Lee Child, Hard Way

Hard Way

Lee Child

Delacorte, May 2006, $25.00, 336 pp.

ISBN: 0385336691

Edward Lane made his millions brokering deals for mercenaries, but now needs to hire one for personal reasons before d j vu occurs. Someone has kidnapped Edward's second wife Kate, and demands he hand over a million dollars for her safe return. This is just like what happened to his first spouse, Anne, who was abducted but killed. Knowing the mercenary traffic, Edward hires the man he considers the best, loner Jack Reacher to go after the kidnappers once his wife is safely returned to him.

In a caf in Manhattan Reacher watches a parked Mercedes with the million dollars that Edward placed inside of it, until someone drives off with the vehicle. Reacher, with the help of former FBI Agent turned private investigator Lauren Pauling, who worked the first Lane tragedy, follows a particular nasty kidnapper. However, this time his uncanny instincts fail him, as he makes errors based on assumptions that prove false. Now the former military police officer turned vigilante for hire realizes he has to expedite himself out of a dangerous trap, and that he has ONE SHOT to do so.

This reviewer has always been a fan of the Reacher series, but in the HARD WAY, he seems less the invincible superman and more the error prone human. The premise that he starts off with a wrong assumption that leads to mistakes embellishes the typical high level of suspense as the audience wonders if the hero will survive, as he does not seem to know Jack about what is going on. Lee Child more than just refreshes his series; he widens the scope without changing the essence of his champion mercenary.