Make Me

Starred review from July 27, 2015
Bestseller Child’s superb 20th Jack Reacher novel (after 2014’s Personal) begins with the disposal of the body of someone named Keever, with a backhoe in a hog pen near an almost-forgotten town in the Midwest called Mother’s Rest, which Reacher decides to visit (as he points out, he has “no place to go, and all the time in the world to get there”). The mystery deepens dramatically after he meets Michelle Chang, who’s looking for her PI colleague: Keever. Reacher and Chang make a formidable team faced with a formidable challenge: finding out what happened to Keever, the only clue a cryptic note that reads “200 deaths.” The investigation takes the two from Mother’s Rest to Chicago, Arizona, Los Angeles, Silicon Valley—and to the Internet’s netherworld, the “Deep Web.” What they discover is beyond gruesome and almost beyond belief—it’s decidedly not for the faint of heart—but Child’s complete command of the story makes this thriller work brilliantly. Agent: Darley Anderson, Darley Anderson Literary.

October 26, 2015
Jack Reacher number 20 (after last year’s Personal) begins with the disposal of the body of someone named Keever, with a backhoe in a hog pen near a town in the Midwest called Mother’s Rest, which Reacher decides to visit (as he points out, he has “no place to go, and all the time in the world to get there”). Almost immediately, he bumps into a beautiful, smart-talking damsel in distress, Michelle Chang, who’s looking for her PI colleague: Keever. It should come as no surprise to Child’s vast readership that Reacher and Chang will join forces to solve the mystery of Mother’s Rest, and that it will involve danger, violence, some romance, snappy dialogue, sharp plotting, and lots of travel (Chicago, L.A., Phoenix, and San Francisco). Unlike the other books in the series, the monstrousness of the villainy erases the line separating crime and horror fiction. One happily familiar feature is reader Hill, who’s been giving voice to Reacher since book one. Not only does he convey toughness without sounding like a 1940s B movie sleuth, his villains easily shift from good old boy bonhomie to sneering arrogance, innocents speak softly (sometimes even tremulously), and his version of Reacher’s mixture of cynicism and insouciance fits the character to a T. A Delacorte hardcover.