It is said a Jack Reacher book is sold worldwide every 9 seconds. It’s not a stretch to believe, given the tremendous love for Lee Child’s crisp prose and ingenious sleuthing stories set in grim towns that make for a chilly ambiance. Going into the book with high hopes for excellence, The Sentinel still managed to blast through my sky high expectations with a wonderfully fast but not rushed pace, killer dialogues especially for Reacher, extremely fun action sequences tailored for Reacher’s huge physique, and a highly captivating plot with big twists and turns.
Jack Reacher hitches a ride to a small town in central Tennessee where he finds an IT specialist walking into an ambush. In typical Reacher fashion, he jumps in to save the innocent man and later learns about the sinister agenda brewing in the town involving Nazis, Russian spies, and the US elections. In terms of the stakes, this is a far grander story than other Reacher stories, but still retains the grounded vibe of a story set in a small town, allowing Reacher the opportunity to wreak havoc on the bad guys without worrying about the big brother elements of a bigger urban city.
The Sentinel is Andrew Child’s first take on Jack Reacher, taking over from his brother, Lee Child. For anyone uncertain about Reacher’s future, there is no cause for alarm. Andrew Child not only understands the foundations of what makes Jack Reacher so great, but adds a freshness to those traits. Reacher’s intimidating yet witty and elegant dialogues are delightful and in abundance. In contrast to some of the previous Reacher stories, there is a lot more action in The Sentinel, written in highly entertaining prose where Reacher goes through the bad guys like a knife through butter. Even with Reacher’s almost infallible combat moves, the narrative never loses momentum due to the cinematic nature of the fight scenes. The final sequence has Reacher fighting a grizzly Russian in an extremely well written street style brawl that shows why Reacher is a true badass.
The Sentinel is an extraordinary thriller that revitalizes Jack Reacher as a charismatic, witty, and dangerous protagonist. The narrative wastes no time in setting up and there is never a dull moment. A tremendous treat for longtime fans of the series as well as new readers.
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