Worth Dying For, by Lee Child

Format: Trade Paperback 416 pages
Published: 30 September 2010
Publisher: Transworld Publishers Ltd

Back cover blurb:

“61 Hours” ended with maverick loner Jack Reacher trapped in a desperate situation from which escape seemed impossible. Even for him. But Reacher has done the impossible before. Now there’s deadly trouble in the wilds of Nebraska…and Reacher walks right into it. First he falls foul of the Duncans, a local clan that has terrified an entire county into submission. But it’s the unsolved case of a missing eight-year-old girl, already decades-old, that Reacher can’t let go. The Duncans want Reacher gone – or dead. And it’s not just past secrets they’re trying to hide. They’re awaiting a secret shipment that’s already late – and they have the kind of customers no one can afford to annoy. For as dangerous as the Duncans are, they’re just the bottom of a criminal food chain stretching halfway around the world. Reacher – bruised and battered – should have just kept on going. But for Reacher, that was impossible.

My review:

I’m starting to worry about Jack Reacher. Maybe he’s been alone too long.

As I read this book I began to worry that he was taking the law into his own hands a bit more than usual, executing people when they were really no immediate threat to him. This new development makes me wonder if this is the beginning of the end for Reacher; certainly Lee Child has indicated there will only be a few more books.

Worth Dying For was written in a totally different voice than the previous book. 61 Hours was all short sentences and ticking clocks; this book was full of long train-of-thought paragraphs. For that reason it required more concentration to read, but was nonetheless a great story. The extent of the Duncans’ secret came as a complete surprise, and the ending was most satisfactory.

I just hope Jack can meet up with Susan from his old unit, the 110th. I fear he won’t, given that at the end of 61 Hours she was posted to Afghanistan, but I think he really needs her voice of reason right now.

My rating: 4/5