#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Lee Child returns with a gripping new powerhouse thriller featuring Jack Reacher, “one of this century’s most original, tantalizing pop-fiction heroes” (The Washington Post).BONUS: Includes a sneak peek of Lee Child’s new novel, Past Tense. Reacher takes a stroll through a small Wisconsin town and sees a class ring in a pawn shop window: West Point 2005. A tough … ring in a pawn shop window: West Point 2005. A tough year to graduate: Iraq, then Afghanistan. The ring is tiny, for a woman, and it has her initials engraved on the inside. Reacher wonders what unlucky circumstance made her give up something she earned over four hard years. He decides to find out. And find the woman. And return her ring. Why not?
So begins a harrowing journey that takes Reacher through the upper Midwest, from a lowlife bar on the sad side of small town to a dirt-blown crossroads in the middle of nowhere, encountering bikers, cops, crooks, muscle, and a missing persons PI who wears a suit and a tie in the Wyoming wilderness.
The deeper Reacher digs, and the more he learns, the more dangerous the terrain becomes. Turns out the ring was just a small link in a far darker chain. Powerful forces are guarding a vast criminal enterprise. Some lines should never be crossed. But then, neither should Reacher.
Praise for The Midnight Line
“Puts Reacher just where we want him.”—The New York Times Book Review
“A gem.”—Chicago Tribune
“A timely, suspenseful, morally complex thriller, one of the best I’ve read this year . . . Child weaves in a passionately told history of opioids in American life. . . . Child’s outrage over it is only just barely contained.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer
“A perfect example of Lee Child’s talent . . . Lee Child is the master of plotting. . . . This is Child’s most emotional book to date. . . . This is not just a good story; it is a story with a purpose and a message.”—Huffington Post
“I just read the new Jack Reacher novel by Lee Child. . . . It is as good as they always are. I read every single one.”—Malcolm Gladwell
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Once more Jack Reacher can find trouble in whatever place he stops. This time it’s a pawn shop where he finds a West Point ring. He then sets out to find the owner of the ring because, well, he’s Jack Reacher.
Jack Reacher graduated West Point, fictionally, the year after me. He was also in Lebanon during the Marine Corps barracks, fictionally, while my unit, 10th Special Forces was running an MTT in the hills.
I lost my West Point ring years ago when I fedexed it to be repaired. My stone was hematite and it had cracked somehow, which is weird, because I never really wore it. I never replaced it, but its out there somewhere, so perhaps Jack Reacher will show up with it. One can only hope.
A solid read as all Lee Child’s books are.
I enjoy Lee Child’s books very much. Midnight Line brings you to the American west, into the wilderness of Wyoming. Into the dark world of opioid trafficking and addiction. He described the pain of injured veterans with realism and respect. The writing was great, as always, and I came away feeling entertained and satisfied. He’s a master.
The lead character of Jack Reacher has been widely reviewed by many. The sales of this series say it all. Everyone buys this book series. They have also made two movies about Jack with perhaps the worst casting ever (Tom Cruse (5′ 7″ as Jack Reacher 6’5″). This book series is great. When I discovered this series, I read the first 5 books in 5 days. Then I had to wait for the next book to come out. Lee Child is the real thing in creating great characters. I paid full price for this book and it was still worth every penny I paid for it.
I have yet to read a bad Lee Child book. Some have been better than others, but they have all been good. The Midnight Line did nothing to change that. Was it the best book in the series? No. Was it the worst? No. It fell somewhere a little below the middle.
As in Night School, other characters take center stage in many of the scenes. It would be hard to have Reacher star in every scene here since things are happening in two widely separated places at the same time. Also, if memory serves, in the older books Reacher carried the day himself or with the help of soldiers from his old unit. In the last few books, he’s enlisted outsiders (if you will) to help him. Reacher is the main character after all. So, let’s keep him the star of the show.
In earlier books, Child made Reacher’s inner monologues interesting. You wouldn’t think Reacher thinking through how he will handle a confrontation engaging, but it was. However, he fell flat here with his monologue about the evolution of heroin to fentanyl. It went on too long and roamed around a bit as if it wasn’t sure where it was going.
And again, too, the climax seemed a bit rushed here and a bit too neatly packaged. It never had the heart-racing tension earlier books – any good thriller in fact – should have. Could Lee Child be losing his edge? Hard to say.
I’ll keep reading his books until that point is reached then I’ll say a sad good-bye to Jack Reacher.
Not “One of the best books of the year” as stated on the back cover, nor did I find it “A timely, affecting, suspenseful and morally complex thriller”.
All jokes aside, I have read several Jack Reacher novels, and some of them I have enjoyed. I found this one to be bland, and lacking interesting characters.
Has Lee Child written too many Jack Reacher novels? Perhaps
Lee Child’s character, Jack Reacher, does not disappoint. In Midnight Line, the story revolves around a ring of drug dealers, highlighting the case of a retired Army officer who was severely injured in the war in Iraq. Many surgeries later, she is maintaining herself on opioids via a drug dealer. Reacher encounters the woman simply by finding her West Point class ring in a pawn shop. He decides there’s more to the story than simply a pawned ring, and sets out to find her. That’s when the busted heads begin – and there’s seldom a time in the book where somebody is either about to suffer his wrath, or is in the midst of such. While Child’s Reacher stories have gotten very predictable, this one hits home in connecting with the USA’s current battle with opioid addication.
This was an entertaining story. Jack Reacher to the rescue.
I am a Reacher creature and really liked this book. Very interesting premise for the story. I loved the characters and was saddened by the ending, although it was appropriated, I thought.
I have enjoyed all of the jack reacher books, but the last couple he seems to have mellowed. I miss the action of the fights he used to get into
Love Jack Reacher. Good story. Really relevant.
Home grown terrorists. Opiod addictions. Small town with lots of secrets. People not who they seem to be.
It all starts when Reacher sees a West Point ring in a pawn shop. He knows how hard it is to get one of these and wonders why anyone would pawn one after so much work. It is a small ring, has to belong to a woman.
Reacher decides to find the owner and find out why the ring is in a pawn shop. And, of course, Reacher being Reacher, the trouble begins.
Lee Child is VERY talented, his books are action-packed and keeps you guessing until the end, I highly recommend for you to read this fantabulous book 😉
I guess sometimes the world’s injustice stings so much that you find yourself wishing for a vigilante/equalizer like Jack Reacher. He shows up just when you need him, takes care of all the bad guys, and fades away without demanding anything in return. A page-turning story & unforgettable character!
Satisfying listen for grading binges & sleepless nights.
I like Child’s Jack Reacher so I cannot pass one up. Some are more violent and this is one. Very action packed.
Jack Reacher tracks down a female veteran whose dog tags he finds. He stumbles into a drug smuggling operation.
Jack Reacher stumbles across a West Point ring in a pawn shop and decides to return it to the original owner. It’s one of those strange impulses he occasionally has that even he doesn’t fully understand, and, as so often happens in this series, his act of human kindness almost gets him killed.
This novel pulled me in two different ways. On the one hand, the problem is just fascinating and I was totally captivated by the mystery of who the former owner of the ring was. As we begin to learn little bits about her, the mystery becomes more and more intriguing as Reacher tries to uncover why she’s in the circumstances she’s in. I freely admit that I missed clues that Child fairly laid out on the table, but that only made the ultimate revelations all the more exciting.
The second way this novel caught me was in the slow building tension caused by people trying to stop Reacher from finding the woman who used to own the ring. There’s a lot of action here—but Reacher is not just a violent killing machine wandering around the northwest and watching him work situations so they don’t explode into violence was just as exciting as witnessing him win a fight.
Perhaps the best thing about this book is that it appeared to reach its end about two-thirds through. We had our answers, but Child wasn’t finished with us yet. Knowing what he’s learned, Reacher can’t just walk away and we get what felt to me like a bonus adventure to make things right again.
Love all of the Reacher books
Cannot wait for new releases by this author
I was first introduced to the Jack Reacher persona by a different author who has permission to use it. I was intrigued. I recorded and watched two Jack Reacher movies. (Tom Cruise does not match the physical description in this book. In this case I’m grateful to have seen the movies first.) I purchased Midnight Line and just finished it today. I have a new favorite author.
Love the Jack Reacher series
Jack Reacher is a very sympathetic character. He’s a man we all wish we knew.