There is something deeply reassuring about Jack Reacher. He’s predictable in his sense of justice, his protective nature and his determination, although in many ways he is unpredictable too. He still wanders into town carrying little more than the clothes he’s wearing and the toothbrush in his pocket. He sizes up a situation in seconds, notices details everyone else has missed whist holding his cards close to his chest. And we love him for it.

By the time I reached Never Go Back, I’d already read every Reacher novel that came before it. They don’t have to be read in order and this might seem weird but it works. My Dad and I tested it. He reads them in whichever order he finds them. He has a thing for finding them in National Trust and English Heritage bookshops and charity shops. I joined the quest a little later and found plenty too. So we’re constantly swapping them back and forth. He reads them in finding order, I read them in publishing order. I can’t say chronological order because the novels skip around Reacher’s timeline quite a bit.

Reacher isn’t Sherlock Holmes, although I can see why people sometimes make the comparison. Holmes dazzles with intellect. Reacher’s intelligence feels much more practical. He’s observant because his life depends upon it and he’s logical because military policing taught him to be. Every conclusion feels earned and with the benefit of logic and experience, built from evidence rather than convenient leaps of imagination.

After years of drifting from town to town, he decides to visit Major Susan Turner, the woman who has taken over his old command in the 110th Military Police. They’ve never actually met, yet they’ve built an easy rapport through telephone conversations, the sort that gradually become more personal than either intended. He’s a bit of a ladies man, there’s certainly a woman falling for his charms in every novel, this is nothing new, but this is an unusual place to begin for a Reacher novel.

Naturally, things don’t go according to plan. Before Reacher has even settled into Washington, Turner has been arrested, he finds himself accused of a decades-old crime and, just to make life more interesting, another allegation appears suggesting he may have fathered a daughter years before. It’s a clever set-up because, for perhaps the first time in the series, Reacher isn’t simply solving somebody else’s problem and the investigation becomes deeply personal.

Reacher reveals himself through decisions rather than speeches. Beneath the physical strength and military precision is a really decent man. He doesn’t seek out injustice, it seems to lay itself in his path, often, and he has an almost pathological inability to walk away from it once he’s noticed it.

I also enjoyed seeing Reacher alongside Susan Turner. She is one of the stronger female characters in the series, intelligent, capable and more than able to hold her own. Their relationship works because it’s equal. They solve problems together, challenge each other and understand the military world in much the same way. There is genuine chemistry there, but it never seems to overwhelm the story.

As always, Lee Child writes action remarkably clearly. This sounds like an odd compliment until you’ve read enough thrillers where fights become an indistinguishable blur of limbs and explosions. Child understands how to ensure the reader understands what happened. Perhaps that’s why the action feels believable rather than cinematic.

The pacing is carefully executed – is that the right word to use here I wonder? There are no unnecessary detours. Every chapter seems to propel the story forward, which makes it a problem when it’s time to put the light out.

If I have to have a criticism, it is that Reacher occasionally feels almost too competent. There are moments when his ability to process information borders on superhuman. Then again, maybe that’s part of the bargain readers make with these novels. We don’t pick up a Jack Reacher book expecting ordinary because it wouldn’t have the same appeal, he wouldn’t be interesting or exceptional.

I’ve now spent enough time in Reacher’s company that opening another Lee Child novel feels rather like meeting an old friend, I know roughly what to expect, some form of injustice, a comely woman, Reacher needing to buy new clothes, him having a shower every day is usually mentioned, referring back to prior learning, some violence and some blunt comments as he takes the bad guy down.
I’m not bored of the formula yet. Long live Jack Reacher.