BETTER OFF DEAD by Lee Child and Andrew Child

 BETTER OFF DEAD

by

Lee Child and Andrew Child

    Better Off Dead, by Lee Child and Andrew Child, is the 26th installment in the Jack Reacher series. Its anticipated publication date is October 26, 2021.

    In Better Off Dead, Reacher is heading west and entering a small border town in Arizona. He meets another army veteran, Michaela Fenton. She is looking for her twin brother, Michael, who has gone missing. Naturally, Reacher offers to help.

    I am a long time fan of Jack Reacher, having followed each of his adventures, wherever his wondering has taken him. But after I began reading Better Off Dead, I was taken aback; this was not the Jack Reacher whom I know and love. For example, Reacher is described as scruffy and unkempt, like a hobo. Although the quirky Reacher buys, wears, and tosses cheap clothes, he is rarely scruffy and unkempt. It is mentioned about Reacher being a civilian. Reacher might be "separated" from the army, but I do not think that he sees himself as a civilian; his entire life has been the military, and his entire being is military. There does not appear to be a military presence in this Reacher, not in his demeanor or in his thinking. And, although Reacher has no qualms about using force, he does so only if needed, only if there is no other way, and even then, only to the level required; much of the violence I was reading about in Better Off Dead felt gratuitous. 

    Both the character and the writing were unsettling. They seemed flat, lacking the usual depth found in Reacher books. Facts about Reacher seemed to be thrown out there, almost as a second thought rather than incorporated within the plot. And, the plot of Better Off Dead also felt linear and flat, lacking the usual robustness and complexity I recall from prior Reacher adventures.Yet the conclusion to this book felt overly complicated; I still do not understand the resolution, and it does not seem to fit nicely together like prior Reacher books.

    Near the end of my reading Better Off Dead, I read that Andrew Child has taken over writing the Reacher books. I don't know whether this is true or, if so, whether it is the reason for my discomfort with this book, but I do not like this incarnation of Reacher. Better Off Dead was a nice experience with a new character, but as another adventure with Reacher, I was disappointed.