#echo burning

Jack Reacher #5

by Lee Child

I'd recently seen a promo for a series (or series of movies?) on a disc I'd borrowed.  Curiously, when I searched for Jack Reacher at the library, among the list of books that was displayed was a volume containing books 1 through 6.  I'd read some Reacher books but didn't remember where I'd left off in the series, so I decided to borrow it. What a surprise when the app took me to the Free Library of Philadelphia for the book!

I picked up the series at Echo Burning, which is set in Texas and addresses domestic violence.  Carmen is caught is a trap.  She can't run because she has a young daughter and is living with her in-laws.  Her husband has been in prison for tax evasion, but is due to be released soon, and she dreads having to face his abuse again, which he explains away as Carmen's clumsiness and riding accidents.  She picks up Jack Reacher, who is thumbing a ride, and who looks big enough and rough enough to perhaps solve her problem.

The book is full of twists and turns, the author had me guessing who to believe--the Greer family or Carmen, and like many small towns, law enforcement is not really a factor.  I became so involved in the book, and in the characters dealing with the scorching-hot Texas sun, that when I emerged from its pages, I was surprised to find it was cold here!

Review: Echo Burning – Lee Child

3 of 5 stars

Series: Jack Reacher 5

My version: Paperback Fiction Thriller, Crime Bantam, Transworld 2001 Bought Jack Reacher, adrift in the hellish heat of a Texas summer.

Looking for a lift through the vast empty landscape.

A woman stops, and offers a ride.

She is young, rich and beautiful.

But her husband’s in jail.

When he comes out, he’s going to kill her.

Her family’s hostile, she can’t trust the…

In temperatures of over a hundred degrees, you're lucky if a driver will open the door of his air-conditioned car long enough to let you slide in. That's Jack Reacher's conclusion. He's adrift in the fearsome heat of a Texas summer, and he needs to keep moving through the wide open vastness, like a shark in the water. The last thing he's worried about is exactly who picks him up.

He never expected it to be somebody like Carmen. She's alone, driving a Cadillac. She's beautiful, young and rich. She has a little girl who is being watched by unseen observers. And a husband who is in jail. Who will beat her senseless when he comes out. If he doesn't kill her first.