Lee Child - Gone Tomorrow

Review by Malcolm Martland on show 8th July
Lee Child is the pen name of 56-year-old British thriller writer Jim Grant. His first novel was Killing Floor and was the first to feature the exploits of Jack Reacher a former US military policeman.

Jack Reacher travels light has no fixed abode and no obvious employment. Gone Tomorrow begins with him on the subway at 2 AM in New York and his suspicions are raised by a young woman, Sue Mark, who he perceives as ticking all the points for a would-be suicide bomber. The other occupants of the carriage appear oblivious to her but to avert a disaster jack steps in and asks to take her hands out of her carrier bag. After a brief conversation she pulled out a gun and shoots herself.

At the next stop pandemonium breaks out and although Jack styles himself as only a witness he is under suspicion not just as a possible killer but also for receiving whatever the victim was carrying although nothing has been found. He attracts the attention of not just the police but also the FBI, a lobby of prominent politicians, a gang of terrorists and anyone else that Lee Childs thinks can get in on the act!

There ensues a manhunt for Jack while is one in turn is hunting the would-be recipients of whatever Sue Mark was supposed to be in carrying. It appears that everybody is looking for a memory stick? I've found myself being reminded of the novel Six Days of the Condor by James Grady with everyone chasing the “hero”.

I found no empathy with the character Jack, portrayed as a typical macho ex-military type, a little similar to Jason Bourne. Nor was the writing to my taste and the construction was irritating with lots of short chapters instead of paragraphs with the story just continuing over the chapter break, I couldn't see the point in them. Nevertheless, it was compulsive reading and would probably make a great film.

Malcolm Martland