Past Tense by Lee Child @LeeChildReacher @DelacortePress ‏‏ @penguinrandom ‏#Dell

Posted November 2, 2018 by Anne - Books of My Heart in Book Review / 9 Comments

Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.


Past Tense by Lee Child @LeeChildReacher @DelacortePress ‏‏ @penguinrandom ‏#DellPast Tense by Lee Child
Series: Jack Reacher #23
Published by Delacorte Press on November 5, 2018
Pages: 400
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley
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Jack Reacher hits the pavement and sticks out his thumb. He plans to follow the sun on an epic trip across America, from Maine to California. He doesn’t get far. On a country road deep in the New England woods, he sees a sign to a place he has never been: the town where his father was born. He thinks, What’s one extra day? He takes the detour.

At the same moment, in the same isolated area, a car breaks down. Two young Canadians had been on their way to New York City to sell a treasure. Now they’re stranded at a lonely motel in the middle of nowhere. The owners seem almost too friendly. It’s a strange place, but it’s all there is.

The next morning, in the city clerk’s office, Reacher asks about the old family home. He’s told no one named Reacher ever lived in town. He’s always known his father left and never returned, but now Reacher wonders, Was he ever there in the first place?

As Reacher explores his father’s life, and as the Canadians face lethal dangers, strands of different stories begin to merge. Then Reacher makes a shocking discovery: The present can be tough, but the past can be tense . . . and deadly.

I love this Jack Reacher series.   In the earlier books, it seemed to matter more whether they were read in order because of his connections with other characters, and his own progression. Lately, it hasn’t seemed as important with some books going back in time, even to when he was in the army.  I have read them all, including most of the novellas except 20 and 22.  I have to go read them!

The time frame from Past Tense is not clear to me; he is obviously out of the army awhile. He makes a stop to check out his father’s hometown and finds a whole mess of trouble. This is typical. There is plenty of action and intelligent deduction by Reacher which is always enjoyable. I’m not sure it is always realistic when he doesn’t have more trouble for his actions, but he sure is fun.   I love the feel of how smart he is to figure out things.

About Lee Child

Lee Child was born October 29th, 1954 in Coventry, England, but spent his formative years in the nearby city of Birmingham. By coincidence he won a scholarship to the same high school that JRR Tolkien had attended. He went to law school in Sheffield, England, and after part-time work in the theater he joined Granada Television in Manchester for what turned out to be an eighteen-year career as a presentation director during British TV’s “golden age.” During his tenure his company made Brideshead Revisited, The Jewel in the Crown, Prime Suspect, and Cracker. But he was fired in 1995 at the age of 40 as a result of corporate restructuring. Always a voracious reader, he decided to see an opportunity where others might have seen a crisis and bought six dollars’ worth of paper and pencils and sat down to write a book, Killing Floor, the first in the Jack Reacher series.

Killing Floor was an immediate success and launched the series which has grown in sales and impact with every new installment. The first Jack Reacher movie, based on the novel One Shot and starring Tom Cruise and Rosamund Pike, was released in December 2012.

Lee has three homes—an apartment in Manhattan, a country house in the south of France, and whatever airplane cabin he happens to be in while traveling between the two. In the US he drives a supercharged Jaguar, which was built in Jaguar’s Browns Lane plant, thirty yards from the hospital in which he was born.

Lee spends his spare time reading, listening to music, and watching the Yankees, Aston Villa, or Marseilles soccer. He is married with a grown-up daughter. He is tall and slim, despite an appalling diet and a refusal to exercise.

Anne - Books of My Heart
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Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

  • 2018 New Release Challenge

Posted November 2, 2018 by Anne - Books of My Heart in Book Review / 9 Comments


9 responses to “Past Tense by Lee Child

  1. Neat that you’ve read most of the series and still love it this many books along. I will eventually try these.

    Happy Friday, Anne!

    • I discovered it when my daughter’s Girl Scout troop did a drive for books for the library (they sell them to make money). One of the neighbors traveled and has a bunch of paperbacks he had gotten. I read them before we turned them into the library! It makes me laugh when I think about it, but how could I resist those boxes of books? I was in Friends of the Library for a few years and helped sort books for the sale and also helped with the sale a few times. (This was in MN)

      Anne recently posted: Audio: Fury by Rachel Vincent
  2. My involvement with this series has always been patchy – but I haven’t read any recently. Thank you for your review – it’s good to know the Reacher magic is still present:)

    • I think he’s so fun and I love all the action. Obviously, it’s not a serious, dark read most of the time but I really enjoy them. They are well-written and plotted. There’s some cool technical stuff about guns and sort of MacGyver like strategy and tactics when he’s fighting or escaping or solving some problems.

      Anne recently posted: Gone Hunting by Cecy Robson
    • It’s very smart and lots of action. It’s like the Jack Ryan books by Tom Clancy or Clive Cussler’s Dirk Pitt or Vince Flynn’s Mitch Rapp. That sort of category anyway. Did you ever see the Reacher movie which had Tom Cruise? It was a good movie but Tom Cruise is not even close to a fit for Reacher physically. Reacher is more dirty blond, 6foot 5inches and solid muscle 250lbs I think. I’ve read them a long time now and enjoy them.