a small child, yet we never got to meet her. Reacher didn’t even bother to check on her and see that she was properly taken care of. He goes through the motions to have something to do with no real passion behind his investigation.

With all that fun stuff missing, what did this story have? A lot of cardboard bad guys (two separate groups) that were all bland, uninteresting, and sounded the same. There were at least four different points of view, but I had trouble telling them all apart—and for some reason, they kept repeating dialogue. The story had the standard violence usually found in a Reacher book, but instead of Reacher’s moves being innovative, quirky, or just surprising, most of the fight scenes were the standard ‘knock them out with one punch’. Only one of the antagonists gave Reacher a physical challenge. And to thoroughly crush my suspension of disbelief, one of the antagonists used chloroform on a rag multiple times to knock out his victims—one of the worst tropes in the industry! Google it. Chloroform takes about five minutes to knock someone out, and the entire time, they’re most likely fighting against their attacker. This antagonist also used a thoroughly brutal method of killing, which normally I wouldn’t mind in a Reacher novel (they’re supposed to be full of violence), but this was too over-the-top for me. Napalm? Really? Burning victims alive? That was just gross.

Reacher had a civilian side-kick this time. Hannah. I loved the concept of Reacher working with someone who wasn’t an old Army co-worker, but sadly, the relationship between Reacher and Hannah never developed. Hannah was as one-dimensional as the bad guys, so I never learned to care for her beyond “she’s a good guy” kind of thing. Same with the teenage kid side-character. Why was he there? He served no purpose, other than to pad out another subplot. And he wasn’t interesting.

The climax in the last fifty pages was uninspired and unbelievable. I can maybe buy a black-market ring selling the organs of prisoners, but why was a junior reporter the only person to notice the incredibly high death rate of prisoners? And come on! A prison full of guys talented enough to create forgeries of famous works of art or computer geniuses? That’s totally unbelievable. I’d maybe believe the prison warden found ONE guy who had that much artistic or technical talent, but an entire wing of the prison? Nope. Lastly, Reacher didn’t have anything to do with catching the prison baddies. The other set (the napalm guys) caught the prison guys and had them all strung up by the time Reacher arrived. All he did was rescue one victim from the prison. The hero is supposed to catch all the bad guys on his own, not watch from the sidelines while someone else wraps them all up. The ending was thoroughly disappointing.

The last three Reacher books have been awful, but this one read like a first draft with no edits. I’m not sure I’ll read the next one.

[Tim · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's effort. There's Reacher isms, "Reacher said nothing." But the thrill is gone. 4 of 10 stars

[Woman Reading (is away exploring) · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 ☆

In No Plan B, Jack Reacher arrived in small town Colorado for a museum exhibition. The next morning, Reacher witnessed Angela St. Vrain pushed into the street toward oncoming traffic. She died.

Reacher was wired to move toward danger. To confront it. To defeat it, or die trying. It was baked into his DNA.

Reacher knew what he saw. So he quite naturally chased the person who had pushed Angela and who had also stolen her purse. And then the local police disregarded Reacher's witness statement in favor of another "highly respected" person who saw Angela's "suicide." As Reacher followed the clues, he became enmeshed in something much more complex than a single murder.

The tragic tale of a wrongly convicted man. He wondered what it had to do with Angela. Which made him think of another tragic tale. One that was just beginning. For the little girl in the wallet photo. Angela's daughter. Who would now have to grow up without a mother.

While No Plan B is number 27 in the Reacher series, it's the third novel written by Andrew "Child" instead of Lee Child. I had two major criticisms with this installment. First, this felt like a body-snatch story. While the main character was named Jack Reacher, it didn't feel like the Reacher who had been created by Lee Child. There was no display of the wit that used to make me chuckle in the earlier stories. And while Andrew Child went out of his way to repeat all of the Reacher-isms in his debut outing -- The Sentinel #25, I was hard pressed to believe that No Plan B was a Jack Reacher story. The only Reacher-like aspect apparent in book #27 was that he played the hero who swooped into town and who then quickly disappeared after he had performed his heroics.

The second major fault I found with No Plan B was its storytelling style. I was bored with the first half of the book; that's about 175 pages. There was insufficient suspense to hold my attention. And yes, I expect suspense and/or action in a novel which is aimed at thriller fans. The writing also annoyed me because the author used periods to punctuate every thought -- for example

Plus he had a wife at home. And a son. The kid was in his twenties now but he was still a liability. Financially speaking. [He] had all kinds of expenses to take care of. Cars. Food. Clothes. Medical bills.

Since there wasn't enough intrigue to pull me into the plot, I had plenty of time to be irked by the writing style.

If No Plan B had been written by a new-to-me author and with a protagonist not named Reacher, I would still have rated this 2.5 stars. To me, that's average or middling, but I would have rounded up to 3 stars. But since this is billed as a Jack Reacher story, I'm going to round down. The protagonist is an automaton wearing a Reacher disguise but Reacher's heart and soul are gone.

Thank you to the authors, Random House Publishing Group, and NetGalley for the ARC. Quotations were from the published edition. This had been published on October 25, 2022.

[Phrynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Back to the Jack we know and love. He seemed a little odd in the last book but he is all systems go in this one.

Jack Reacher has paused briefly in his travels in Gerrardsville, Colorado, when he witnesses a woman being pushed into traffic who consequently dies. When the police decide it was suicide Reacher begins investigating and stirs up a lot of trouble. There are several subplots as well, which all come together at the end. Things do get very involved and the reader needs to concentrate more than is usually required in a Jack Reacher book.

I enjoyed the whole thing. I think most of my satisfaction comes from the fact that Reacher is always the winner despite any odds. This book is a winner too.

[Brenda · Rating 5 out of 5]

When Reacher strolled into Gerrardsville, Colorado, he didn't expect to become embroiled in murder. But witnessing a woman pushed in front of a bus started the ball rolling for Reacher, and his determination to get to the bottom of what was going on drove him forward. Connecting with Hannah Hampton, she and Reacher headed to Winson, halfway across the country, where they hoped to find answers.

Meanwhile Jed Starmer was on a Greyhound bus, heading for Jackson, Mississippi. He was a young man, grieving, uncertain but determined to make his way across the country. He needed to get to Winson and was on a deadline. Would he make it? Jed had no idea what he was heading into...

No Plan B is the 27th in the Jack Reacher series written by Lee Child and his brother Andrew Child. It was excellent. Choppy, fast paced, with Reacher at his absolute best, I had trouble putting it down. Highly recommended.

[William de_Rham · Rating 2 out of 5]

“No Plan B” is the 27th in Lee and Andrew Childs’s Jack Reacher series. This is the second "Reacher" in a row that I've found sorely lacking.

It’s an action/adventure mystery consisting of three to four plots, each plot seemingly having no relationship to any other--which means we keep skipping from plot to plot, all the while wondering what and where the “big reveal” will be. Unfortunately, it doesn’t come until the very end, by which time Reacher has engaged in more than his share of brutal violence--including a killing that is exceedingly grotesque. And when the reveal does come, it’s not very credible

Along the way, we are introduced to not one interesting character and forced to plow through page after page of eye-glazing, brain-numbing descriptions of how Reacher goes about accomplishing his tasks. Indeed, the characters are barely described and there are no interesting relationships between any two. Character motivations are thin and not all that credible. Which means it’s tough to care about what’s happening. And while the authors touch on various societal issues, they make no attempt to delve into them. Hence, we learn virtually nothing about them.

I remember a Jack Reacher who was uber-competent, dryly funny, off-beat, and decidedly original. The Reacher we experience in “No Plan B” is none of these. The only thing remarkable about him in this story is his brutality.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

In this 27th book in the 'Jack Reacher' series, the former military cop pursues justice for two murder victims. The book can be read as a standalone.

*****

Jack Reacher meanders from place to place, his only travel accessory being a folding toothbrush.



One day, in Gerrardsville, Colorado, Reacher sees a woman sail under a bus....a fatal incident. Most pedestrians say the woman jumped, but from Jack's angle, he saw a man in a hoodie push the woman. The hoodie man then leaned under the bus and took the woman's purse.



Reacher follows the hoodie man and gets into a tussle with the perp and two of his associates. In the melee, Jack roughs up the scoundrels, who skedaddle, but not before Jack gets a peek into the victim's purse, which contains an envelope with papers and a photo.



The police investigate the incident and call it a suicide. But Reacher knows what he saw, and he sets out to get justice for the victim, whose name is Angela. It turns out Angela worked in a private prison in Mississippi, where she suspected serious wrongdoing.



Angela came to Gerrardsville to show the proof to her former prison co-worker, a man named Sam. Unfortunately, Sam just died as well, supposedly from a heart attack.

This 'coincidence' is too much for Reacher, and Jack and Sam's ex-wife Hannah conclude Sam was murdered.....just like Angela. So Reacher and Hannah set out for the prison in Mississippi, to run down the perpetrators.



The CEO of the Mississippi prison, who ordered the murders of Sam and Angela, learns that Reacher is on his way to Mississippi.



The CEO is worried, and sends his minions to stop Reacher by any means necessary. However Jack, who's very clever and tough, can take it, and dish it out a million times worse.

>

As this is happening, other parties are also interested in the Mississippi prison.

A California teenager called Jed just learned that his biological father, whom he's never met, is getting released from the Mississippi prison in a few days. So Jed runs away from his foster home and takes off for Mississippi. It's a tough trip though, because Jed is the target of criminals along the way.



Also, a professional arsonist, whose drug=addict son died when his organs shut down, is out to get revenge against the people responsible. And these people are connected with the prison in Mississippi.



In time, all these story lines come together, in dramatic scenes.

Like all Reacher books, this is an exciting story filled with fighting, shooting, killing, running, hiding, etc. Just the book for action fans.

As an observation, I'd like to say that authors Lee Child and Andrew Child thought up a unique money-making scheme for this book.

You can follow my reviews at https://reviewsbybarbsaffer.blogspot.com

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

No Plan B is number twenty seven in this thriller series. The conceit in the Jack Reacher series is that an ex Army CID Officer has returned to civilian life, but does not quite fit in anywhere. Instead, Jack Reacher with nothing more than the shirt in his back, his brawn, and his wits travels the country, stumbling across trouble wherever he goes. Of course, it helps that he’s six foot five, 250 pounds, and fights like he is an army. While there is something appealing about his rootlessness, it’s often oft-putting to mainstream characters who don’t know how to classify him or whether to trust him.

Here, Jack wanders into a Colorado town and witnessed a woman get pushed under a bus so cleverly that everyone else present assumes its suicide. Officially it’s an open and closed case. But, for Jack, it’s something he can’t leave alone. Justice is called for and he’s going to ferret out the truth even if it leads him to a vast conspiracy thousands of miles away and requires taking on a whole private army, none of whom are as trained or skilled as Jack. Just like Bond never ran out of trained goons to grapple with, Jack doesn’t either.

It’s a fast-paced and action-packed Ride. As always, it’s Jack’s determination and singlemindedness of purpose that is compelling just as much as the action. His disconnectedness from society allows him to take action without being weighed down although it can sometimes be a handicap.

All in all, another enjoyable thriller in a long series.

[Henry · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have read every Jack Reacher book (and all the short stories). Of the first 26 I gave all 5 star ratings except for four which got four star ratings (mostly recent ones). Obviously I am a huge Jack Reacher fan. One star for this piece of junk is generous. It was truly awful. It consisted of a bunch of disconnected plots which all come together in an ending which was obvious, unsatisfying and totally ridiculous. Jack Reacher, a complex character created by Lee Child, has turned into a thug. It was a struggle to finish but since I was so invested in the series I did finish it. Summary: stupid and boring. This could not have been written by Lee Child (Andrew Child is listed as a co-author), and I doubt Lee had anything to do with it or even read it.

[LiteraryMarie · Rating 1 out of 5]

No Plan B is the 27th book in the Jack Reacher series by Lee and Andrew Child. One of my favorite grifters, Jack Reacher, arrived in Gerrardsville, Colorado, on a Monday. It is there that two witnesses to the same tragedy give two different accounts. One guy sees a woman throw herself in front of a bus. The other guy, Jack Reacher, sees the woman pushed to her death. Reacher follows the killer on foot, not knowing there is a secret conspiracy with many moving parts.

There is No Plan B when the threat is Reacher. He is 6'5", 250 lbs. and scruffy. You can't miss him. So why must the bad guys constantly try him? Underestimate him? Square up against him? Maybe the better question is why the author(s) continue putting Reacher in unnecessary situations where he has to fight his way out and drop countless bodies. For why?!

The only reason I did not DNF No Plan B is because I held out hope. I wanted the story to get more believable. More interesting. Different than the previous stop-in-a-small-town-witness-injustice-actively-go-after-bad-guys plot. I may have to stop reading the current releases in the Jack Reacher series and resume reading the earlier books for the character I fell in heavy like with. Because this new sh!t is not it.

Happy Early Pub Day, Lee and Andrew Child! No Plan B will be available Tuesday, October 25.

Disclaimer: An advance copy was received directly from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions are my own and would be the same if I spent my hard-earned coins.

~LiteraryMarie

[Albert Riehle · Rating 1 out of 5]

Jack Reacher is dead. That's not a spoiler. He's alive and kicking at the end of this book. But I think he's dead to me. I tried to give Andrew Grant a fair shake. When he transitioned into the writer's chair for this series with The Sentinel I thought he did a decent job and that most importantly, Reacher was the character that his brother Lee Child had created and written for so many years. Things have gotten decidedly worse from there though. I wasn't a fan of the previous book in this series and with No Plan B, Andrew has really done some harm to this series.

This just isn't a Reacher book. It's an Andrew Grant book with Reacher in it--or maybe the shadow of Reacher.

There is a basic formula to the Reacher books. It's a Shane-like formula. Reacher comes into town, something shady is going on and Reacher fights on the side of angels to save the day. It's not complicated. There are some deviations over the course of the series, but almost always, the action starts early and before you know it Reacher is the the middle of things again. Grant/Andrew Child walks away from that successful formula. This book starts with the bad guys in a meeting, then flips to 3 days prior to the meeting, then moves ahead in time again. Reacher is in the first 175 pages of this book less than in any Reacher book in the series. Instead we get side story about a runaway, we get a side story about the bad guys and we get a side story about another bad guy who has nothing to do with the main bad guys (until later).

Grant moves back and forth between all of these stories and only the Reacher parts are interesting but even those feel a bit cheap and forced. It isn't until the very end when all of the various parties in this story come together and then the book rushes to a conclusion which has some action but nothing I found fun or interesting.

Then there were the silly inconsistencies. For the entire series, Reacher can set his internal alarm clock and wake up exactly at that time. Ridiculous? Sure. But it's canon in this series. It's what Reacher does. But in this book another character has to wake him up at 7:30 a.m. Little things like that make a difference to long time readers.

This book had a terrible pace, a story that wasn't at all compelling and characters who were bland and uninteresting. Reacher was a shadow of his normally enigmatic self. I think I'm going to pretend that Reacher is dead and not continue on in this series. I tried to give Andrew a fair shake and I think that 3 books in, ratings of 3 then 2 then 1 star tell the story of a failed experiment. As Lee becomes more and more hands off, Andrew drives the series further and further into the ground.

It sucks to say, but Jack Reacher is dead. He didn't survive the handoff from brother to brother. Because this is not a Reacher book. It's just a cash-grab in his name. In case it's not obvious, this is a 1-star book and I most definitely do not recommend you read it.

[Damo · Rating 3 out of 5]

A board of directors of a Mississippi prison are sitting down to plot how to hide a crime and how they might solve a potential problem. A foster kid in Los Angeles suddenly decides to up and leave his foster home, catching a bus heading east. A Chicago businessman’s son dies after being given something, supposedly to cure an illness. The businessman is now out for revenge. A woman in Gerrardsville, Colorado is pushed under a bus and it’s made to look like suicide. Jack Reacher is on the scene to witness the crime. He takes matters into his own hands.

From vastly different parts of the country there are forces at work, drawing a bunch of seemingly unrelated people together. Not surprisingly, Reacher is one of the key components of the inevitable meeting.

When Jack Reacher witnesses a wrong he becomes determined to right it. Almost single-mindedly, homicidally determined. And that’s what compels him to travel from the crime scene in Colorado all the way to the small town of Winson in Mississippi. He has already figured out that there’s something very suspicious going on and that’s only confirmed by the reception he receives as he arrows in on Winson.

His journey to Winson comes courtesy of Hannah Hampton, ex-wife of another man murdered in Gerrardsville, presumably by the same people who did the under-the-bus pushing. She has picked up the same desire for justice that pushes Reacher forward and, once she confirmed Reacher was one of the good guys, understood that he would be the perfect person to hitch on to.

The boy who left Los Angeles bound for Winson - Jed Sturmer. Jed seems a bit of a random piece to the puzzle (but not the most random!) and his journey cross country is an eventful one, fraught with all of the dangers you might expect a young, naive boy on the run might fall into. Clearly his path is going to cross with Reacher's; it's just a matter of where, when and how it will influence the outcome of Reacher’s quest.

And the most random? The Chicago businessman? The fly in the ointment, the sugar in the gas tank, the stick in the stokes. There’s always some kind of spanner just waiting to clang everything up.

This is the 27th book in the Reacher series and if you’ve read any of the previous outings you’ll be aware of how things are going to go here. Faced with difficult to impossible odds, outnumbered and outgunned, Reacher wades into the fray full of the confidence of an overly large man who is capable of causing maximum damage with his fists, elbows, knees and feet. Not to mention any gun that he manages to get hold of.

There’s a crime sitting behind all of the mystery at the center of this book, but it’s really only presented as an aside with very little substance provided. It’s a dark, horrifying crime that may be difficult to come to terms with and if more was revealed about it, I may have been more convinced about Reacher’s actions when he reached Winson. As it is, Reacher appears to be heading further and further down the psychopathic path than ever. (Not a criticism, just an observation).

No Plan B is an unevenly paced book with moments of extreme action that’s, at times, brutal and uncompromising. In some ways, it’s lacking in the nuance of the telling that the straight Lee Child authored books has, but it managed to keep me entertained and curious about what would happen next.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another exciting episode in the Jack Reacher series! Reacher sure has a way of finding trouble - or trouble finds him. In this one a woman is hit by a bus and killed in Colorado. Reacher thinks she was pushed in front of it and gives chase to the perpetrator. Soon after a man is dead who was a friend of the woman who was killed. Then it's off to the races and it never stops. This investigation jumps from Colorado to a prison in Mississippi where something very suspicious is going on and Reacher is determined to find out what.

When I read one of these Jack Reacher books it is for fun. However, all belief in reality has to be suspended because Reacher is much like a comic superhero. Some of the situations he finds himself in (and gets himself out of) are totally unbelievable. Once you stop being practical, these are just fun reads with an exciting hero. This one had some really evil bad guys who have been getting away with some despicable practices for years.

Thanks to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Delacorte Press through Netgalley for an advance copy. This book will be published on October 25, 2022.

[Pierre Tassé (Enjoying Books) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Run of the mill Reacher novel.it had a different slant to this one maybe because of adding Andrew Child to credits. Hum. I wonder if there were any other books written like this.

[Lou Jacobs · Rating 4 out of 5]

NO PLAN B by Lee CHILD and Andrew CHILD
Published: 10/25/2022 by Random House Publishing
368 pages

Your next guilty pleasure has arrived. The voice of our beloved iconic hero, Jack Reacher, lives on in another action packed suspenseful thriller penned by Andrew Child ( with an unidentified extent of help by Lee Child). In this 27th novel in the series, Reacher’s inimitable style of conflict resolution with action and violence in support of the challenged victim shines on with mystery and intrigue. This can be devoured as a stand-alone, as the necessary backstory is seamlessly laid in. Reacher in his typical nomadic style, is traveling by bus and hitchhiking and arrives in the small town of Gerrardsville, Colorado to visit a Civll War museum.
Reacher witnesses a woman being pushed in front of a bus by a furtive man in a grey hoodie, and then snaking his hand under her crushed body to retrieve her purse. Reacher pursues the man into an alley, confronts him in his usual unabashed manner, easily takes his gun away, spins him around and forcefully pushes him into the adjacent alley wall with resultant broken nose and freely flowing blood from multiple gashes. An accomplice intervenes, allowing both to escape, as Reacher has an unfortunate encounter with a collapsing fire escape. As Reacher returns to the scene of the crime, he learns from a detective that the women’s death is considered a suicide based upon other witnesses statements. Reacher was able to retrieve the woman’s purse in the alley, and checked out the contents… hoping to found out why she was killed. He found a driver’s license for Angela St. Vrain with an address in Winson, Mississippi…. a black and white photo of Angela with a little girl (perhaps three years old) …a laminated card on a blue lanyard identifying her as an employee of the Minerva Correctional Facility in Winson … and a letter size envelope addressed to Danny Peel containing a photograph/ mug shot of a young man ( noteworthy was a missing left earlobe and a scar across his neck) and some papers outlining the life story of one, Anton Begovic, escalating from petty theft at age eighteen and other offenses resulting in incarceration, and an eventual appeal and the judges order to release Begovic…this coming Friday. This declaration of a suicide does not sit well with Reacher. He knows what he saw and begins his own investigation. He quickly uncovers a connection of Angela with a local man, Sam Roth, who somewhat improbably died of a heart attack shortly before her arrival. Sam’s ex-wife Hannah Hampton is able to shed further light on the unlikely coincidences, and soon both embark on a road-trip to Winson to further investigate the mystery behind these injustices. Reacher cannot help but apply his unique investigative skills to right the wrong, that apparently evades the local law enforcement agencies.
The Child team proves to be master storytellers as they weave into the narrative two other sub-plots that move parallel to the main plot until they all collide and coalesce into an unexpected and explosive denouement. We learn about fifteen year old Jed, while living with foster parents, learns that his birth mother is dying of stage four pancreatic cancer and on her death bed finally tells him the truth about his father. Suddenly he departs from Los Angeles, intent on making a long journey that will necessitate many Greyhound buses. At the same time
Lev Emerson, who specializes in making accidents happen, to solve other people’s problems. Learns his twenty-two year old son has died, while in rehab ….. his liver and other body organs have failed. His next mission is that of revenge… for those he holds responsible.
There is obviously something sinister behind the machinations of those running the Minerva Correctional Facility …. How is it related to the release of an innocent man? How will Jed and Lev eventually find themselves in Winson, Mississippi? I certainly enjoyed the ingenuity how the many moving parts of this narrative explosively collided to form an enjoyable denouement.
Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for providing an Uncorrected Proof in exchange for an honest review.

[Paula · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best Reacher book in years. I didn´t much like #26,thought the transition to Andrew wasn´t working, but either Lee Child has (re) taken over or it´s working. I don´t care which,I enjoyed this ride inmensely.

[Jeremy Peers · Rating 4 out of 5]

No Plan B is the third Jack Reacher written by Andrew Child and, to me, is quintessential Reacher. Reacher witnesses a woman get murdered and her purse stolen, Reacher takes note of the scene and decides to let authorities handle it. When the woman's death is ruled a suicide, Reacher begins to poke around finds himself in a vast conspiracy as evil as it is shocking. Flying by the seat of his pants like usual, Reacher is about to show the evildoers they should have had a plan B.

Andrew Child's No Plan B harkens back to the Reacher of old and is the best of the three he has written. In the first two books Andrew penned, you could tell he was experimenting with his version and vision for Reacher. Andrew's Reacher is more aggressive and brutal but remains the same Reacher Lee Child created. Andrew Child's Reacher has a flair for the dramatic as well as hiding a few tricks up his sleeve. At one point Reacher channels his inner MacGyver (a great show) so we know what he has been watching. MacGyvering the crap out of something is always a delight regardless who is doing the MacGyvering.

No Plan B will delight longtime fans of Reacher as well as newbies. No Plan B needed.

As always, my sincere thanks to Lee and Andrew Child, Delacorte Press, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of No Plan B!

[Graham “Smell the Ink” · Rating 3 out of 5]

A typical Jack Reacher novel that was a fairly enjoyable read but getting rather predictable for me. Plot was fine but again far fetched in the way you see action movies do the same kind of thing. Surely this series is ending its course, maybe the author(s) need to consider coming up with something new?.

[Monnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars, actually.

Every loyal reader of this series knows nobody messes with Jack Reacher - he can take down half a dozen very big, very angry men in the blink of an eye. In this one, he proves he can give MacGyver a run for his skills as well.

The plot has four "legs," if you will - and that made it a little tough for me to follow, at least for the first half or so of the book, just because of the number of characters and switchbacks from one to the other. There's a guy who wants revenge, another looking for a long-lost someone, some very bad guys who don't want to get caught doing what they're doing and, of course, the raison d'etre that puts Reacher, at first inadvertently and then intentionally, in the middle of the whole mess.

The whole thing begins as Reacher sees a man throw a woman under the bus - quite literally - after which he steals her purse and runs. Something Reacher saw seems to have triggered feelings of ill will, so to speak, from some folks who would rather it not be seen - what was there threatens the good thing they want to keep going. Reacher, doing his Reacher thing, smells a rat (and we all know he doesn't react well to threats), so he vows to get to the bottom of it even if it takes him halfway across the country. While this is going on, those other folks begin to converge at the same place - the Minerva Correctional Facility in Winson, Mississippi.

The details, of course, I can't reveal, except to say there's never a dull moment; all points converge at the end, and readers learn what happens to all the people who started off as strangers but end up as, well, you'll have to read it for yourself to find that out. It's fast-paced, fun and another adventure I'm sure Reacher fans will enjoy. I heartily thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for allowing me to read and review a pre-release copy. Well done!

[Tom · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing.

This is the book that makes me question whether I will continue to read this series. The four plot lines barely intersect until the last 50 pages and then only in a "really?" sort of contrived collision.
The Jed Starmer plot line is superfluous. Take him out of the story and nothing is lost but maybe 5,000 words.
The evil corporate conspiracy trope has become cliche--variations of it have become too common in the series.
And Napalm? Really? Come on. That is absurd villainy.

I do want the sibling-authors arrangement to work, but I don't think it is. It's a lot to ask of Andrew to keep the print franchise going at the expense of his own career.

If it isn't careful, PRH is going to milk this cash cow dry with an annual publishing schedule that takes the loyal reader for granted (Now there's a corporate conspiracy plot line Reacher should investigate). I'd rather wait 18 months for a well-conceived story line than get another "No Plan B" threadbare "Reacher" story in a year.

Getting back to the personal stories might be a good move. Like Echo Burning, for example.

Otherwise, the series is circling the drain.

[Faith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not sure why I keep reading these books. They are all the same, although this one attempts to go all fancy by following multiple characters, not just Reacher. There are the bad guys who run a private prison system that has something to hide, a teenaged runaway looking for his father and an arsonist looking for revenge. Of course all of these threads converge at the end of the book where Reacher saves the day. In addition to the sameness of these books, I have come to find Reacher’s lack of any personality or charisma tiresome. No one could stand 10 minutes in his company, yet women always fall into bed with him. And then there are the numerous fight scenes in which Reacher gets to smash faces and crush bones. The book is fine if you know what to expect and aren’t looking for anything surprising. It held my interest, mostly because I liked the teenager and I wanted to find out what the prison was up to. 3.5 stars

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

[Jannelies (living between hope and fear) · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading a lot of reviews about Jack Reacher #22 and higher, I must admit I was sorry to see that this series lost its attraction.
I picked up a free copy of No Plan B and decided that since it was free, and I was also free to choose whether I would like to write a review or not, to give it a go.
And I'm not disappointed; I did not see the end of the story come. I liked the way the story alternated between Reacher himself and the bad guys and it had a certain pace and rhythm that made me enjoy it. The book followed the well-known path I came to like in earlier books.
I'll keep following Lee and Andrew Child because for me, their cooperation worked.

[Jean · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this latest Jack Reacher story out of habit. I am still not use to a new author and narrator. I like Scott Brick; he is one of my favorite narrators. But to me, Dick Hill will always be Reacher.

In the story Andrew Child is getting closer to the old Reacher. I immediately recognized “Reacher said nothing.” But this story has a way to go yet to be back to the high standard it was. Will I read the next book, probably yes.

I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. The book is eleven hours. Scott Brick does good job narrating considering he is not Dick Hill.

[Alan (the Lone Librarian rides again) Teder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cross Country Reacher
Review of the Random House Audio audiobook edition (October 25, 2022) narrated by Scott Brick, released simultaneously with the Delacorte Press hardcover edition.

Statistics
'Reacher said nothing.' count = 8
Alternative ('He said nothing.') count = 1
Toothbrush mentions = 5 (Only 1 was about Reacher's toothbrush though)

No Plan B is now the 3rd collaboration of brothers Lee and Andrew Child in a phased-in retirement and handover of the franchise between them. Readers have various methods to monitor how well younger brother Andrew has taken over the reins from original writer Lee. For me, the measure is whether the laconic tagline 'Reacher said nothing' is getting sufficient play and whether there are enough toothbrush jokes in the mix. For the former the count is low in this outing, but understandably so, as there are multiple points-of-view in play and Reacher is not centre stage at all times. For the latter, the toothbrush references are many, but most of them are in relation to another character, so that is a bit of an inside joke. There weren't any lines to top my all time favourite: "Reacher was already packed and ready to go. His toothbrush was in his pocket." (from Blue Moon (Reacher #24, 2019)).

No Plan B uses an uncharacteristically wide canvas across the United States. There are villains in Colorado, Illinois, New Jersey and Mississippi. Reacher himself travels cross country from Colorado to Mississippi to track down the heart of the conspiracy. A teenage boy runs away from his foster home in Los Angeles in what is at first an unclear mission. A seemingly unrelated group of criminals are also on the trail of the same bad guys as Reacher, for what is at first a seemingly unrelated matter. It all comes together in the final confrontations in Mississippi where the diabolical nature of the main body of conspirators is revealed. Reacher is of course on hand to mete out justice. This actually crosses over sometimes into elements of grand guignol, which was shocking. But in the end, we have a toothbrush bonding moment to let us know that all is well in Reacher country, and that Andrew Child knows the right levers to pull to keep the fans happy.

The narration by Scott Brick in the audiobook edition was excellent as always.

Other Reviews
Review at Crime Fiction Lover by Paul Burke, October 25, 2022.

Trivia and Links
There is a very short book trailer for No Plan B by Random House which you can watch on YouTube here.

There is an October 24, 2022 interview with Andrew Child about No Plan B by Barbara Peters at the Poisoned Pen Bookstore's YouTube channel which you can watch here.

From The Writer's Library: The Authors You Love on the Books That Changed Their Lives (Sept. 2020) by Nancy Pearl & Jeff Schwager. Here is a (perhaps surprising) excerpt from their discussion with Amor Towles:

Nancy: Do you read Lee Child?
Amor: I know Lee. I had never read his books until I met him, but now I read them whenever they come out. I think some of the decisions he makes are ingenious.
Jeff: Have you read the Parker books by Donald Westlake [writing as Richard Stark]?
Amor: I think the Parker books are an extraordinary series.
Jeff: They feel like a big influence on Reacher, right down to the name. Both Reacher and Parker have a singular focus on the task in front of them.
Amor: But Parker is amoral. Reacher is just dangerous.
Jeff: Right. Reacher doesn't have a conventional morality, but he has his own morality. Parker will do anything he has to do to achieve his goal.
Amor: But to your point, Westlake's staccato style with its great twists at the end of the paragraphs, and his mesmerizing central character - these attributes are clearly shared by the Reacher books.

[Carol Jean · Rating 2 out of 5]

OMG this is just embarrassing. Reacher violently beats up one thug every three pages in a far more violent and bloody way than usual. And by the time he gets to the prison -- well, I fell off the bed laughing. Highly improbable and very gross. Who actually wrote this?????

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jack Reacher, everyone’s favourite nomad, is back for another adventure, allowing Lee and Andrew Child to use their brilliant writing abilities one more. Reacher finds himself involved in an incident that spans across the US and gets him into trouble with a new collection of corrupt officials. The authors keep the action high and dry humour flowing in this novel, which has much more zip than some of their past collaborative efforts. Nice to see Reacher is back in fine form, with no signs of waning.

After arriving in a small Colorado town, Jack Reacher witnesses a young woman tossed in front of a bus, before the purported killer left with her purse. While others think they saw the woman leap, Reacher is sure about what he saw and tells the authorities as much. After a brief confrontation with a few men who might have been part of the killer’s group, he gets a glance inside the victim’s purse, where he learns a little more about her, including that she is far from her Mississippi home, where she works in a prison.

Painted as a target who might know too much, Reacher could find himself in a great deal of danger, but he refuses to stand down from trying to get to the root of the murder. Little does he know, but the killing is part of a larger conspiracy by a group who have even more nefarious plans that span across the country.

While Reacher and another Colorado local try to peel things back, which include a trip to Mississippi, a young boy has begun a trek across the country to flee a troubled home life. He finds himself involved in his own set of troubled circumstances and could use some help. When Reacher crosses paths with him, they find a common interest and appear to connect on some level. Still, both are on their respective missions, which could be intertwined, even if neither is quite aware of it yet. As Reacher is ready to put it all on the line, he must watch out for those who have him on their target list, prepped to leave another body if it keeps the silence. The Child brothers know how to keep Reacher at the top of his game and series fans can revel in another wonderful thriller.

I have followed the Jack Reacher series since its inception, which is why I was a tad leery when Lee Child invited his brother to collaborate. Things began a little shakily, but they appear to have righted themselves with this explosive thriller once more. Reacher is a nomad, but connects well with characters and the reader, given the chance. There is a lot to enjoy in this novel, offering series fans a glimpse at past greatness that just might be on the horizon once more. I’m eager. to see how the Child (Grant) brothers will handle Reacher in the future, as well as whether they foresee an end of his nomadic ways.

Much like its protagonist, the narrative style of this series has meandered all over the place, but captivates the reader on a repeated basis. The story keeps gaining momentum through the well-paced narrative that the authors develop so well. As always, there are many one-off characters, some of whom are able to connect with the reader in a short order and make for a more enjoyable experience. Wonderful plots help keep things sharp and on point throughout, something that Reacher appears to enjoy as he makes his way across the country. The authors have kept the series moving along, though anyone could easily pick up a book at any point in the series and be perfectly content. I am eager to see where things are headed and what location Reacher will discover next.

Kudos, Messrs. Child, on another enjoyable reading experience.

Love/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/

[Bam cooks the books · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lee and Andrew Child team up again in the 27th thriller of this series, the third for Andrew. As with any long-running series like this, the plot scenario never varies too far from what has always worked well. Here, Reacher has stopped in Gerrardsville, CO, to spend time in a museum that interests him. Right in broad daylight in the downtown, he sees a woman pushed to her death. But the official ruling is suicide so Reacher feels compelled to figure out what's really going on and who would want her dead. The search leads him to a privately-owned prison in Mississippi.

In subplots, two other people are heading to that prison as well for their own purposes--one, a young boy running away from foster care, wanting to find his birth father; and the other, a man looking for revenge.

This story is as always very entertaining escapism, with lots of action and violence. This plot would definitely make a great Prime Video movie with a crew of unscrupulous bad guys carrying out their sneaky plans and eliminating anyone who stands in their way.

There is a noticeable difference in style of writing, now that Andrew has joined the writing team, perhaps a bit less warmth about our hero, but I'm happy to see there is still an occasional bit of humor to lighten things up.

I received an arc from the authors and publisher for which I am grateful. My review is voluntary however and the opinions expressed are my own.