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Maybe They Have A Tradition
In this short story, Jack Reacher's Christmas takes an unexpected turn.
4 pages, ebook
First published December 14, 2016
4 people are currently reading
374 people want to read
About the author
Lee Child
442 books34.2k followersLee 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 66 reviews
June 28, 2023
Reacher is in a taxi that refused to go further because of the heavy snow.
He walked and find a house. A woman opened the door and thought he is a police or a doctor.
Because that is who they called. It is interesting how they are so unhelpful to their daughter.
Fun read.
He walked and find a house. A woman opened the door and thought he is a police or a doctor.
Because that is who they called. It is interesting how they are so unhelpful to their daughter.
Fun read.
July 21, 2024
Maybe They Have A Tradition
Jack Reacher Novella
By Lee Child
Illustrated By Steven Mulcahey
Overview 📝
A 20-minute audiobook listen… it ended before it even started. Reacher finds himself stranded in a snowstorm in England on Christmas night. He gains admittance into a home whose daughter is having a baby but without medical assistance. Her mother-in-law refuses to help and also claims that an expensive diamond necklace was stolen. Reacher solves both problems and then is invited by the doctor to eat the family’s Christmas dinner by himself.
Final Thoughts 🤔
The one highlight of this extremely short novella is Reacher monologuing several times his hope that the Brits had a tradition of letting random, ominous-looking strangers into their homes on Christmas night and treating them to a Christmas dinner. Reacher novels are almost never funny but there is humor from time to time. This was one of those times.
3 ⭐️
Jack Reacher Novella
By Lee Child
Illustrated By Steven Mulcahey
Overview 📝
A 20-minute audiobook listen… it ended before it even started. Reacher finds himself stranded in a snowstorm in England on Christmas night. He gains admittance into a home whose daughter is having a baby but without medical assistance. Her mother-in-law refuses to help and also claims that an expensive diamond necklace was stolen. Reacher solves both problems and then is invited by the doctor to eat the family’s Christmas dinner by himself.
Final Thoughts 🤔
The one highlight of this extremely short novella is Reacher monologuing several times his hope that the Brits had a tradition of letting random, ominous-looking strangers into their homes on Christmas night and treating them to a Christmas dinner. Reacher novels are almost never funny but there is humor from time to time. This was one of those times.
3 ⭐️
May 3, 2020
Christmas in the UK for Reacher. The plot was unlike anything that he's done before (at least that I've read to this point) but I enjoyed it.
July 7, 2022
Short short short story
A Christmas birth and Reacher happens to be in the vicinity. Really that's about it.
Recommend: If you're reading No Middle Name, a collection of Reacher short stories, then yeah. (Though even then you'll probably be left confused as to its overall reason for existing.) Otherwise, nope.
A Christmas birth and Reacher happens to be in the vicinity. Really that's about it.
Recommend: If you're reading No Middle Name, a collection of Reacher short stories, then yeah. (Though even then you'll probably be left confused as to its overall reason for existing.) Otherwise, nope.
April 10, 2019
Reacher is overseas at Christmas time and is stranded... he always manages to finds some trouble and help out when needed. Cute short story!
September 5, 2021
A nice short story, in which Reacher is his usual self: ready to go at any time, when the circumstances demand that or when an opportunity comes along.
This was a Christmas tale with a twist. I liked it, even though nothing much happened. For that, the story was way to short.
But unlike many other short stories, this one was finished when Reacher moved on again.
This was a Christmas tale with a twist. I liked it, even though nothing much happened. For that, the story was way to short.
But unlike many other short stories, this one was finished when Reacher moved on again.
February 27, 2018
Bad. A dull plot where Jack Reacher is taken out of character somewhat. It feels like a short story about a different character and they just put Jack Reachers name into it. No action which isn’t always a bad thing, but the plot was terrible too
February 12, 2018
Another short story about Jack Reacher showing up in the nick of time to save the day.
November 14, 2023
Maybe They Have A Tradition (ebook) By Lee Child
Reacher the detective to the rescue on Christmas Eve.
Reacher the detective to the rescue on Christmas Eve.
September 14, 2023
This story appeared in the magazine Country Life in December 2016. It is very short, a quick glimpse of Reacher around Christmas time. It includes everything readers come to expect in a Reacher story: a pretty woman (although she doesn’t stay long), a mystery to solve (although it is a small one) and an incident that shows off his incredible strength and endurance.
Reacher is once again on the move. He meets a pretty flight attendant who is working the night shift on a flight headed to Amsterdam and invites him to come along. She has a coupon, so it would be a free. Like always, Reacher has no one in particular to see and no predetermined destination, so he accepts. A snow storm forces the plane to land in Stanstead England, after which the pretty flight attendant is required to attend a debriefing session and he never sees her again.
The heavy snow storm is blocking the roads, making travel by car especially difficult. Undeterred, Reacher hires a taxi to take him to Cambridge, although the roads are so difficult, that part way there, the driver is forced to turn back. Reacher however wants to keep moving forward and asks the driver to drop him off. It appears he is in the middle of nowhere, but he has seen the lights of a house in the distance and decides to walk there, hoping for a cup of coffee (of course!) and perhaps a meal.
He is invited in, albeit with some reluctance, by a couple who appear on the edge of panic. They were expecting either a policeman or a doctor, not this big unknown stranger who has arrived at their door. They need the police because the woman’s diamond pendant has gone missing and the need a doctor because the woman’s step daughter is delivering her first baby in a bedroom upstairs. Of course Reacher saves the day, solving the crime and avoiding the disaster of having a woman deliver her first child without medical assistance.
Sometimes it is nice to just have a simple story, but it is easy to see how this one could have been expanded to a novella if Child had been so inclined.
A very short but entertaining read; even most of the short ones are good.
Reacher is once again on the move. He meets a pretty flight attendant who is working the night shift on a flight headed to Amsterdam and invites him to come along. She has a coupon, so it would be a free. Like always, Reacher has no one in particular to see and no predetermined destination, so he accepts. A snow storm forces the plane to land in Stanstead England, after which the pretty flight attendant is required to attend a debriefing session and he never sees her again.
The heavy snow storm is blocking the roads, making travel by car especially difficult. Undeterred, Reacher hires a taxi to take him to Cambridge, although the roads are so difficult, that part way there, the driver is forced to turn back. Reacher however wants to keep moving forward and asks the driver to drop him off. It appears he is in the middle of nowhere, but he has seen the lights of a house in the distance and decides to walk there, hoping for a cup of coffee (of course!) and perhaps a meal.
He is invited in, albeit with some reluctance, by a couple who appear on the edge of panic. They were expecting either a policeman or a doctor, not this big unknown stranger who has arrived at their door. They need the police because the woman’s diamond pendant has gone missing and the need a doctor because the woman’s step daughter is delivering her first baby in a bedroom upstairs. Of course Reacher saves the day, solving the crime and avoiding the disaster of having a woman deliver her first child without medical assistance.
Sometimes it is nice to just have a simple story, but it is easy to see how this one could have been expanded to a novella if Child had been so inclined.
A very short but entertaining read; even most of the short ones are good.
June 10, 2025
Ο Τζακ είναι στη γηραιά Αλβιόνα και έχει κωλόκαιρο. Καθώς κατευθύνεται με τα πόδια προς το Κέιμπριτζ ή το πουθενά (δεν είναι σαφές) βρίσκει ένα σπίτι, στο οποίο επικρατεί αναταραχή, αλλά έχει την ελπίδα ότι θα το έχουν παράδοση να κερνάνε όποιον βρεθεί στην πόρτα τους παραμονή Χριστουγέννων ή του αγίου π_τσου ανήμερα, δεν έχει σημασία.
Μέσα στο σπίτι συμβαίνουν ταυτόχρονα μια γέννηση και ένα έγκλημα, έτσι, όταν ανοίγει η πόρτα, ρωτάνε το Τζακ αν είναι μπάτσος ή γιατρός.
Φυσικά ο Τζακ θα βοηθήσει να γεννηθεί το παιδί και θα διαλευκάνει το έγκλημα. Ίσως να άφησε και μια κάλτσα στο τζάκι για τον Άγιο Βασίλη. Ίσως όχι.
NO SHIT SHERLOCK!
Μέσα στο σπίτι συμβαίνουν ταυτόχρονα μια γέννηση και ένα έγκλημα, έτσι, όταν ανοίγει η πόρτα, ρωτάνε το Τζακ αν είναι μπάτσος ή γιατρός.
Φυσικά ο Τζακ θα βοηθήσει να γεννηθεί το παιδί και θα διαλευκάνει το έγκλημα. Ίσως να άφησε και μια κάλτσα στο τζάκι για τον Άγιο Βασίλη. Ίσως όχι.
NO SHIT SHERLOCK!
January 15, 2021
Real short story and what was that all about? Again I have read all of the novels in this series and was wanting to complete all the short stories now that they are available to me. I have not been the biggest short story fan and this book was one of the reasons why. I will finished the last couple that I have and I’m jumping back in to a good long novel.
January 27, 2018
This is a very short Jack Reacher story that paints the hero in a good light, whereas some of his actions in longer stories blur the line between what is deemed “acceptable” behaviour and not. A must for completists.
April 29, 2023
By chance, Jack Reacher ends up England for Christmas. Stuck on a snowy road, he heads to an old manor house in hopes they'll give him a cup of coffee. He finds someone about to give birth and a doctor missing in the snow.
Nothing special, but it's short!
Nothing special, but it's short!
January 31, 2024
It’s Christmas Eve in New York and Reacher goes into a bar and meets a stewardess from Amsterdam. She gives him a free voucher on her return flight there. Things don’t go as planned since a blizzard beats them to Europe. A couple of twists and Reacher gets a Christmas dinner for his efforts.
March 22, 2024
A definitely short, short story. Not a lot of details, but enough that you find out that Jack Reacher has solved the crime for the detective, and "carries" the obstetrician to safety, and her patient. Fabulous.
October 22, 2017
A very short novella - not impressed!
December 10, 2017
This one was okay. Just a quick read that kept me occupied on my lunch break.
November 21, 2017
Typical Reacher
January 10, 2018
Quite a short story so not all the usual Jack Reacher trademarks, but enough. A good story.
January 13, 2018
The plot doesn't really hold together, but is true to Reacher's character elsewhere in the series. (Read as part of collected Reacher short stories.)
February 27, 2018
Fun Christmas story. Read it during the Christmas holiday, if you are the type of person who watches Dir Hard and Lethal Weapon each year.
July 20, 2018
Short story with a Christmas theme. Jack Reacher saves the day for a family.
November 28, 2018
Pointless. No mystery, no plot, mediocre dialogue, and no one gets beaten up!
December 6, 2018
This was a good short story
December 31, 2018
Well. If you want a short story, this certainly qualifies on the short...
January 10, 2019
I read in an interview once that Lee Child smokes weed while he writes, and he was clearly high when he wrote this. No plot, and a complete waste of time.
February 13, 2019
Wow! I didn’t realize this would be so short—even for a short story. But still enjoyable to see Reacher in new settings.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 66 reviews