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In THE AFFAIR, the latest thriller in the Reacher series, author Lee Child fills in some gaps in Jack Reacher's biography. Instead of a further escapade in the present, this novel takes us back to 1997, when the quirky anti-hero of 16 novels first begins his adventures. Through the course of the action, we learn how he came to be the crime-fighting loner that he is. Reacher is still an army MP when he is tapped to be part of a murder investigation near a top-secret army base in a rural Mississippi town called Carter Crossing. A young woman has been brutally butchered, her throat slashed and her body drained of blood, in the same way a hunter would deal with a deer. Reacher is supposed to hang out under cover in the town and find out what the local police are doing. His overall concern is supposed to be making sure that the blame is not placed on any military personnel. What he discovers, however, including two other similar murders of beautiful young women, pushes him to look for the truth that the military is trying to suppress. All signs point to a killer who is one of an elite unit on the base. This young man has powerful allies in Washington, however, and Reacher must deal with an intricate cover-up that is being implemented at a very high level. As his fans know, it is not easy to fool Reacher, and he is not one for going through channels and hoping for the best. For those readers who find themselves frustrated with the slow workings of the justice system, Reacher's personal retribution against the guilty parties may be quite satisfying. He does things the way he does them, and the bad guys do not last long in his universe. The bad guys in this book meet violent but deserved deaths, and are the precursors of all the other evildoers Reacher will discover and dispose of in the future. THE AFFAIR of the novel's title may refer to a number of different affairs that the book recounts, some romantic, some not. If you are a reader new to the Reacher series, this book is a fine introduction to the taut, often brutal, always gripping world of Jack Reacher and his methods of fighting crime. If you are already a fan of the series, this book will offer even more. You will discover the origins of the Jack Reacher portable toothbrush, which is the only possession Reacher carries with him. You will also see him, for the first time, throw away his shirts instead of washing them. You will be witness to Reacher carefully planning his moves and then smoothly taking on as many as six assailants at the same time, something his fans look forward to seeing in each of his books. As is usual for him, Reacher risks his own life in this tale, but here he also ends his career by pursuing the cover-up, and as the novel comes to a close, he leaves the army and embarks on his new life. Anne Corey is a writer, poet, teacher and botanical artist in New York's Hudson Valley.
Reviewed by Anne Corey, October 2011
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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