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With Child: Lee Child and the Readers of Jack Reacher
With a foreword by Lee Child.
Andy Martin spent a year in the company of Lee Child, creator of tough-guy hero Jack Reacher. With Child is the diary of their adventures, tracking the publication and reception of Make Me , the writing of Night School at an apartment in Manhattan, the filming of Never Go Back in New Orleans, all the agony and ecstasy of the creative process and the sheer hard work of selling a bestseller. They go on the road together, from TV studios to bookstores, from Harvard to Stockholm, amid literary conferences and gunshows, rivalries and reviews ranging from adulatory to murderous. We meet fellow writers like Stephen King and David Lagercrantz and Karin Slaughter, and dissect the latest novel from Jonathan Franzen.
But Martin also reaches out to Child’s legion of readers in America and around the world. He tracks down a woman in Texas whose name appears in the home invasion scene in Make Me ; he goes up a mountain in Montana in search of the only reader who thinks Reacher is a “lightweight”; and he talks to obsessive fans from Europe to South Africa who find salvation or consolation in the colossal form of Jack Reacher.
This compelling account of life on the road with Lee Child demonstrates that readers are just as important as writers in the making of modern fiction.
Andy Martin spent a year in the company of Lee Child, creator of tough-guy hero Jack Reacher. With Child is the diary of their adventures, tracking the publication and reception of Make Me , the writing of Night School at an apartment in Manhattan, the filming of Never Go Back in New Orleans, all the agony and ecstasy of the creative process and the sheer hard work of selling a bestseller. They go on the road together, from TV studios to bookstores, from Harvard to Stockholm, amid literary conferences and gunshows, rivalries and reviews ranging from adulatory to murderous. We meet fellow writers like Stephen King and David Lagercrantz and Karin Slaughter, and dissect the latest novel from Jonathan Franzen.
But Martin also reaches out to Child’s legion of readers in America and around the world. He tracks down a woman in Texas whose name appears in the home invasion scene in Make Me ; he goes up a mountain in Montana in search of the only reader who thinks Reacher is a “lightweight”; and he talks to obsessive fans from Europe to South Africa who find salvation or consolation in the colossal form of Jack Reacher.
This compelling account of life on the road with Lee Child demonstrates that readers are just as important as writers in the making of modern fiction.
290 pages, Paperback
Published August 19, 2019
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57 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
September 22, 2020
When I'd read Andy Martin's previous ode to Lee Child, Reacher Said Nothing, I came away wondering if perhaps the author would, once the book was out, look back and worry that perhaps the six months he'd spent sitting on Lee Child's couch lauding his every keystroke might appear a touch too adoring. Boy was I wrong.
With Child is a bizarrely sycophantic love letter to the genius of Lee Child, one that denigrates his competitors, excoriates his critics, and occasionally drifts into unintentional self-parody.
Just trying to describe the category is difficult. It's technically non-fiction, only it almost always feels like someone's fantasy version of the periodic coffees, lunches, and book launches that span the six or so months after the release of Child's 20th Jack Reacher novel, Make Me. It's sort-of-almost-kinda literary critique, except it's entirely devoid of a critical eye – save the rather vicious one Martin saves for those who dared publish a book on the same week as Lee Child's masterpiece.
At this point I need to introduce a vital caveat into this review, because otherwise it's going to feel like some kind of personal assault on the character of two people I've never met. First, from everything I've heard, Lee Child is a terrifically kind, generous, and intelligent person. Andy Martin is himself a respected writer, and I've no reason to believe he's not also a wonderful human being. So when I'm referring to Lee Child or Andy Martin here, I'm speaking only of the characters Martin put in this book that just happen to have the same names. Heaven help us if there's anything accurate in his portrayals.
Reading the book is a bit like watching a video of a slow-motion car crash. It's awful, you wish it wasn't happening, hate yourself for not looking away, but there's some inner compulsion that keeps your eyes glued to the unfolding horror. Specifically here I'm referring to the way Andy Martin (the one in the book and hopefully not the one in real life) incessantly speaks of Lee Child as if he were the single greatest writer of the age. He does this by interpreting Child's every act, from word choice (naming a character "Keever" when your main character is named "Reacher" is an act of sublime, multi-layered brilliance, don't you know?) to off-hand comments Child makes in interviews to his choice to drink a lot of coffee and never exercise. For Martin, this makes Child in a sense Reacher himself. Who knew it was that easy to gain super-heroic status.
Martin follows Child along to various outings from lunches with famous people to events with readers, unintentionally turning these into renditions of the old Bugs Bunny cartoon in which two dogs – Spike, the big bulldog who stomps along barely noticing Chester, the little one who runs around him talking about how they're best friends and how him and Spike are the toughest around and would Spike like a bone? Because Chester would be really, really happy to dig up a bone for him.
Distressing as that is as an image of an accomplished writer talking about an accomplished novelist –especially when they're both adults and not, in fact, cartoon dogs – the real problem is that Martin's endless praise ends up producing exactly the opposite result he intends: Lee Child ends up looking insecure and petty.
Jonathan Franzen and David Lagercrantz, two other accomplished novelists (along with Harper Lee, that nasty villain) dared to have their books come out in the same time period as Lee Child's latest Jack Reacher book. Martin offers his version of why those writers are awful (Franzen is pompous, what Harper Lee put out isn't really a book, and David Lagercrantz . . . well, fuck that guy for not being Lee Child).
Martin relays several times that Child was asked to write a review of Lagercrantz's The Girl in the Spider's Web (follow-up to the deceased Stieg Larsson's series that began with The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) and that his review, while written to appear balanced on the surface, was actually devastatingly critical under the surface – a take-down piece that he has Child telling us was his way of trying to lower Lagercrantz's sales so they wouldn't compete with his own. At first this seems like a joke (and honestly, I'm hoping it was a joke on Child's part), but by the fourth time Martin's told you about it, you can't help but think Child's actually gave a negative review of a competitor's work just to diminish his launch sales.
This repetition appears in other places, too, when Martin first tells you how much smarter, talented, and supernaturally connected to the collective unconscious Lee Child is, and then has Child himself saying something that sounds as if he's agreeing with that assessment. Authors like Franzen and Amis are overbearing, self-righteous, and ultimately irrelevant hacks in Martin's mind, and he leaves you thinking Child agrees. Other thriller authors? Well, they're just weak-tea versions of Child and lacking in the cosmic depth of the one true master.
The strange thing about all this is you really can just keep reading along. It gets weirder and weirder and you become more and more worried that either you're not understanding the cleverly-constructed, self-deprecating satire unfolding before you, or that something terribly wrong has happened to poor Andy Martin. You can't tell if Child is sarcastically playing along, or genuinely believes the things attributed to him.
That's the real crime of this book: by the end of With Child, Andy Martin becomes so sycophantic in his endless praise of Child and so pathetically vain in the way he describes his competitors that he leaves you thinking that Lee Child – who is, again, known as a kind, generous, and intelligent author – is insecure and petty on a level that makes you glad you're not a hundred million-selling thriller author. That's a hard feat to accomplish, so, hat's off to you, Andy Martin . . . I guess?
With Child is a bizarrely sycophantic love letter to the genius of Lee Child, one that denigrates his competitors, excoriates his critics, and occasionally drifts into unintentional self-parody.
Just trying to describe the category is difficult. It's technically non-fiction, only it almost always feels like someone's fantasy version of the periodic coffees, lunches, and book launches that span the six or so months after the release of Child's 20th Jack Reacher novel, Make Me. It's sort-of-almost-kinda literary critique, except it's entirely devoid of a critical eye – save the rather vicious one Martin saves for those who dared publish a book on the same week as Lee Child's masterpiece.
At this point I need to introduce a vital caveat into this review, because otherwise it's going to feel like some kind of personal assault on the character of two people I've never met. First, from everything I've heard, Lee Child is a terrifically kind, generous, and intelligent person. Andy Martin is himself a respected writer, and I've no reason to believe he's not also a wonderful human being. So when I'm referring to Lee Child or Andy Martin here, I'm speaking only of the characters Martin put in this book that just happen to have the same names. Heaven help us if there's anything accurate in his portrayals.
Reading the book is a bit like watching a video of a slow-motion car crash. It's awful, you wish it wasn't happening, hate yourself for not looking away, but there's some inner compulsion that keeps your eyes glued to the unfolding horror. Specifically here I'm referring to the way Andy Martin (the one in the book and hopefully not the one in real life) incessantly speaks of Lee Child as if he were the single greatest writer of the age. He does this by interpreting Child's every act, from word choice (naming a character "Keever" when your main character is named "Reacher" is an act of sublime, multi-layered brilliance, don't you know?) to off-hand comments Child makes in interviews to his choice to drink a lot of coffee and never exercise. For Martin, this makes Child in a sense Reacher himself. Who knew it was that easy to gain super-heroic status.
Martin follows Child along to various outings from lunches with famous people to events with readers, unintentionally turning these into renditions of the old Bugs Bunny cartoon in which two dogs – Spike, the big bulldog who stomps along barely noticing Chester, the little one who runs around him talking about how they're best friends and how him and Spike are the toughest around and would Spike like a bone? Because Chester would be really, really happy to dig up a bone for him.
Distressing as that is as an image of an accomplished writer talking about an accomplished novelist –especially when they're both adults and not, in fact, cartoon dogs – the real problem is that Martin's endless praise ends up producing exactly the opposite result he intends: Lee Child ends up looking insecure and petty.
Jonathan Franzen and David Lagercrantz, two other accomplished novelists (along with Harper Lee, that nasty villain) dared to have their books come out in the same time period as Lee Child's latest Jack Reacher book. Martin offers his version of why those writers are awful (Franzen is pompous, what Harper Lee put out isn't really a book, and David Lagercrantz . . . well, fuck that guy for not being Lee Child).
Martin relays several times that Child was asked to write a review of Lagercrantz's The Girl in the Spider's Web (follow-up to the deceased Stieg Larsson's series that began with The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) and that his review, while written to appear balanced on the surface, was actually devastatingly critical under the surface – a take-down piece that he has Child telling us was his way of trying to lower Lagercrantz's sales so they wouldn't compete with his own. At first this seems like a joke (and honestly, I'm hoping it was a joke on Child's part), but by the fourth time Martin's told you about it, you can't help but think Child's actually gave a negative review of a competitor's work just to diminish his launch sales.
This repetition appears in other places, too, when Martin first tells you how much smarter, talented, and supernaturally connected to the collective unconscious Lee Child is, and then has Child himself saying something that sounds as if he's agreeing with that assessment. Authors like Franzen and Amis are overbearing, self-righteous, and ultimately irrelevant hacks in Martin's mind, and he leaves you thinking Child agrees. Other thriller authors? Well, they're just weak-tea versions of Child and lacking in the cosmic depth of the one true master.
The strange thing about all this is you really can just keep reading along. It gets weirder and weirder and you become more and more worried that either you're not understanding the cleverly-constructed, self-deprecating satire unfolding before you, or that something terribly wrong has happened to poor Andy Martin. You can't tell if Child is sarcastically playing along, or genuinely believes the things attributed to him.
That's the real crime of this book: by the end of With Child, Andy Martin becomes so sycophantic in his endless praise of Child and so pathetically vain in the way he describes his competitors that he leaves you thinking that Lee Child – who is, again, known as a kind, generous, and intelligent author – is insecure and petty on a level that makes you glad you're not a hundred million-selling thriller author. That's a hard feat to accomplish, so, hat's off to you, Andy Martin . . . I guess?
January 1, 2020
"With Child" provides a fascinating insight into the mind, methods and life of thriller writer Lee Child. I’m a massive Lee Child fan, and also a thriller writer and I loved this book.
Andy Martin, is a fellow Lee Child fan and Cambridge academic who spent a year in the company of Lee Child. This is the second book he’s written about Lee. His first, "Reacher Said Nothing," was a portrait of Lee Child at work as he wrote Make Me in 2014. This book begins where the first one left off, detailing the publication and launch of Make Me, joining Lee on book tours as he meets his readers and begins writing his next book, Night School.
Lee Child must enjoy Andy’s company to have allowed him to hang out with him so much. And no wonder. This book is full of wry black humour, almost as though it was dictated by Jack Reacher himself.
For example:
On Lee going into prisons to do readings and signings: with an even more captive audience than usual.
On the Los Angeles Gun Show – the firearms’ industry’s ‘Greatest Show on Earth’: Anything with antlers or horns or even paws is just asking for it on the North American Continent.
We learn how Lee handles criticism, if he reads his reviews, his reaction to his fans, haters and rival writers… and how many folding toothbrushes he has been sent. We get a fascinating snapshot of Lee’s many and varied readers. Andy and Lee discuss Reacher’s mindset, taste in reading material, physique and habits, including his love life and preferred ways of eliminating opponents.
As a reader, I loved the snippets from previous Reacher books, including opening lines, characters and moments of humour. In fact it made me want to read them all again.
As a writer, I was fascinated by Lee’s comments on his own writing, including plot choice, word choice, punctuation and how his writing has changed over the years.
Whereas a Lee Child novel is like a long black (you can drink the whole mug in one sitting), "With Child" is like an expresso: so intense that a mug would be too much and it’s best savoured in small shots. I read it over several sittings. It’s non-fiction after all and densely packed with detail.
"With Child" also describes some freakish coincidences where characters and events in Lee Child’s writing are eerily echoed by real life, even though he couldn’t have known about them at the time of writing them. Almost as though he has powers of prescience.
If you haven’t read "Reacher Said Nothing" it doesn’t matter, "With Child" can be read as a standalone. I loved "Reacher Said Nothing" but I actually think I prefer this one – it’s funnier.
This book would make a great gift for die-hard Lee Child fans or aspiring thriller writers.
Andy Martin, is a fellow Lee Child fan and Cambridge academic who spent a year in the company of Lee Child. This is the second book he’s written about Lee. His first, "Reacher Said Nothing," was a portrait of Lee Child at work as he wrote Make Me in 2014. This book begins where the first one left off, detailing the publication and launch of Make Me, joining Lee on book tours as he meets his readers and begins writing his next book, Night School.
Lee Child must enjoy Andy’s company to have allowed him to hang out with him so much. And no wonder. This book is full of wry black humour, almost as though it was dictated by Jack Reacher himself.
For example:
On Lee going into prisons to do readings and signings: with an even more captive audience than usual.
On the Los Angeles Gun Show – the firearms’ industry’s ‘Greatest Show on Earth’: Anything with antlers or horns or even paws is just asking for it on the North American Continent.
We learn how Lee handles criticism, if he reads his reviews, his reaction to his fans, haters and rival writers… and how many folding toothbrushes he has been sent. We get a fascinating snapshot of Lee’s many and varied readers. Andy and Lee discuss Reacher’s mindset, taste in reading material, physique and habits, including his love life and preferred ways of eliminating opponents.
As a reader, I loved the snippets from previous Reacher books, including opening lines, characters and moments of humour. In fact it made me want to read them all again.
As a writer, I was fascinated by Lee’s comments on his own writing, including plot choice, word choice, punctuation and how his writing has changed over the years.
Whereas a Lee Child novel is like a long black (you can drink the whole mug in one sitting), "With Child" is like an expresso: so intense that a mug would be too much and it’s best savoured in small shots. I read it over several sittings. It’s non-fiction after all and densely packed with detail.
"With Child" also describes some freakish coincidences where characters and events in Lee Child’s writing are eerily echoed by real life, even though he couldn’t have known about them at the time of writing them. Almost as though he has powers of prescience.
If you haven’t read "Reacher Said Nothing" it doesn’t matter, "With Child" can be read as a standalone. I loved "Reacher Said Nothing" but I actually think I prefer this one – it’s funnier.
This book would make a great gift for die-hard Lee Child fans or aspiring thriller writers.
February 19, 2020
I enjoyed parts of this book getting to know Lee Child more and how he writes. However found many parts quite academic and leaves me thinking so what. Three stars because of the short chapters which got me through parts where I lost interest.
August 23, 2022
This is probably my fault. As a "Reacher Creature" and mindful of the finite supply of the novels, I try and pace myself with various related books. This is somewhat about the writing style of Lee Child, somewhat about the nitty gritty of book promotion but quite a lot about the author and Child elbowing each other in the ribs (with the author doing most of the elbowing as befits his greater importance). It is supposed to be about the readers of Jack Reacher but what this means in practice is some vignettes of readers who are probably untypical but somehow "make a good story". I think the style may be aspiring to some sort of gonzo lit. crit. approach but the result is way too much gonzo and too little insight IMO. Sample short chapter: Is Reacher a stoic because he head butts? (I'm not sure where a book like this leaves the status of Polity as an academic publisher either.) Some things, like the arch comments about Jonathan Franzen (which incidentally start to sound insecure pretty rapidly) give the impression of a party between Child, the author and various pals to which the reader is definitely not invited. Pretty ironic for a book about readers? I managed to extract some information and ideas but through gritted teeth. So help me, this is a _smug_ book and offers yet more proof that the author introducing himself or herself into biography while striking the right tone is really difficult.
Read
October 16, 2025Having recently read #reacherthestoriesbehindthestories by #leechild and subsequently re-read #reachersaidnothing by #andymartin I decided to pick up #withchild by AM published in 2019, the sequel to RSN. This follows the publication and publicity of #makeme rather than the writing. The result is a quirky fever dream. quite funny in many places. Absurd and ridiculous in others. Disjointed and meandering but punchy. It condemns pretentious novels/authors while being unable to escape the obvious pretentiousness of the author. Like with any institution the petty rivalry and bitchy behaviour exists even in a fairly solitary endeavour such as writing. Not quite as insightful as its predecessor but this has a different focus. However, it does showcase a fair bit of Lee child’s sense of humour.
September 14, 2020
One for fans of Lee Child and Jack Reacher - but a good read for them (I thought Reacher Said Nothing had wider appeal). I know that some people can be snobbish about Child/Reacher, so as a staunch fan, it's reassuring to find plenty of other fans, and to have such erudite analysis of the work. It's also an interesting insight into the work required to plug a book, even one that you know is going to sell in its millions. And the rivalry between best selling authors is fun too.
September 19, 2019
Lee Child has the best job in the world. Now I know who has the second best.
January 16, 2020
this book. such a strange concept and strikingly slow and mundane. i really liked it ultimately.
May 9, 2020
Really good. As easy and enticing to read, but with more substance than the stories it studies.
March 2, 2022
Follows a year or so in Andy Martin's life as he interacts with Lee Child. "Make Me", the 20th in the Reacher series, has just been published.
January 1, 2020
For starters, readers here would do well to be familiar with if not rabid fans of Lee Child and his creature, Jack Reacher. Since Child has sold on the order of 100,000,000 Reacher books, there stand to be quite a few eligible readers for Prof. Martin's work.
This is a sequel. Volume One was "Reacher Said Nothing", an effort which escaped my attention but which will be on my shelf soon if the postal services manage to do their jobs. The first collaboration entailed Martin spending a year looking over Child's should, so to speak, as Child wrote that year's Reacher book, namely "Make Me".
The present effort explores opinions and biographies of people who have read Reacher books, preferably "Make Me" and several others. Lots of dialogue with Child is included.
The look at a writer's life, at writers chat and at writer's fans is fascinating.
Recommended.
This is a sequel. Volume One was "Reacher Said Nothing", an effort which escaped my attention but which will be on my shelf soon if the postal services manage to do their jobs. The first collaboration entailed Martin spending a year looking over Child's should, so to speak, as Child wrote that year's Reacher book, namely "Make Me".
The present effort explores opinions and biographies of people who have read Reacher books, preferably "Make Me" and several others. Lots of dialogue with Child is included.
The look at a writer's life, at writers chat and at writer's fans is fascinating.
Recommended.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews