Better off Dead is the twenty-sixth Jack Reacher thriller, which was published in 2021. He is once again the world’s favourite avenging angel and is doing what Reacher does best: taking names and kicking ass. He is the man we all want on our side. Reacher is walking towards One Tree in the middle of nowhere. He is surrounded by desolate rock and sand along with the blacktop of the road. When a jeep appears out of thin air and crashes in to a tree not far from Reacher, he goes and checks on the driver only to have a gun stuck in his stomach. The woman holding the gun is demanding to know if he had been sent by Dendoncker. He has no idea who she is talking about. As a car approaches, the woman urges Reacher to go and hide where he cannot be seen by the driver and passenger. The woman deals quite easily with the two men sent by Dendoncker and Reacher now wants to hear the full story. He finds out that the woman is a former special agent Michaela Fenton, who lost a leg as an army specialist. Fenton explains how her twin brother, also an army veteran had sent a message, saying he was in trouble. This had led her to hunting for him and information given was that he was being held by Dendoncker. The locals were afraid of this Dendoncker, and had given little to no information, other than nobody had seen him. It became evident that Dendoncker did not want to be found, and that becomes a challenge for Reacher. As Reacher and Fenton dig deep, it becomes clear that that Dendoncker is not a patriot. He is selling American made bombs to alsorts of people and regimes, as well as arming the cartels. He protects his privacy, and nobody has a clue as to where he lives. This means nothing to Reacher, who sees this as a challenge. The Reacher will deliver justice in his very own way, with plenty of violence involved. Better Off Dead is everything you want from a Reacher thriller to be, sticking it to those corrupt or evil enough brought to his attention. Reacher here sticks up for the underdog against great odds. What Reacher does what we would all love to do: stick it to the ‘big’ man, This is simply another brilliant Reacher thriller.

The Jack Reacher series was a key driver for the evolution of the crime fiction genre, with Lee Childs setting new standards with the simply outstanding early titles that were so fresh and exciting. Better Off Dead is the 26th instalment of the Jack Reacher series, and has the feel of those early, page-turning journeys that we were taken on, rather than a few recent titles that had the feel and excitement of a daily commute to work. The master, Mr Lee Child, has breathed new life into this much loved series and long may it continue!! A missing person in the Arizona desert, local communities guarded against outsiders, the perfect launch pad for a fast-paced story that feels full of energy with non-stop action taking us through the classic Reacher building blocks: henchmen to fight and kill, never backing down, thinking on his feet to con, manipulate and cheat his way towards ultimate success. Get it read now!!

I've now read 3 or 4 books which say the Child brothers are joint authors and to be honest they're not as good as when Lee Child used to be the only author. So I'll probably give the next one a miss.

This was the weakest story so far! Not sure why the style was changed unless the author is running out of ideas. Reacher needs to grow up.

As a huge Jack Reacher fan and having read all of the books on multiple occasions I found myself sadly dissatisfied by this one. I didn't feel the same connection with the character ~ almost as if he was an android version of the himself, going through the motions. Felt similarly about the one before this. Maybe a legacy of the joint authorship? Hoping for classic Reacher next year!