Well worth the read, but then I'm a die hard Child\Reacher fan. Kept my interest and had somw good twists and turns, but left me wanting just a bit more.

What a terrible disappointment. I've read all the Jack Reacher novels and am so VERY glad I chose to borrow this last one, "Nothing To Lose", from the public library.

If the author wants to get political, enjoys criticism of his "host" nation, just go on back to jolly ?? old England....we don't need another parasite on our shores.

This book has radical political views supporting foreign nations & criticizes the U.S. It offends me, & I notice others feel the same.

To be fair, most of the Jack Reacher novels will keep a reader up nights until the book is finished. This book was difficult to keep reading, too much superfluous information, nothing much to want to continue reading.
Contrary to the title of this book, I believe Lee Child "lost" quite a bit this time; many of us see no reason to read his books again!

I am glad I am not the only one who did not enjoy this story.

A total waste of a good tree, I hate to say it but I am afraid the Jack Reacher franchise has run out of steam. If you have never read a Reacher novel, do not start with this one - read the first ten and stop.

One of the reasons I've always bought and read this series is that I enjoyed a main character with an unshakeable sense of honor and hardly any dithering. So it was disappointing when the author jumped on the tired old anti-war bandwagon. I thought at least he might hold it down to the usual "I hate this war but I honor the servicemen who fight in it," but this time Reacher really goes in the tank. "My country let me down, so I'm released from all personal honor, too." Who needs it? It's the last Reacher novel I'll buy or read.

I guess if more servicemen had felt this way, we wouldn't have won the war while Child wasn't watching.

I LOVE Reacher. One of my favorite all-time fiction lines is from The Hard Way:

Reacher. Alone in the dark. Invincible.

This book ranks at the bottom on the Reacher list, primarily because I don't need lectures about the war in Iraq and the evil administration that hates its soldiers. Leave out the politics next time, Lee.

Otherwise, it was okay. But I read Lee Child to get better than okay.

... and I am so very grateful I am not a Christian War Monger.

: )

This is Child's best Reacher book. Although the pace is a little slower than many of the other books in the Reacher series, the slower pace, combined with the intriguing mysteries to be solved, make it very worthwhile. I highly recommend it!

If the negative conclusions Reacher has made about Iraq are likely to steam you, skip the book. Otherwise, still a pretty good read. I have confidence in Lee Child.

As reviewer Brian Baker say, Reacher stories have been small stories. They have also not been so fantastical. The townspeople are cartoons. That being said, Reacher is still Reacher. I read avidly, the action was sufficient, and the essential small observations (why do hardware stores always put items out on the sidewalk? coffee mug shapes, etc.) are as tasty as ever.

Recommended, with the caveat.

Lee Child, if you should somehow read this review, let me request you read a MUCH better book by Laura Ingraham, "Shut up and Sing". I humbly ask you to Shut up and WRITE!
Why do otherwise good writers insist on throwing their personal politics into what should be escapist adventure? Is it worth the risk of losing future customers/readers? I'm not sure if I'll read another of your books, but I am quite sure I will never pay full price for them again. Bargain bin material for sure.

I've read all of the previous Reacher books and have enjoyed them all. This was his not his best story line or writing. To add to the problems Child decides to force some political views. Which doesn't even fit. I have alwasy recomended Child and the Reacher series. I won't pick one up again and I'll be sure to speak ill of this book when I get a chance.

Nothing to Lose (Jack Reacher Novels)This is undoubtedly one of the worst books I have ever read. The reason I gave it one star was because that was the lowest rating Amazon allowed. The only reason it held my attention was because the other books by Child have been so great. If this had been the first book of his I had read, I would have put it down within 100 pages. He kept plowing the same ground it seemed to me. The characters were shallow and not well developed. The plot was weak. It just didn't give me much to get excited about. I kept thinking, "this has got to get better," but it didn't. I hope this is a fluke, and Child's next effort will be back up to par with his previous works.

The previous book wasn't great, but I gave Child the benefit of the doubt. This book really was it fo rme. Lousy plot, silly situations, and a Reacher that was nothing like the previous books.

Read this only if you have a read need for disappointment.

Received in a timely manner and the CDs were in excellent condition. Was quite pleased with the order.

Sorry, Mr. Child, but you kind of did me in on this one. It started with the abrupt change of the character in the last book. Reacher became . . . different. It wasn't just his apparent endorsement of PETA. There were aspects of the man's person that changed. I always felt that Reacher's character was based on things like justice, honor, concern for what is just plain right, no matter what the odds. That started to melt away in the earlier book.

In Child's lastest work, Reacher suddenly gets involved in pushing political positions that did not seem to arise from the character, but instead came from the author. And Reacher became a puppet. Unfortunately for Child, I don't think he will find a lot of readers that would support his position. And the earlier Reacher would never accept it, either. How did he intend us to understand this? Are we to suddenly realize that Reacher has been a closet liberal for all these years? You lost me, Mr. Child, and I DO wonder. How would you explain? He was temporarily captured, programmed and possessed by aliens? I don't think this is capable of being repaired. And it's a sorrowful thing because he was such a fine character.

I won't recommend this book, or any book that so blatantly veers away from the character's history to become the political arm of his creator. I mean, Child is free to do it of course, but I don't have to read his books. And I won't.

I'm sorry for you, but I'm more sorry for me. I'm one of the big losers here.

When it comes down to it, Nothing to Lose is not the greatest Jack Reacher novel Lee Child has written. However, it certainly isn't bad. I was a bit turned off when I got my copy in the mail and checked the Amazon reviews to see the slew of 1-star reviews that Child has gotten this time around. However, the negative reviews are ridiculous. I was taken completely by surprise at the sheer number of Reacher fans that really identified with his "politics" and that this novel totally broke that illusion for them. Where have we EVER gotten a glimpse of Reacher's political views? Child leaves so much of Reacher's character to the imagination, that most people read "ex-military police" and see "will do anything for his country no matter the cost." It is frustrating to see an endless brigade of 1-star reviews for a novel that isn't poorly written or in bad taste - it just happens to take a stance on an unpopular war that rests a bit on the liberal side. The blasphemy in question amounts to LITERALLY a page and a half of Reacher talking, and somehow Child has jumped the shark with this novel.

People need to just grow up. Lee Child is a fantastic novelist, and consistently puts out entertaining thrillers that read like action flicks. Nothing to Lose, while not amazing, is a wholly adequate Reacher novel, and it houses in its pages one of the best bar fights Reacher has been in since Echo Burning. Don't pass on this novel for a page and a half of liberal ideas - give it a whirl. It's not his best but it's damned entertaining, and don't let the naysayers tell you otherwise.

Lee Child is not up to his usual quality with this one. Ok, but still sub par. Plot development is a little strained, characters seem stilted.

What is so thrilling about Reacher to me is his ferocity justified by his innate fairness and a complete lack of malice. He lives by the warrior code: fearless, drubbing regiments of armed villains with right jabs, championing of the underdog, but avoiding fights if possible. He is our "homeless Long Ranger" and I sure hope he comes to my town. So his recent puzzling anti-war rant, which includes a seeming comment that no battle America fought has been worthwhile since 1945, seem hypocritical, particularly when this one starts with Jack picking a fight! (Hey, they gave him the coffee!) Advice to new Child readers: Buy, read all of the others and skip this one.

Well, that was an experience. I have been a dedicated Reacher fan for the past several years, quickly picking up the next book in the series when it was available. The main character has always struck me as the "Man with no name" in literary form. Able to dish out trouble and endure it in equal measure, he never complains about the hardships he faces. He has stood for justice delivered in whatever way he can.
Therefore I was quite shocked to learn that the character I have enjoyed apparently believes that soldiers deserting their units going into combat is a good thing as long as its an "unjust war." Apparently those of us who voted for the current president are to blame for the injuries our brave soldiers have suffered, not the fanatics who set off explosives and hide behind women and children. Main battle tanks are being destroyed en masse in Iraq without our knowledge (yes, like the current media climate would allow that to happen). Depleted uranium is very toxic and could provide fuel for a "dirty bomb" (2 seconds of actual research would show this claim as untrue). I also was shocked to learn that once again, fundamentalist Christians are the root of all evil. Iranians building their own atomic bomb need not apply.
I don't understand the political bent that runs all through the last half of the book, especially with the character that we have all come to know. This does not seem like it would suit Reacher well, a supposedly dedicated soldier who loved the Army and his compatriots. Therefore, it must be the author's way of showing his contempt for the American people and their guardians.
Oh well, as the Dixie Chicks learned to their sorrow, it never pays to insult your audience. I think I have purchased my last Reacher book, and I will remember him as he was before this current incarnation.

Lee Child has become one of my favorite authors, each Reacher novel better than the next. Just when I thought he had peaked, he would raise the bar (to mix a metaphor.) Reacher's life in the Army was fascinating, and I was sorry to see that end - The Enemy is still my favorite (Paris and NC, private/public, really outstanding) - but The Hard Way was also excellent and Bad Luck and Trouble even more compelling.

Probably you can see where this is going. Reacher is a contrary character: you gotta love that about him or you won't like the series. But there is contrary and there is stupid. Child wants his hero in a tough spot, but surely he could have found a more plausible way to get him there than the blind "oh yes I will" stance that takes Reacher back to Despair, CO.

If you can't respect the hero, it's hard to respect the action, and here's no reason to respect Jack Reacher's decisions in the opening chapters of this novel. I wish I could like it, I really do, but it's just lazy plotting. Once the action gets going, it's fine, but it's based on the man being a mindless jerk.

Don't have times for mindless jerks, not even in the summer.

Here's hoping for a return to a merely contrary Reacher in the next installment.

Not up to the standards of the prvious Reacher novels and seemingly taking a different track altogether. I"ve avidly read every Reacher novel, and was sorely disappointed by this one. Every series reaches a point where the author struggles for material and starts to insert him/herself into the protagonist, including the author's politics. Whether this is a sincere expression of the quthor's opinions or a result of achieving fame and rubbbing elbos with "like minded" (or closed-minded) people in the business, Childs is starting to flirt dangerously with that approach, starting to taint good storylines with the author's political agenda. Very subtle in this book, but likely to get worse. This is my last Reacher novel; I'll remember the first ones with appreciation for Child's talent; thanks Lee for everything up to now, but it's time for Reacher to disappear into the sunset for good.Nothing to Lose (Jack Reacher Novels)

Nothing To Lose had a really nothing plot and I was confused at the ending. Jack Reacher ( the hero) is traveling in Colorado and stops in the town of Despair where he is arrested and end then thrown out. He is deported to the town of Hope. While in Hope , he meets a female police offcier who helps him investigate thee disappearance of young men. These young men have wives and girlfriends waiting for them in Hope. Reacher is also interested in what is going on in Despair's recycling plant. Almost everyone in despair is employed at the plant. The plant's owner is also the minister of his own church. The people of Despair want Jack Reacher out of their town. There is a military post near Despair is tied into the story.

Jack Reacher is a very nonapealing character. He has a brief fling with the local police officer and doesn't seem to care about her. Why she was attracted to Reacher appears to me to be due to extreme loneliness.
The most likeible character in the story was the hotel receptioness in Hope. The bad guy in the story wasn't that dislikeable

This was not the best book in the series.

I found this book very entertaining. I love Jack Reacher, I guess it was a little hokey in parts but I like how he stands up for weaker or down-trodden people (filthy hospital for disabled veterans, helping Maria with some needed cash). I didn't mind the references to religion, this seemed very real to me as I know fanatical types exist. The antagonist was a little on the bland side but I thought it was kinda funny that he hood-winked our hero. I thought it was interesting that he got Reacher to open a Bible. The chemistry between the main characters seemed more on Jack's side and less on her side. I know it'll never happen, but the romantic in me wants to see him settle down. The discussion about pregnancy gave my heart a little flutter. haha I enjoyed this book more than Bad Luck and Trouble. I waited forever for the CD's from the library; it never has come up on Audible.

I'm a great Reacher fan, have enjoyed the other books, but this one is, to be succinct, silly. The first part of the book offers some promise to have a reasonable plot, maybe an intriguing solution. But the further it goes, the sillier it gets, ending up in the silliest cataclysism of all. Again, great fan of Childs, but this one....don't bother.

After enoying so many Jack Reacher stories, this one was very disappointing ! After I finished it and groaned and groused about it, my wife said that she had a bet with herself that I wouldn't have finished it. Next Lee Child book I get is from the library.

This book was disappointing on many levels.
I hope Child can regroup from this poor effort.

Previous reviews have said it all so I won't repeat it. I am a huge fan of Jack Reacher novels and I devoured this latest installment eagerly and was, like many others, disappointed. I will await Mr. Child's next effort impatiently and hope he returns to his previous successful formula.
I remain a loyal fan (for now)

I found the antagonist rather bland and this book not nearly as exciting as his previous novels. I am also getting put off with Mr. Child instilling his obvious far left political views onto an otherwise strong character. First his "oh the poor illegal alien" shtik in "Echo Burning", now it's the 'religious fanatics' and going AWOL is fine because Iraq is an unjust war crap. I'll wait for a few reviews before picking up his next Jack Reacher novel just to be sure he doesn't turn poor Jack into a far left pansy...

Wow, I have read all the Jack Reacher series and loved them... except this one.
I read these books to relax and get away. I don't need to be talked down to how
poorly our country treats vets.

Perhaps Child should turn off the BBC and write again.

Once again, Lee Child has put his character, Jack Reacher, in a situation that he just could not leave alone, setting him up for adventure and mayhem from start to finish. Never one to tolerate any type of unfair treatment of himself or others, Reacher will not be swayed from finding out why he is so vigorously evicted from a town where, had he been left alone, he would have simply passed through on his habitual treck to nowhere. When dead bodies begin to appear, and his life is threatened, Reacher is determined to find out what it is that makes strangers so unwelcome in this tiny outpost of a town in the "quiet" midwest. When a military facility is found to be close by, his interest is further piqued, and, determined as he is, Reacher digs in until he uncovers the usual greed and self-serving motivation for a potentially lethal situation. One of the more unusual Reacher novels, Nothing To Lose, nonetheless had my attention as soon as the local constabulary had Reacher's, and this was one I did NOT figure out, until the very end. Thanks, Lee, for another great read! As your favorite fellow John D. MacDonald fan, I am looking forward to another 9 Reacher novels!

Some of the Jack Reacher books were beauties, but more and more errors in plot and his knowledge of military, fighting, and criminal stuff spoiled a bit of some of the books. Then Child began letting some fairly obvious New York City political views start intruding... and now this latest book is just bizarre. I had to stop when the too obvious "underground deserter railroad" got mixed in with the too-drawn-out depleted-uranium "secret" and other weirdnesses. Child needs to go back to entertainment novels and don't let the grip of his personal beliefs doom another pretty good fictional character, as seems to happen too often among fiction-writers.

I've enjoyed most of the Reacher books, although giving PETA legitimacy in the last book was pretty ridiculous. But this one was so much worse, for so many reasons: anti-military but not honest about it; sanctimonious anti-Iraq war stance; and the pre-requisite right-wing conservative religious nut who wants to end the world. Give me a break! I could go on, but it's not worth my time. I'm glad I got it out of the library and didn't waste any money on it. Not sure I'll ever read any more of them. By the way, I tried to give this a no star review, but was unable to post without giving at least one. It's the only reason I did.

As the "fastest" reader in the family I usually get to read a new novel by a favorite author first then pass it on. As huge fans, we all were so excited when this new "Jack Reacher" arrived but I'm afraid I can't even recommend it to the rest of the gang after plodding through it. I will definitely wait for the reviews to come out before purchasing another of Mr. Child's books.

I am a huge Jack Reacher fan, but have noticed over the years that Lee Child is introducing left leaning politics into his books. This last one was a HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT. Jack Reacher, former MP officer, sympathizing with deserters? WTF?

Shame on you Lee Child. You had me with your first Jack Reacher novel. Now, I'm gun shy and won't be buying your hard back books without first waiting to see what other leftist politics you shoved onto Jack.

I'll be selling this hard back.

Shame!

This is my first review I have ever written, and the only reason I am writing this review is that I feel that Child has done something that has me (and apparently a lot of other readers) feeling disgusted and betrayed.

Many reviewers state that they dislike "Nothing to Lose" because of it's political leanings. I have read many novels with have political overtones, but they are more or less enjoyable. The problem that I have with this novel, is that Child has corrupted the Jack Reacher most readers and fans know because of his political views.

**SPOILERS AHEAD**


My main problem is with Jack Reacher's support of people who desert the Armed Forces. While I do not agree with Child's view on desertion, the true problem is that the view Child makes Reacher present on desertion corrupts his character and also logic. Jack Reacher novels have strong overtones of Justice. Letting the deserters go unreported was a true obstruction of justice, which then makes Reacher just as reprehensible as all the villians that he has faced. This corruption of a beloved character by the author would be akin to if Clive Cussler were make Dirk Pitt let an oil spill in the ocean go unreported and then attempt to justify it with extremely weak and illogical arguments (Which thankfully Cussler has not). Reacher's stance on desertion is not properly justified in this novel, had there been a better argument and more logic behind his arguments then his character would have been more believable. Child uses Reacher to say that a Marine's duty is first and foremost to his "unit", which it is not, and then he goes on to say that somehow not reporting the other deserting soldiers was upholding ones duty to his unit. It is illogical because deserting during a war in the first place means betraying your unit there Ramierez would not be upholding his duty to his 'unit' because he did not bust the deserter smuggling ring.


**SPOLIERS END**

Because of the corruption of character and the illogical arguments that Reacher is forced to use to defend his decisions, I would not recommend this novel to Jack Reacher fans or to new readers of the Jack Reacher series as the Jac Reacher in this novel is a different (or you could say corrupted) Jack Reacher than the one we all love.

I don't want to repeat ad nauseum what has already been said in previous reviews, so I'll be brief. I am a Jack Reacher fan, at least I was until I reached the end of the latest Lee Child novel. There for all to read was our tough, sensible hero telling someone who essentially lost her husband in military action in Iraq that the act of desertion from the military was now fully justified because the war was NOT justified. In fact, Child tells us that the last war worth the blood and treasure we paid was World War II. His argument, as simplistic as it was, is an insult to the intelligence of all those who have served their country and risked their lives doing so in the last six decades. In a cheap manipulative twist, Child has the woman do a 360, from being angry with Reacher for his views on desertion, to admitting she had begged her husband before his tour in Irag to desert, but that he had refused. Despicable. By forcing his political views on us through Reacher, Child has done considerable damage to Reacher, the character, and has alienated a loyal fan. Even prior to the desertion rant, I was less than pleased with the book. The prose fell far short of the clean, spare style that graced previous Reacher novels. The plot meandered and turned back in on itself several times. Having reached the desertion dissertation at the end of the book, I figured out why. To force feed us his shallow political views, Child was compelled to make the plot more intricate than it needed to be. I will think twice before renewing my acquaintance with Jack Reacher.

I love Jack Reacher, wandering former military policeman, and he is at his best when the scrapes he falls into come naturally, the sort of adventures that might happen to a certain type of tough character who is wandering in America.

In this book, he stumbles across a mess in Colorado. As he cleans this up, he discovers a secret war between the U.S. and Iran. He discovers an escape railroad for deserting U.S. soldiers stressed out by multiple tours in Iraq. He discovers that battle tanks of the United States are being destroyed in these wars, and that the U.S. is covering this up.

He discovers that the U.S. is transporting destroyed tanks and jihadi cars all the way to Colorado, to chop them up. But the oversight on this operation is a bit lax, so a crazed religious zealot operating the salvage yard is sequestering the Uranium from the battle tanks to create a dirty bomb, set it off in America, and bring about the Rapture.

So Reacher saves the world. And in the most boring way possible, with multiple lame slow trips between the two towns of Hope and Despair.

I do not mind the sudden politicization of Jack Reacher... except that it is poorly executed, and therefore the writing does not sing. Wandering has made him a standard empty headed liberal, which is fine, but how entertaining is that? What I mind is the transformation of one of the most gritty and well-written characters in adventure fiction into a cartoon hero who beats up six men without a scratch, who solves multiple complex mysteries with aplomb, and who is a bit preachy in his laconic and understated way.

If there was a Jack Reacher, and he behaved like this, someone would hit him in the head with a bar stool while he was busy being full of himself.

Like what others have said, I am a huge Lee Child fan. I have always loved the writing syle; the plot development. But I found myself angry while reading Nothing to Lose -- some of the scenes were poorly written, unbelieveable and sophomoric. And I almost put the book down when Mr. Child introduced his political views. While I hope Mr. Child can return to his former exciting writing style, I shall read the Amazon customer reviews before making the purchase.

Boring is the only word I can use. Try the `Soft Target` books by Conrad Jones, same genre far more punch!!! As a big Lee Child fan I was very dissapointed to say the least.

As a general rule, I enjoy all of the Jack Reacher books. This one, however, moved exceedingly slow. I was glad I was on a long driving trip.

Five days off, and the latest Lee Child book arrives at the library... Nothing To Lose. Normally, this is a recipe for a great time. This time, it seemed to be a bit off. While I liked the return to current times with the Jack Reacher character, the plot on this episode seemed to stretch out a bit too long. I was also less than enthralled with the subplot of missing persons, especially given the way Child chooses to have Reacher react to it.

Reacher's on the road again, traveling (on a whim) from Maine to California with just the clothes on his back, a passport, an ATM card, and a toothbrush. He ends up in a town in Colorado called Hope, and from there it's only 17 miles to another town called Despair. He can't resist the urge to check out the place, so he starts walking. When he gets into town and tries to order a cup of coffee in the diner, it's made quite clear to him that strangers are not welcome. Telling Reacher he can't do something is like waving a red flag in front of a bull, and he refuses to leave. This leads to one busted up local deputy and Reacher in jail for vagrancy. They take him back to the boundary between Despair and Hope, and dump him off. The police officer of Hope, a pretty woman by the name of Vaughn, meets him there and attempts to reason with him to just come back to Hope and ignore Despair. But Reacher can't let it alone, and he's determined to find out why they were so determined to get rid of him. He learns that Despair is a metal recycling company town completely owned by a single person, and Reacher figures he's got something to hide if the entire town is afraid of anyone showing up. It also doesn't help Reacher's curiosity when he finds a military Forward Operating Base guarding one of the roads into Despair. Things aren't adding up for Reacher, and he has no better thing to be doing than to uncover the secrets of Despair.

On the whole, I did enjoy the return of Reacher to his post-military, drifter ways. I'm glad that Child chose to retreat from the military flashback detour, and stay with the character that I've come to expect. Reacher's attitude, dialog, and ability to wreck havoc in personal confrontations is all there in Nothing To Lose. It's just the plot that seems to drag. There's a pair of plots involving what may be going on at the recycling plant, as well as people who seem to have disappeared after showing up in Despair. The real purpose of the recycling plant doesn't show up until the end, nor does the reason for the missing persons. Once Reacher *does* discover the reasons for both, he goes off on a political rant that seems rather out of character. It also places him directly at odds with Vaughn, given the personal circumstances she's dealing with. While it isn't quite a "soapbox" novel where the entire plot is designed to support the author's personal crusade, the end sure smacked of it.

Nothing To Lose isn't horrible, nor is it such that I'll be less inclined to get Child's next Reacher novel as soon as I can. But I certainly hope that this is not the start of a trend...

Since discovering Jack Reacher, I have always looked forward to the next book in the series. "Nothing To Lose" was a major disappointment. Reacher books are usually page turners in a good way, but with NTL I often found myself turning pages to see how much more I had to read to get to what I hoped would be a more interesting chapter (didn't happen very often).

In the interest of full disclosure, Child's apparent left-wing political leanings (as voiced through Jack Reacher in this book) are not mine. I have read and been entertained by books that leaned to the left, but, unfortunately, this book isn't what I would call entertainment.

Reacher has been a great series, but for my money it is one book too long. In the past I have passed my Reacher books on to friends who also enjoy the series, but this one is going into a storage box in the basement.

I was frustrated by Bad Luck and Trouble but Nothing to Lose takes Reacher to the bottom of my Favorite Series Character list.
First of all, I got tired. All that walking roundtrip between towns in the middle of the night! And for what? The plot makes little sense and provides no real urgency. Reacher comes across as petty and mean spirited, certainly not the tough, stoic lead character of Child's first few novels. If anything, Nothing to Lose has a comic book quality to it that disrespects what Child has created in the past.
It appears to me this is yet another example of an author writing furiously to comply with a publisher's contract that demands a new novel every seven months.

Having very much enjoyed the majority of Child's novels about a truly fascinating character, I couldn't imagine reading a Reacher novel that would bore me.

I was wrong. The plot of Nothing to Lose is thin and meandering, lacking the usual driving force of Child's earlier books. But the worst is the transparent political posturing of the author and his left-leaning nonsense, and the attempt to have us believe Reacher would say these things.

It's been a great ride with Reacher, and I'll pick up the next book, but if it's anything like this one . . . I fear it may be the last Reacher novel I'll be reading.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the previous Jack Reacher books so it was with a combination of sadness, disappointment and even anger to read Nothing to Lose. Rather than growing, the Reacher character seems to be devolving into an even more neanderthalish low-rent Travis McGee wandering the land and doing serious damn-damns on those who cross him. Halfway through this book I realized that I no longer Liked the Jack Reacher character and couldn't care less how the book turned out. The plot is seriously improbable and lacks only the main antagonist (the old right-wing business tycoon crossed with a End Times christian fundamentalist) hovering over our hero and guiding a laser between his legs. The way this series is going, it won't be too many more books before Reacher takes on an even twelve, count 'em folks, UFC heavyweights and, of course, cleans their clocks big time. Save your money but most importantly, save your time and pass this one by. And besides, the comic book version is sure to be out any time.

I LOVE the Reacher books and have read them all. This one was very disappointing. Half the book just seems to be Jack traveling back and forth between Hope and Despair. Too much politics and not enough action.
The ending seemed forced.....you finally get to the last page and you say, "that's it?"

Also...in the other books Jack is always described as being a huge man. In this book he's the same size or smaller than the bad guys.

I've read and enjoyed every Jack Reacher novel, and wait expectantly for each new release. Not anymore. I felt this story was slapped together, and actually boring. Far too much time was spent traveling back and forth between two fictional towns, the action was tiresome, and the characters seemed shallow. Reacher took on his lawless revenge action with far too little reason, against characters I just couldnt care about.

Even if this hadn't turned into a sudden political twist for the character, with Reacher expressing heroic praise for Army deserters, this book left me feeling betrayed. I tip my hat to a series that I enjoyed very much, but I don't expect ever to buy another.

So long Jack.

Former Army MP Jack Reacher has metaphorically traveled the road from hope to despair many times. In Colorado, while on his way to San Diego, Reacher has the opportunity to do it in a physical sense as he has found both towns and the 12 miles of road that separate the two. It is a straight two lane road running between the two towns that serves to separate two locations that could not be further apart in terms of style, pleasantness of the population, or anything. Hope's part of the highway consists of thick dark asphalt rolled smooth. Despair used hot tar and dumped grey gravel on it. Reacher plans walking to Despair, having a cup of coffee and then will be back on his way either by foot or by catching a ride if he can get lucky.

He never intended to stay because he was just passing through and taking the shortest way between two points. Reacher would have left the folks of Despair alone if they had left him alone. They didn't. Four locals want him gone for no good reason that Reacher can understand. They make the mistake of messing with Reacher and suffer the painful consequences. Now they have given Reacher a reason to stick around and poke into their business until he finally exposes the secrets they have hidden for years.

This latest installment, number twelve in a series that began with the incredible good "Killing Floor" is not Lee Child's best work. This novel, much like Reacher who is constantly walking back and forth between the two towns when he isn't romancing a local cop just a little, is a plodding read that goes the distance but nowhere fast. The Reacher character was substantially fleshed out sometime ago and as such there isn't anything new to discover and report. If anything, after recent events this is a Reacher that, while he says the right things about helping others and doing the right things when needed has a thicker distance to him now that wasn't present earlier in the series.

Also apparent is a flatness to the writing. Part of that is due to the described starkness of the landscape as well as the constant and detailed plodding trips between the two towns. This novel has a certain apocalyptic feel to it as the world in general compresses down to this small area of Colorado where information is scarce and the threats are huge and come in many forms. Despair is a company town and as such exists for one reason only much like the towns in novels of the future where genetic, biological, chemical, nuclear, or some other horror have laid waste to everything and nearly all of humanity. The landscape is harsh, the people unfriendly, and deep dark secrets exist that grow worse short chapter after short chapter.

The flatness to the writing extends to the comments Reacher makes regarding the military and service. Even after Reacher lectures the reader on how the military knows in these times what the politicians are up to and believes that the politicians have broken the implied contract between the military and the people, there is a lack of passion in the arguments. Instead, this piece and several other commentaries along these lines in the latter pages of the novel are all without any passion or zest. These comments which don't have enough passion in them to be termed "rants" are completely out of character for Reacher and do not fit the actions of a character well known to readers. While cynicism in a character as he or she ages is nothing new, or in the author for that matter, one expects such situations to be explained and that is not done here. Instead, Reacher offers opinions flatly and with little emotion as if by saying these things it won't matter anyway because nothing will change. Implied is the question--why bother?


Something quite a few readers may well ask themselves at the end of this one. It is a very long way to go for the final seventy pages or so that pound forward as only a Reacher book can and provide an enjoyable and suspenseful finish to the book. This isn't the best in the series by a long shot and has fundamental flaws for this reader. It is by that series standard, set long ago, that this novel falls a bit short. In a lesser writer, the work would be thought better by comparison. A weak Jack Reacher novel is better by a long shot than a lot of other books out there these days.


Kevin R. Tipple (copyright) 2008

I was very disappointed in Nothing to Lose after thoroughly enjoying all of Lee Child's previous books. He is one of those authors that I run out to buy as soon as the hardcover comesout. Next time I will wait for the reviews first. If this was the first book I had read of his, I wouldn't read another but I am hoping this is just a fluke and the old Lee Child returns with his next book.

I was a fan of Lee Child and have read and own all of his Reacher series of books (in signed 1st editions). He has let his politics interfere with his story line. Bad Luck and Trouble was the start of using his "fame" as a chance to let us know his politics. In "Bad Luck...." it was his obvious support of PETA and his disdain of hunting. I thought that kind of a sorry state for a character as rough and tumble as Reacher.

In Nothing To Lose, what was a good story line turns into a diatribe against the Iraq war and turns Reacher from a man who served his country into a man supportive of deserters and the like. Totally unnecessary except to allow Child, an immigrant to our nation, a chance to show his political disdain for the country he chose to live in (I am not sure of his immigration status).

For me these last two outings into his political beliefs ruin a good story and transform a character from a truly good guy to an anti war, anti American Berkleyite. "The last good war America fought ended in 1945" ....to paraphrase one line....well, the last good book Lee Child wrote was The Hard Way in 2006.

He may have "nothing to lose", but "bad luck and trouble" will follow him.