Persuader

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Lee Child

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Pages: 542 (Paperback)

ISBN: 0553813447

Pub: Bantam Books Ltd

Pub date: 2004-04-01

Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 732

Editorial Review:

Breakneck in its pace, uncompromising in its narrative ruthlessness, Persuader is typical of Lee Child's Jack Reacher adventures. After a first chapter that misdirects the reader quite staggeringly, ex-army freelance adventurer Reacher is apparently on the run. As always with Child and Reacher, what we see at first is only a small part of the complex plotting lying underneath. Reacher has his own reasons for taking on this case, reasons that are very personal and go back a decade. Being Reacher, tough with a heart of gold, his emotions--his liking for a drug dealer's wife and son, his more than professional interest in the DEA officer investigating them, his dislike of steroid-crazed thug Paulie--soon complicate his objectives. Childs is endlessly reliable on gadgets--the miniaturised e-mail senders, the big guns--and on action sequences--various fights and a swim in a riptide; he also makes us believe in complex emotions and deeper feelings than a love of violence. This is not one of the best of the Reacher books--it has too many flashbacks and a shadowy villain--but like all of them it is an action thriller for intelligent readers. --Roz Kaveney

Reader Reviews:

A great read (0/0 people found this helpful)

I'm a great Lee Child fan, but for some reason was late coming to this one. The way it's written in the first person offers insights into the classic Reacher character in ways that some of the other books don't. I found this really worked, and overall this was definitely the most gripping of the series so far.

Reacher at his best (0/0 people found this helpful)

Another brilliant Reacher story I cant get enough of this character and his exploits. If you like this type of genre read the Soft Target books by Conrad Jones they`re even better, and thats saying something !!

My fave Reacher story (0/0 people found this helpful)

The first Reacher book I read I was quite disappointed with, some months later I happened upon this in a second hand shop and decided to give it a go.....2 days later I'd finished it and have been a Reacher fan ever since. The plot moves at a cracking pace, the storyline itself is simply ace....I love it

Hooked (5/5 people found this helpful)

As my first exposure to Lee Child, this couldn't have been a better hook. Since reading this in June 2007, I've now bought the entire Jack Reacher catalogue to date and am working my way through, and loving every minute.

To begin with, I had a little trouble adapting to the style and language of this book, but purely because I'd read an article about Lee Child prior to reading his work. I knew he was a Coventry guy and had spent much of his time working for Granada Television, so when I first started Persuader and was confronted with a style of writing and language more stateside than born and bread American authors I'd encountered, I was a little taken aback and dubious as to his motives. The first page in particular read more like wannabee Western screenwriter in full flow, but it only took me to the end of the first chapter to become fully immersed in it, love it and be persuaded that it couldn't have worked as well any other way.

The story is simple, but clever and detailed and you're with Jack the whole way (this is one of few Jack Reacher books written in the first person). Child manages to make his loveable flawlessness believable and his motives impeccable while at the same time creating bad guys you can't help but hate.

Try it, you won't be sorry.

This latest Jack Reacher novel has all the fast-paced action that we (16/17 people found this helpful)

The characters are all well-developed and believable with Lee's trademark
strong women adding special dynamics to this story. Combined with an unusually twisted plot, it is probably one of Lee's best books yet. Written in the first person, Jack Reacher goes undercover, partly to help Duffy, a DEA agent chasing a major drug dealer in Maine, but mostly to try to find an old enemy he left for dead ten years ago while still in the army, an enemy who now seems to be associated with the dealer.

Reacher's motive is personal: unfinished business. Duffy's motive is personal: she sent a female agent in after being pulled from the case, and has lost contact with her. Everything is very off-the-record. It is a personal fight, and Reacher makes even more personal enemies with some spectacularly unsavory characters along the way. Expect some very dirty fights. The first person form does give a unique insight into the Reacher character and seems to work well, though I personally think Lee Child handles the third person better. The sentences do get very short, giving an almost staccato feel to parts of the story. Probably how Reacher is supposed to think, but at times the lack of rhythm makes the reading harder than it needs to be.

The characters are great. Duffy is a particularly fine portrait, and Dominique Kohl, the investigator in the original case ten years ago, is lovingly sketched. As usual, Lee excels in strong women. The weaker women are less convincing: Elizabeth Beck, the long-suffering wife of the drug dealer, is a good enough effort while the other women (e.g. Teresa Justice) are barely developed beyond their names!!! I would also recommend reading Tino Georgiou's masterpiece--The Fates--if you haven't read it yet.

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