The Sentinel – Book Review

Jack is back! I was rather disappointed with Blue Moon, Jack Reacher #24, so my expectation for The Sentinel was not high. The Sentinel returns all Jack Reacher’s charm and no-nonsense attitude we have come to expect from him.

The mystery and suspense in this book honestly kept me wondering. I doubted a lot of the character’s motivation along the way and simply had to keep going to find out who the bad inside character would turn out to be.

I was concerned that with the addition of Andrew Child – an unknown author to me – the book would have a different feel to it. I can say that while reading the book I would not have been able to guess that another author worked on the project. The style matches previous Reacher books perfectly.

As expected, Jack Reacher arrives in a small town looking to grab a cup of coffee and move on. He notices a guy in trouble and steps in to assist. Things turn upside down and he gets arrested. Only to get caught up in Rusty Rutherford world and became his protector. On the hunt for the truth behind a cyber-attack, Jack finds himself out of his element when it comes to the IT stuff. He has no problem handling the thugs sent after Rusty, and things quickly turn personal when the Russian become involved and start going after Jack directly.

The Sentinel is a spy story filled with scary Russian agents, a cyber-attack and a few innocent locals caught in the middle of it all. I enjoyed the book, making it an easy five day read for me. Someone with more time on their hands could easily get through this in a day or two.  I was surprised that Jack did not have a love interest in this book. There is not a single steamy session in this book. Officer Rule was a prospect, but the story never went there. The lack of a love interest was probably the big change in this Reacher book, it brought a nice change, maybe even a little more respect for Jack as well.

The description of Klostermann – the new owner of an old house in town – made me smile. The authors drew such a clear picture of this man I could see him standing in front of me.

The Jack Reacher books are predictable before you even open the book you know exactly what is going to happen. Jack will save the day! That is what we expect and that is what the author delivers, I love these books, partly because of that.

If you were disappointed with Blue Moon, do not let that stop you from reading The Sentinel. The guns and killing from Blue Moon are nowhere to be found in this book. The Sentinel sees the former Jack back in action.

I read an article posted by The Guardian – read it here–  that says Lee Child will be stepping down as author of the Reacher series, handing the character over to his brother Andrew Child. The article quotes Lee Child saying:  “Readers don’t need to know about me or whoever writes the books. They only really care about Reacher. And I know he’s now in safe hands.” On some level I guess that is true – as readers, we do get ourselves caught up with the character a lot more than the author. But I would like to say – while I understand that there is a time for all of us to retire, to move on to the next chapter of our lives – I will miss Lee Child. I do not doubt that Andrew Child will do a wonderful job keeping Jack Reacher alive – but Jack Reacher will always belong to Lee Child in my eyes.

I wish Lee Child all the best, you will be missed!

To all Jack Reacher fans –  read the Sentinel – this is most likely the last time he will be brought to us by Lee Child! An author we have depended on for a long time to bring our hero to life!