“Worth Dying For” is Lee Child’s latest novel starring Jack Reacher. The good guy, hard as nails, lethal 6’5″ ex Military Policeman. WDF has been out for some time but I avoided buying it because Child’s previous book “61 Hours” was a dud. I’m not the only one who thought that. You can buy it on the remainder table at Barnes and Noble for about $6. So I held off getting Worth Dying For until I saw it in paperback, heap cheap with a 25% discount. So I got it.
I’m glad I did. In 61 hours Jack Reacher was a total dweeb. He was all moony and weak and disgusting. My theory was that he had taken to wearing panties instead of Fruit of the Loom’s for some reason. In Worth Dying For Jack is back in his briefs and is kicking butt and taking names.
He is all banged up at the start of the book because of an accident at the end of 61 Hours. A motorist that Reacher hitched a ride with drops him off at a remote crossroads in Nebraska. The only thing there is a motel with a lounge. Jack goes to get some coffee at the lounge. A medical doctor is drinking at the lounge and gets a call from a patient who has a bad nosebleed and needs help. The doctor declines to help and resumes drinking. That gets Jack all riled up so he convinces the guy to go help his patient. Jack drives him to the house. Well, as expected there is a woman there who got punched in the nose by her husband. Jack makes sure that the doc takes care of the woman and Jack goes searching for the husband.
The husband is part of the Duncan family who basically run the whole area and intimidate the area’s residents through threats of violence. Well, Jack is not intimidated and takes care of the husband. It turns out that the Duncan’s have a small army of bodyguards. The bodyguards are all former University of Nebraska Cornhusker football players. (I used to live in Texas, the U of Nebraska was called the University of Texas at Lincoln, just like as any Oklahoma Sooner fan knows, the proper name of the OU football team is the “The University of Texas at Norman.” This is because all the good football players come from Texas right? At least in the Midwest that is.) Old Jack mows through the football players in no time.
Well anyway with all this kicking butt and everything Jack uncovers a deep dark secret about the Duncan’s. He ends up fighting the Duncans, some Italian mobsters, and other shadowy types. I’m not going to tell you the secret. Lets just say that it is worse than anything I could have imagined. If you can imagine it, I am really worried about you. You may need therapy.
The book is a totally satisfying guy read. It doesn’t delve into the inner realms of your outer consciousness or anything like that. It is pure tough guy Walter Mitty stuff. Welcome back Jack Reacher! I give this book 3.5 stars out of 5. It’s a great read.
Previous Reviews of Lee Child’s books
Glad you liked it. I’ll wait for it to come out in e-book, which shouldn’t be long. Thanks for the review to pike my interest.
Okay, you’ve grabbed me! I’ll add it to my list. There’s a library quite near here, but I haven’t located it yet. Love having one within walking distance! This was a fun, terrific review and I do love your humor! Enjoy your weekend!
Sylvia
I’m a huge Lee Chile fan. I’ve read the whole Jack Reacher series and can’t wait for the next one.
I’ve been reading about Reacher since “The Killing Floor”. He’s a great character. Once, Random House had a breakfast for booksellers and authors, and I got to have breakfast with Lee Child. He as nice and it was great meeting him.
Sounds like a good one to me so onto my list it goes.
Sounds like an interesting read.
I started reading Lee Child after reading your review on 61 hours and I liked it. So I’ll probably give this one a try… even if I’m a woman 🙂
I’ve tried out several new authors because of your book reviews, and found some I really like. I’ll try Lee Child, too.