Book Review: The Affair
Reading a Lee Child's Jack Reacher novel is always a pleasure. But after fifteen installments, has the series begun to show its cracks? To put things in perspective, Reacher has been hitchhiking across the length and breadth of America for over a decade solving many a crime along the way ever since his discharge from the Army as a Major.
He eats at various diners, predominantly has coffee and bacon, doesn't carry anything with him except for a little bit of money, a tooth-brush, and a passport (post 9/11). Clothes, you say? Absolutely, no way.
This near-impossibility surrounding his character has been the focal-point of Lee Child's stories. But wouldn't the readers like to know the circumstances surrounding his departure from the Army? Or the reason why, for instance, he began carrying a tooth-brush with him or why he has an affinity for diners? As if as an answer to these questions comes his 2011 novel The Affair.
And if this is supposed to be a little peek into his past, what makes more sense than developing it as a prequel to his first outing Killing Floor? Set six months before the opening of KF in March '97 and four-and-a-half years before 9/11 (often reminded over and over, lest you forget), it tells the story of Reacher we see today.
An obligatory thriller plot takes the thirty-six year old Reacher, still a Major, to Carter Crossing, Mississippi, where a twenty-something white woman has been found dead with her throat cut wide open. With a surreptitious army base nearby, suspicions are rife that it could be a soldier behind the barbaric act. And it will be up to Reacher, sent as an undercover agent, to solve the puzzle that marks a turning-point in his military career.
For Reacher is at a moral crossroad - he must either follow the orders from the high-command or earn their wrath and lose his uniform if he dares to defy them. The opening, in fact, couldn't be better: 'It was Tuesday, the 11th of March, 1997, and it was the last day I walked into that place (the Pentagon) as a legal employee of the people who built it.'.
However, the writing is uneven and over-the-top at places. Take for example, when Reacher encounters a few thugs (solely added to bring in some action) who try to get even with him, the scene plays out thus:
He said, "Is there a reason I don't get out of this truck and kick your butt?"
I said, "Two hundred and six reasons."
He said, "What?"
"That's how many bones you got in your body. I could break them all before you put a glove on me."
The mystery on the whole is fairly engaging, but one can't help but think the story is too contrived for its own good. Adequately intriguing and thrilling, The Affair is perhaps the most cinematic thriller from Lee Child yet. But the novel is mainly about Reacher, the man himself, and we get to see a new side of his personality that was otherwise unknown.
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| The Affair |
This near-impossibility surrounding his character has been the focal-point of Lee Child's stories. But wouldn't the readers like to know the circumstances surrounding his departure from the Army? Or the reason why, for instance, he began carrying a tooth-brush with him or why he has an affinity for diners? As if as an answer to these questions comes his 2011 novel The Affair.
And if this is supposed to be a little peek into his past, what makes more sense than developing it as a prequel to his first outing Killing Floor? Set six months before the opening of KF in March '97 and four-and-a-half years before 9/11 (often reminded over and over, lest you forget), it tells the story of Reacher we see today.
An obligatory thriller plot takes the thirty-six year old Reacher, still a Major, to Carter Crossing, Mississippi, where a twenty-something white woman has been found dead with her throat cut wide open. With a surreptitious army base nearby, suspicions are rife that it could be a soldier behind the barbaric act. And it will be up to Reacher, sent as an undercover agent, to solve the puzzle that marks a turning-point in his military career.
For Reacher is at a moral crossroad - he must either follow the orders from the high-command or earn their wrath and lose his uniform if he dares to defy them. The opening, in fact, couldn't be better: 'It was Tuesday, the 11th of March, 1997, and it was the last day I walked into that place (the Pentagon) as a legal employee of the people who built it.'.
However, the writing is uneven and over-the-top at places. Take for example, when Reacher encounters a few thugs (solely added to bring in some action) who try to get even with him, the scene plays out thus:
He said, "Is there a reason I don't get out of this truck and kick your butt?"
I said, "Two hundred and six reasons."
He said, "What?"
"That's how many bones you got in your body. I could break them all before you put a glove on me."
The mystery on the whole is fairly engaging, but one can't help but think the story is too contrived for its own good. Adequately intriguing and thrilling, The Affair is perhaps the most cinematic thriller from Lee Child yet. But the novel is mainly about Reacher, the man himself, and we get to see a new side of his personality that was otherwise unknown.
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