61 HOURS

Ali Karim is assistant editor at SHOTS and writes/reviews for The Rap Sheet, January Magazine, Deadly Pleasures, Crimespree and Mystery Readers International

This year Jack Reacher will appear in two novels by the Englishman in New York – Lee Child, and judging by the standards of the first of these two tales, it is something we should celebrate.  

Written in terse short sentences, this tale set against a frigid winter in South Dakota, with Reacher involved in a coach / bus crash which leads him on a complex tale of Columbian drug lords but again nothing is entirely what it seems. Peppering the narrative is to view what makes Reacher tick, especially the seeds of his past. Also present is Lee Child’s interest in the minutiae of life and death, though the real pleasure of this novel is how Child makes ‘the cold’ the real villain of the piece.  

Following the crash, Reacher leads the way into the small town paranoia that circles the proceedings like vultures waiting for death. Throw in a prison that holds secrets, a biker gang who may or may not be involved in a drug racket, as well as characters as multi-faceted as the snowflakes that pound the South Dakota winter and you have yet another rip-roaring read that is basically an updated, reboot of the works of the golden age thriller writing of Child’s precursors, such as Ian Fleming, Alistair MacLean and John Buchan.