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Make Me: by Lee Child a Jack Reacher Novel | Short Reads Summary
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Stephen King calls Jack Reacher “the coolest continuing series character”—and now he’s back in this masterly new thriller from Lee Child.
“Why is this town called Mother’s Rest?” That’s all Reacher wants to know. But no one will tell him. It’s a tiny place hidden in a thousand square miles of wheat fields, with a railroad stop, and sullen and watchful people, and a worried woman named Michelle Chang, who mistakes him for someone else: her missing partner in a private investigation she thinks must have started small and then turned lethal.
Reacher has no particular place to go, and all the time in the world to get there, and there’s something about Chang . . . so he teams up with her and starts to ask around. He thinks: How bad can this thing be? But before long he’s plunged into a desperate race through LA, Chicago, Phoenix, and San Francisco, and through the hidden parts of the internet, up against thugs and assassins every step of the way—right back to where he started, in Mother’s Rest, where he must confront the worst nightmare he could imagine.
Walking away would have been easier. But as always, Reacher’s rule is: If you want me to stop, you’re going to have to make me.
Praise for Make Me
“Lee Child’s Reacher series has hit Book No. 20 with a resounding peal of wisecracking glee. Everything about it, starting with Reacher’s nose for bad news, is as strong as ever. . . . The big guy’s definitely on the upswing. The guy who writes about him is too.”—Janet Maslin, The New York Times
“A superb thriller.”—New York Daily News
“I’ve read all twenty of Lee Child’s novels. Maybe there’s something wrong with me. But I can’t wait for the twenty-first.”—Malcolm Gladwell, The New Yorker
“Lee Child has another winner with Make Me. . . . There’s a reason why Child is considered the best of the best in the thriller genre: He can take all these strange elements and clichés and make them compelling and original.”—Associated Press
“[The Reacher series] is the current gold standard in the genre. . . . In Make Me Lee Child delivers another Jack Reacher specialty; the total knockout.”—Dayton Daily News
“Child serves up wingding plots, pithy dialogue, extraordinary background on intriguing topics, and cunningly constructed suspense. But what keeps us coming back—by the millions—is the chance to walk around in the skin of that big guy in the middle of everything.”—The Oregonian
“A dark thriller . . . Lee Child’s Make Me, the twentieth in his wildly popular Jack Reacher series, delivers exactly what readers have come to expect from the perennial bestselling author: interesting characters, tight plots and page-turning action. . . . Readers won’t be disappointed.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Jack Reacher is back. . . . Readers new to this series will find this book a good starting point, and fans will be pleased to see Jack again.”—LibraryReads (Top Ten Pick)
“The reigning champ ups the ante.”—Booklist (starred review)
“Why is this town called Mother’s Rest?” That’s all Reacher wants to know. But no one will tell him. It’s a tiny place hidden in a thousand square miles of wheat fields, with a railroad stop, and sullen and watchful people, and a worried woman named Michelle Chang, who mistakes him for someone else: her missing partner in a private investigation she thinks must have started small and then turned lethal.
Reacher has no particular place to go, and all the time in the world to get there, and there’s something about Chang . . . so he teams up with her and starts to ask around. He thinks: How bad can this thing be? But before long he’s plunged into a desperate race through LA, Chicago, Phoenix, and San Francisco, and through the hidden parts of the internet, up against thugs and assassins every step of the way—right back to where he started, in Mother’s Rest, where he must confront the worst nightmare he could imagine.
Walking away would have been easier. But as always, Reacher’s rule is: If you want me to stop, you’re going to have to make me.
Praise for Make Me
“Lee Child’s Reacher series has hit Book No. 20 with a resounding peal of wisecracking glee. Everything about it, starting with Reacher’s nose for bad news, is as strong as ever. . . . The big guy’s definitely on the upswing. The guy who writes about him is too.”—Janet Maslin, The New York Times
“A superb thriller.”—New York Daily News
“I’ve read all twenty of Lee Child’s novels. Maybe there’s something wrong with me. But I can’t wait for the twenty-first.”—Malcolm Gladwell, The New Yorker
“Lee Child has another winner with Make Me. . . . There’s a reason why Child is considered the best of the best in the thriller genre: He can take all these strange elements and clichés and make them compelling and original.”—Associated Press
“[The Reacher series] is the current gold standard in the genre. . . . In Make Me Lee Child delivers another Jack Reacher specialty; the total knockout.”—Dayton Daily News
“Child serves up wingding plots, pithy dialogue, extraordinary background on intriguing topics, and cunningly constructed suspense. But what keeps us coming back—by the millions—is the chance to walk around in the skin of that big guy in the middle of everything.”—The Oregonian
“A dark thriller . . . Lee Child’s Make Me, the twentieth in his wildly popular Jack Reacher series, delivers exactly what readers have come to expect from the perennial bestselling author: interesting characters, tight plots and page-turning action. . . . Readers won’t be disappointed.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Jack Reacher is back. . . . Readers new to this series will find this book a good starting point, and fans will be pleased to see Jack again.”—LibraryReads (Top Ten Pick)
“The reigning champ ups the ante.”—Booklist (starred review)
53 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 6, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 30, 2023
Child comes up with bizarre plots that reveal the great sin of certain Americans. One almost wonders if his view (as Britisher) of this country that it possesses in every part people eager for nothing but their own financial gain no matter what damage they bring to achieve this. His main character, Jack Reacher, always seems to run into nothing but dangerous, unscrupulous Americans. Yes, I'm sure we have many such people, but it's a hard thing to have our noses rubbed in it in every single novel. On the other hand it's nice to know there are real vigilantes like Jack Reacher who are zealous to set wrongs to right and who know how to do it. Perhaps Child wishes his tribe would increase. Most of his readers are okay with that. As a Christian I enjoy his books. They appeal to the spiritual instinct of all normal, thinking people to set wrong things right. But ultimately it is God through Jesus Christ who must and will do that. He will too and hopefully with a lot less collateral damage. One more thing: Child has written at least two (maybe more) J Reacher books in which the main character does not feel the need to pick up and cohabit with a female victim or law officer along the way. THOSE are Childs' best novels.
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October 31, 2022Make me by Lee Child is a murder mystery of more than 200 people. Lee childs stlye of writing is too descriptive about the surroundings, he emphasises on giving a detailed description of the scenario with every minute detail, which can get boring and repetative. Unfolding of the story is very slow it fails to keep me glued. 2/3 of the writing of the initial 200 pages is more than needed description of the situation on the place where the protagonist are. Some solid content starts after 200 pages. As the story unfolds we get to know that its all about the deep dark web. How people with clinical depression and mental illness are attracted towards the deep web for suicide. I have never come across such a cruel killing mystery towards the end of the book. Makes me feel thankful for being in such a safe environment. I know its just fiction but still all i hope is that no such actual con against depressed people is going on in real world. All i have to say is that more than 400 pages is too much for this story. I give it a 2 star out of 5!
January 9, 2026
This is the slowest-moving of the dozen or so Jack Reacher novels I’ve read. Our wandering hero gets off the train in a Midwest agricultural town only because he’s curious about the town’s name, Mother’s Rest. Fair enough. That’s how Reacher rolls. He meets an attractive, highly capable FBI-agent-turned-private detective named Chang who is looking for her detective partner, who disappeared in Mother’s Rest. Reacher and Chang battle hostile locals and travel the country before figuring out what massively evil thing is happening out there in these amber fields of grain. As expected, Reacher and Chang sleep together a few times before he rides off into the sunset. He shows some weakness near the end after he takes a knock on the head, which is a refreshing change. For my money, this book could have lost about 100 of its almost 500 pages. Still, Jack Reacher rocks.
January 26, 2022
good detective sory.
October 8, 2023
Bon llibre, àgil i amé.
October 19, 2015
Make Me” starts with Jack helping searching for his missing friend and coworker. But as the search continues they find they have delved into something so much more.
This was a very short mystery that had so many twists, it made it impossible to really figure it all out, until the end. I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more from this author.
This was a very short mystery that had so many twists, it made it impossible to really figure it all out, until the end. I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more from this author.
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November 30, 2015This has a disturbing ending, but as with all the Reacher novels, I loved it!
April 2, 2017
Lee Child is my guilty pleasure. I think I have read all of his books. My taste (!) is validated because Val McDermid had her main character Karen Pirie, in Out of Bounds, read a Reacher book in one of her novels.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews