Jack in a Box

Hunt for Reacher #1.1

by Diane Capri

Exciting Short Read! Hunting Jack Reacher is dangerous business. Reacher lives totally off the grid, but he has friends -- and enemies -- in high places

FBI Special Agents Kim Otto and Carlos Gaspar have received a special off-the-books assignment: build a secret file on Jack Reacher. Otto and Gaspar reveal a bit of themselves as they make every effort to put Jack in a Box. Reacher fans know that no one boxes with Jack and lives to tell about it. Will Otto and Gaspar be the first to succeed where so many have failed?

New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author Diane Capri brings her insider knowledge to bear on her friend Lee Child's iconic character. Have you joined the Hunt for Jack Reacher yet?

Genres: Thriller, Fiction, Mystery, Crime, Suspense, Novella, Ebooks

37 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Bestselling author Diane Capri is a recovering lawyer. She’s a snowbird who divides her time between Florida and Michigan. An active member of Mystery Writers of America, Author’s Guild, International Thriller Writers, and Sisters in Crime, she loves to hear from readers and is hard at work on her next novel.

Connect with her online:
Twitter: http://twitter.com/@DianeCapri
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Diane-...

Here’s the Long version, if you’re looking for more info:

#1 Amazon Bestselling Author Diane Capri’s work is what the #1 worldwide publishing phenomenon Lee Child calls “Full of thrills and tension, but smart and human, too.” Margaret Maron, Edgar, Anthony, Agatha and Macavity Award-winning MWA Past President, says: “Expertise shines on every page.” And Library Journal raves: “….offers tense legal drama with courtroom overtones, twisty plots, and loads of atmosphere. Recommended.”

Diane’s new Jess Kimball series kicked off with Fatal Distraction, opening as the #3 Bestselling Legal Thriller, behind John Grisham. Diane’s new Hunt for Jack Reacher series began with Don’t Know Jack, which garnered #1 Bestseller spots on Mystery, Hard-boiled Mystery, Police Procedural, Women Sleuths, and Legal Thriller lists both in the U.S. and U.K. Don’t Know Jack was followed by two bestselling short stories in the Hunt for Jack Reacher series, Jack in a Box and Jack and Kill. Diane’s Judge Wilhelmina Carson mysteries were praised by Romantic Times and garnered the coveted “Top Pick.” Diane’s savvy, spunky character, attorney Jennifer Lane, stars in her own romantic suspense series, which kicks off with Annabelle’s Attack.

Diane is the past Executive Vice President of International Thriller Writers, past member of the Board of the Florida Chapter of Mystery Writers of America, and active in Sisters in Crime and other writing organizations. She comes to writing after a successful legal career and is married to her college sweetheart. She loves her nomadic snowbird existence preferring perpetual summer migrating from Florida to Michigan each year.

Diane says she writes mystery and suspense for the same reason she reads: to find out what happens, why people do what they do, and how to bring justice to an unjust world.Her books are translated in twenty territories. Diane loves to hear from readers. Contact her at: DianeCapri.com/Contact to receive notice of new releases, subscribe to Diane’s blog, or simply connect with her.

Reviews

[Jeanette · Rating 4 out of 5]

These are mere tidbits (short stories) and together as a whole they encompass a 4 star if you have patience to connect them together. This one had, for me, an introduction to two different SUPERB characterizations. That's why I rated it as I did. Not for plot.

One is FBI/ DEA Kim Otto and one is FBI/ State Dept Gaspar. Both are prizes. She is a 4 foot 11-1/2" Wisconsin/ Michigan 1/2 Vietnamese/ 1/2 German Lutheran Wisc. American Farmer (with the big Family F- all of her relatives are huge blondes) and he is a latter 30 something soon to be father of his 5th (first boy) with 4 daughters and happy wife as Dad works trying to recoup from a wound and live through his 5 year old daughter's sleep overs. It's got pizzazz.

They are back together in D.C. (he comes from Miami and she from the North) trying to locate AGAIN (every segment story is looking for Jack) Jack Reacher. This time they get a message to meet a go-between and the last 10 pages are the next step in the process of getting that "message" duty completed. It takes place in a downtown D.C. park after a tuxedo / formal do is letting out right next door. It's knee deep in "the swamp". No one is telling anyone else why, how or what slant they have in trying to find Jack either.

Jack doesn't want to be found. He is warning them. No records are available after 1997 anywhere and not a fingerprint base exists anymore on top of it. (IMPOSSIBLE NOT!) All have been purged in the paper, data, digital, scientific FORMS. Everything before 1997 has been efficiently erased.

These stories are like very good tiny dark Belgian chocolate tid-bits. Capri knows Reacher.

And she REALLY knows the North family farmer and small town folks/ structures well too. They are filled with a certain snappy humor. Otto has a 102 year old Grandmother that is dying- and her hospital crowds in WI are hilarious.

You probably have to read these in order. But I got a start with #2 and know enough about Reacher to get the drift of where this is going. This is written like Dickens wrote, in short segments published for maximum cliff hanger and $$$ interests.

These two chiseled characters are worth the read alone.

[Steven R. McEvoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the second of Diane Capri’s Jack books that I have read. This one is more of a short story, or even chapter in the large Hunt for Reacher story. The paperback is listed at 100 pages, but the formatting must be very generous. The eBook is 35 pages. I read this volume one day on my commute home from work. Having now read the first three Hunt For Reacher stories I see better where this one fits in, even with its brevity. In the six months before reading this series I read 29 Jack Reacher Novels and short stories by Lee Child. I stumbled upon these books while preparing one of my reviews and recalled my dad having mentioned them. So, I decided to give one a try. I typically read a couple hundred books a year, and the last few years have been over 300 a year. And at the pace I am going I will finish off this series un under a year from my first Reacher read. These stories are great reads for Reacher fans, and yet are written well enough that they could be read on their own. But they really ought to be read in order, something I must admit I often do not do. Lee Child himself has plugged these books in the Reacher Report. And they deserve the applause.

This story begins with FBI special agents Kim Otto and Carlos Gaspar working separately. One in the FBI archives, and the other the military records. Both receive envelopes with a large print of Reacher’s head shot and a not on the back with a date and time. In this story we find out a lot more about both agent’s families. And what makes them tick. And both are warned off the trail of Reacher. So now they are stuck in a hard place. A very senior officer in their agency driving them forward, and they have been warned that many will not like Reacher being looked into, and some will likely be hostile. But neither can give up. They are warned by Duffy:

“Suit yourself,” her disembodied voice seemed to echo too loudly. She softened her tone. “But know this: you risk everything if you keep looking. Everything. And Reacher risks nothing while he waits. That doesn't sound like a winning equation to me. Does it to you?”

An interesting twist in the hunt for Jack Reacher. A good story that will keep you coming back for more. A good read for a quiet afternoon or evening but it will end just as you get really vested in the story. But don’t worry there are already 10 other volumes after this one. I look forward to more in this series and sampling other series by Capri in the future. So if you are a fan of Reacher or just love a good mystery give this series a try.

Read the review on my blog Book Reviews and More and reviews of other books by Diane Capri.

[Toni Osborne · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hunt for Reacher # 1.1 (#2)

In this short story of 37 pages or so Agents Otto and Gaspar reveal a bit of themselves as they try to catch Jack Reacher.

My thoughts:

.Not much to this story. What is there is not important
.We learn little about the agents. Who cares about grand-ma or 5 kids?
.The story says nothing and brings nothing important to the hunt for Reacher
.Where is the plot? Babbling a lot about family matters
.Extremely slow moving.
.Boring 10 short chapter vignettes
.Poorly written: choppy sentences (resembling my above thoughts)
.Very forgettable: I had a hard time remembering what I had just read....

Conclusion:

Not worth reading forget buying (thank goodness if was a freebie)

[Susannah Carleton · Rating 3 out of 5]

More short story than book. Readers learn a bit more about Otto and Gaspar, but not much about Reacher. He, however, learns something about them.

[Chris Gager · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have a bunch of regular Reachers on my shelves, but picked this one from the dump trailer shelves a couple of days ago. Might this be called fan fiction? A bit under 100 pages. Just started ...

And finished. A rather brief short story that seems more like a chapter in a greater whole, which I gather it pretty much is. The last third is excerpts from other stories in the series.

- Phony baloney 21st c. consumerist thriller writing = "Kim checked her Seiko ..." She does this several times.

[Jane · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok I know this is a short story but it's a nothing happens short story!

[Josh · Rating 1 out of 5]

Every single thing I am about to say about this book in the Hunt for Jack Reacher series can be written about every single book in the Hunt for Jack Reacher series. Because they are barely books. And they are identical in almost every conceivable way.

The plot is non-existent, pacing is ridiculously poor (stop talking about Otto’s fear of flying, stop talking about overwrought and useless exposition about nothing that actually advances the story or even seems remotely pertinent), and the author is drastically out of touch with reality or even a good sense of plausible suspension of disbelief. Often times the author gets stuck and so creates a monologue via drone: describing events that are not possible to be chained together because this author is a technophobe who doesn’t understand technology let alone surveillance capabilities. Characters are cardboard caricatures who are so flat as to be offensive to one-dimensional beings.

Do we really need to hear about “FBI Special Agent Kim Otto,” written in that formal sense, over and over again? No. The banter between Otto and Gaspar is ridiculously inept. NO ONE talks like that. Even the characters would get tired of it if not forced into this tripe by the author. Plot holes and drastic leaps of blind and stupid faith are required. Oh, minor pet peeve: there is no determination between chapters other than “well, looks like 2.5-5 pages! Time for a new chapter!” They literally happen mid-conversation. Why? No conceivably logical or useful reason.

And please stop saying “Otto looked at her Seiko.” Why name-drop that watch? Continually? And why is every upscale neighborhood (or even appearance in later books) ALWAYS referred to as “tony”? Dear author, expand your vocabulary and stop falling back on cheap gimmicks.

I enjoy the Jack Reacher series. I wonder what Lee Child was thinking when he agreed to this. This series, however, is a blight on the opus that is Jack Reacher. The only reason I keep reading it is because I want to see how it slides into the REAL Jack Reacher books, which is—I suspect—why other people also read this crap, painfully inflating sales and ratings beyond what this author should naturally receive.

So I’ll end with a couple of questions:
* Who the hell edited these books? They should be fired. And banned from the industry. Twice.
* What kind of blackmail material does this author have on Lee Child? This cannot stand.
* I seriously question the publishing house that put this out. Unless they were simply cashing in on the Jack Reacher universe, which would make sense if they were. But this is like comparing one of the top films of all time to the lowest-rent public television broadcast done by two drunk friends who secretly hate each other but only do the public television to outdo the other one. And they’re both illiterate.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the season the library I work for is running something called "Blind Date With a Book." They have a huge pile of books wrapped so that way no one knows what they are - it's a surprise after you check out the package and open it. I decided I wanted to see what it was like and this is what was in my surprise package. This book is second in the series - I haven't read the first book and I think I'll give the first book a try. The second book was good, but the only odd thing was she included a chapter of each short story at the end. The story of the 2nd book was 56 pages; I can't imagine other books being much longer. I think by including a chapter of two or other books will spoil the surprise. I look forward to giving other of Capri's work a read.

[Gordon L. Tucker · Rating 2 out of 5]

Useless segment.......goes nowhere.......hardly more than a sample of style and potential content

No way to decide or develop a feel for the storyline. Author's style is choppy and detracts from any chance of making a comfortable and coherent read.
Advertised as a " book" ...........it's not

Maybe it is worth the $2.99 it costs.....but I find that hard to believe.......samples like this should be free.......the two stars are for the LACK of editing errors, poor word choices , miss-spellings ,and bad grammar......

[Roberta Pearce · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little short for what I wanted, but still, a great segue character piece [nice insights into Otto's family/background]. Loving Ms. Capri's series, and will continue with the others.

[Ed · Rating 3 out of 5]

#1.1 in the Hunt For Reacher series. This 2012 series entry by author Diane Capri is a novella filling in the back story much needed in Don't Know Jack (2012). A misleading meeting and some law enforcement action fill out this skeletal entry.

FBI Special Agents Kim Otto and Carlos Gaspar have received a special off-the-books assignment: build a secret file on Jack Reacher. Otto and Gaspar reveal a bit of themselves as they make every effort to put Jack in a Box. Reacher fans know that no one boxes with Jack and lives to tell about it. Will Otto and Gaspar be the first to succeed where so many have failed?

[Jill Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Hunt for Jack #2. Short Story) Diane Capri. 37 pages. A very short story where Kim Otto and Carolos Gaspar are mysteriously called to meet at the National Gallery of Arts in DC to gather information about Reacher’s whereabouts. They meet up with a woman, Susan Duffy, who warned them that they will not win at finding him and then she disappears into the night. Not enough of a story to really rate the story. 7 Stars (9.17 to 9.20.17)

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Novella encompassing the characters from "Don't Know Jack," Agents Kim Otto and Carlos Gaspar, on the same quest of creating a background file on Lee Child's Jack Reacher...in this one, they're pulled into a secret meeting with an agent warning them off of further investigation...a novelty premise with so-so action, but a great job of character development...you're really pulled into these two, otherwise this gets 2-stars rather than the 3 given.

[Darryle B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This short story was not bad but should've been included in Book #1. It gives a little bit of backstory about Agent Otto and a previous Jack Reacher story which is important to add context the "The Hunt" per se. I like the cameo and guest appearances of characters from the books as well. I recommend this be read along with Book #1 and the subsequent short story #1.2 to be complete before starting Book #2.

[J M Kidner · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is not a book; it's a short story.

The first book in this series was a good, full length read. This was not the case in this, the second in the series. I thought that I may have inadvertently skipped a dozen chapters, but I hadn't; there are only ten.
I would not recommend this book and I will not read the remaining six.

[John R. Petrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Great Great!!

What an interesting and totally different twist!!... Really enjoyed and appreciated this story from beginning to end... A goodly number of twists. N turns regarding Jack Reachers story from a totally and not unfounded viewpoint... Cannot wait to dive into the rear of the series...

[Bunny Jamison · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was supposed be a book, not a short story

Very unhappy. Expected a normal size book with a comprehensive story line. Instead got a short ten chapter vignette that the author could have written during a morning coffee break. Thought it would be like the first book. Definitely will dad no further. Just not worth it.

[Sally · Rating 2 out of 5]

A short story read probably out of sequence. I dislike short stories generally, as there is rarely a satisfying conclusion. This whole series seems to fail to go anywhere; the characters to achieve anything. The characters are flimsy: antacids and a limp do not create two personalities. A waste of book money.

[Diogenes · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not even a short story, more of a vignette, neither thrilling nor interesting. This is a teaser for the next in Capri's exploitive series taking advantage of the Reacher series popularity.
Sadly, Lee Child wrote a complimentary tag, saying she's a friend. Perhaps her books create a market for his.

[Jason E. Fort · Rating 5 out of 5]

She's Reeling Me In

Great short... now I really want to know where Ms. Capri takes Otto and Gaspar. I wonder if she ever actually writes Reacher (with Lee Child's further blessing) into actual confrontation. Guess the suspense would screech to a halt, then, wouldn't it? Nonetheless, I have the next several on the series in the queue. Great job!

[John Kottman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good start

I gave this five stars because I like the characters and the premise. But this isn't a book, it's two chapters of a book. Stop stealing our money and come back with a whole book.....

[Edward J Gonzales · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading in sequence

After getting hooked in Diane Capri, I realized that the theme is the same and I’m getting tired. I think I’ll stick to the original author and series, thank you very much!

[Brenda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read

Short and spicy. Jack In A Box is a short story to fill in while waiting for the next full sized novel, “Get Back Jack” A great follow to “Don’t Know Jack”. If you can’t get enough Jack Reacher, and really who can, Diane Capri’s new Gaspar and Otto series is a must.

[Gerry Geddings · Rating 2 out of 5]

Where is the story?

I enjoyed the previous book in this series so I had great hope for this one. I was surprised to find that it was just a scene from an unfinished novel with no plot of its own. Skip this one and check for length before buying others in this series.

[Anne Patkau · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set up premise and give a sense of main characters so like Reacher their mind quotes sound like him. FBI tasks Agents Otto and married father of 4 1/2 to build a file on Reacher from only a photo.

Unasked violence. Watch 3 muggers act while hearing 'let job go' from Reacher. Will they?

[Bonnie Irwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun novella that fills the gap between installments one and two. I liked that this one lets us in to the minds of the two main characters a little more, and I feel like I am getting to know Gaspar and especially Otto, a bit better.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very will written quick thriller novella 2 in the series with interesting characters. The story line is fast moving with the conclusion leading to the next novel. I would recommend this novella to anyone looking for a quick read. Enjoy reading 📚 2020 😅

[Roger Jam,es · Rating 2 out of 5]

Trite. Why buy a chapter at a time?

Trite. Serialized format boring. Writing unexceptional. Plod on if you have nothing better to read. Two stars to distinguish it from the total crap out there - there is much worse.

[Lana Mccall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting

Short but enjoyable in 43 pages of entertaining tale. We get a look into Kim’s personal life. Kim’s father married a Vietnamese lady and the family ostracized them. What a bunch of stuck-up idiots. But then it gets back to hunting Reacher.

[Tony da Napoli · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is just a quick 30 page short story that one should be able to obtain free. After reading book 1 I found nothing of interest in this -- unless one is ignorant of Jack Reacher. Some back stories of protagonist families, etc. Don't be concerned about missing this