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Review | Book review: Lee Child’s spartan prose is something to behold
The tie-in to the latest Jack Reacher movie features yet another clockwork plot interspersed with violence, but that’s the joy of Child
Never Go Back
by Lee Child
Bantam
by Lee Child
Bantam
The 21st Lee Child novel, Night School, is just around the corner, but I picked up the film tie-in of Jack Reacher’s 18th adventure, now on a silver screen near you. Never Go Back is a nice, if fate-tempting, title for a movie sequel. The source novel is also a sequel, of sorts. Having pursued Major Susan Turner for four books, Reacher is wanted by the army, the police (for a historical murder) and possibly by his daughter (if she is his daughter). The joy of Child rarely emanates from who Reacher is, though I guess Jack’s heroic quest for rootlessness in a rooted world is fascinating enough. It is what he does amid the clockwork precision of the plot that grips. This is mainly violent and Child’s spare-to-spartan prose is quite something: “But. He wasn’t sure. Not completely. Not yet.” Personally, I am addicted to the salivating descriptions of Reacher’s all-American physique: “a six-pack like a cobbled city street, and a chest like a suit of NFL armour, and biceps like basketballs.” Perhaps Cruise thought reading doesn’t just make you smarter, but also makes you ripped.
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