61 Hours (Jack Reacher)
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Amazon.co.uk Review
There was some excitement recently at the offices of Transworld, publisher of the British thriller writer Lee Child, who has so successful conquered America with his Jack Reacher adventures. Child usually produces only one novel featuring his tough ex-army action hero each year, but the latest book, 61 Hours, will be followed up with a speedily issued second new Reacher-related novel this autumn. 61 Hours -- admirers will, of course, have to have both. Sales of such Child novels as Gone Tomorrow have exceed 74,000 copies – and he continues his upwards ascent, singularly unimpeded. But the new book has Jack Reacher in the most extreme danger of his career.
South Dakota is shivering under an icy winter, and the roads are particularly treacherous. As a snow storm gathers force, the tyres of a bus skid and there is a crash, stranding the bus and its passengers. And if you think that this atmospheric set-up sounds like the perfect introduction to a Jack Reacher novel, how right you are: Lee Child's granite-tough hero has hitched a ride in the back of the bus, and finds himself (like the other passengers -- a particularly ill assorted group) facing the problems of surviving in sub-arctic weather. Needless to say, Jack is able to draw on more resources in such a situation than many of his fellow passengers. Some 20 miles away from the crash is a small town, where a key witness is being guarded against sinister individuals bent on murder. And another elements in this combustible mix includes an omniscient figure who is to have a crucial role in the dramatic events that follow -- even though this figure is many miles from the frigid landscape that Jack Reacher is marooned in.
All of this is typically suspenseful fare (in fact, the real surprise would be if it weren’t -- Child is one of the most reliable writers on the face of the planet). And there’s an ending quite unlike any other Jack Reacher novel you have read. Lee Child aficionados need not hesitate. --Barry Forshaw --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Review
Child has somehow forged that magical grail: a new and believable hero. Reacher is strong, tall, principled and a quiet master in unarmed combat...giving us addicts a new and mesmerising fix, when we thought all the heroes had been written.
--Observer
'Explodes into one of the best thrillers I've read for ages...61 Hours is destined to do big things...Superb stuff!' --Independent
'A storyteller who knows a lot about style...Watching the clock underscores the tension that Chuld builds so well. You do and you don't want it all to end.'
--Sydney Morning Herald --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
--Observer
'Explodes into one of the best thrillers I've read for ages...61 Hours is destined to do big things...Superb stuff!' --Independent
'A storyteller who knows a lot about style...Watching the clock underscores the tension that Chuld builds so well. You do and you don't want it all to end.'
--Sydney Morning Herald --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
49 of 50 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Lee had a successful career as a British television executive, until he was fired in one of the routine shake-ups that beset that industry, and headed off to America to write. Jack Reacher was the result. An ex military cop, who worked his way up through the ranks until he commanded a special operations unit. Now retired, the habits of a lifetime die hard. Rootless, and liking it that way, Reacher travels America, taking short-term contract work where he finds it - and usually ending up in the middle of a serious criminal conspiracy along the way.
Reacher, the ultimate good-guy has this habit of getting involved. He checks things out and finds them not quite right. His trained, logical mind works out connections nobody else sees, and his unique insights into human motivation raise suspicions in his mind about the otherwise unquestionably pure and honourable folks around him.
61 Hours opens with Reacher riding a bus through an ice-storm in South Dakota, when the driver crashes into a ditch, leaving the passengers stranded for a few days in a small town that depends for its survival on servicing a brand-new correctional facility a few miles out on the prairie. Things are not quite right. The police are locked into a service contract which requires every last officer to rush to the perimeter of the prison within ten minutes of a riot or escape alarm sounding.
These sporadic evacuations of the law from the town provides an ideal opportunity for serious criminal behaviour, especially when not too far away there is an abandoned air force installation (with a network of tunnels ideal for storage purposes), which happens to be occupied by a gang of bikers.
I'm not quite sure how Reacher, who travels light, manages to gain the trust of the struggling senior police officers but he seems to have the connections to get information hidden from the locals and soon all hopes depend on him - or do they? Maybe not all the officers are batting for the same side.
Its important to pay attention when reading Lee Child. He scatters clues along the way. Sometimes you realise that things don't quite add up. Other times a new revelation has you scampering back through the pages to check a clue you missed earlier. Reacher's powers of analysis equal those of Sherlock Holmes, and he is a master of predicting likelihood and calculating probability, always getting as far as he can get but often still finding that the evidence was not quite complete enough to avoid trouble - and then his other more physical attributes come into play.
I read a lot of books. Most are fairly serious, but I relax with Lee Child and also Gerald Seymour - who like Lee Child, came from the world of British television. Nobody would claim that their books are great literature or that they will become classics. But for sheer page-turning entertainment they are hard to beat.
Reacher, the ultimate good-guy has this habit of getting involved. He checks things out and finds them not quite right. His trained, logical mind works out connections nobody else sees, and his unique insights into human motivation raise suspicions in his mind about the otherwise unquestionably pure and honourable folks around him.
61 Hours opens with Reacher riding a bus through an ice-storm in South Dakota, when the driver crashes into a ditch, leaving the passengers stranded for a few days in a small town that depends for its survival on servicing a brand-new correctional facility a few miles out on the prairie. Things are not quite right. The police are locked into a service contract which requires every last officer to rush to the perimeter of the prison within ten minutes of a riot or escape alarm sounding.
These sporadic evacuations of the law from the town provides an ideal opportunity for serious criminal behaviour, especially when not too far away there is an abandoned air force installation (with a network of tunnels ideal for storage purposes), which happens to be occupied by a gang of bikers.
I'm not quite sure how Reacher, who travels light, manages to gain the trust of the struggling senior police officers but he seems to have the connections to get information hidden from the locals and soon all hopes depend on him - or do they? Maybe not all the officers are batting for the same side.
Its important to pay attention when reading Lee Child. He scatters clues along the way. Sometimes you realise that things don't quite add up. Other times a new revelation has you scampering back through the pages to check a clue you missed earlier. Reacher's powers of analysis equal those of Sherlock Holmes, and he is a master of predicting likelihood and calculating probability, always getting as far as he can get but often still finding that the evidence was not quite complete enough to avoid trouble - and then his other more physical attributes come into play.
I read a lot of books. Most are fairly serious, but I relax with Lee Child and also Gerald Seymour - who like Lee Child, came from the world of British television. Nobody would claim that their books are great literature or that they will become classics. But for sheer page-turning entertainment they are hard to beat.
103 of 109 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
61 Hours is a good, solid Jack Reacher novel. It's not one of the all time greats, but it's very far from being the worst either. It has momentum and unexpected twists and the tension builds slowly but steadily to a gripping ending. Lee Child seems to have taken on board some of the criticisms lobbied at his recent books. Reacher doesn't display unbelievable deductive powers, he doesn't bed any women in improbable circumstances and he doesn't always get things right.
The book is set in freezing South Dakota in the middle of a snowstorm. Reacher has hitched a ride on a bus tour of senior citizens. When the bus crashes, he finds himself in Bolton, the location for a recently built prison and headquarters for a gang of meth dealers. A drug dealer is in prison, facing trial, and the key witness is under police protection. The deputy chief of police asks Reacher to help him figure out what's going on and to keep the witness safe. From the book's outset we are counting down 61 hours to a major event, although it is some time before it becomes clear what that will be.
One of the things I particularly liked was the way that we learn more about Reacher's army background, personal history and appearance than we have to date. He develops a relationship that is his most honest and open in a long time. As usual, he is able to see things and reach conclusions that the local police can't. In the words of one character, he's "the sort of guy who sees things five seconds before the rest of the world."
Readers should be aware that this is the first Lee Child book that is not entirely self-contained. It ends with a cliff hanger and the words "to be continued". If you don't want a six month gap between installments, you may choose to wait to read this closer to the release date of the next book in September.
The book is set in freezing South Dakota in the middle of a snowstorm. Reacher has hitched a ride on a bus tour of senior citizens. When the bus crashes, he finds himself in Bolton, the location for a recently built prison and headquarters for a gang of meth dealers. A drug dealer is in prison, facing trial, and the key witness is under police protection. The deputy chief of police asks Reacher to help him figure out what's going on and to keep the witness safe. From the book's outset we are counting down 61 hours to a major event, although it is some time before it becomes clear what that will be.
One of the things I particularly liked was the way that we learn more about Reacher's army background, personal history and appearance than we have to date. He develops a relationship that is his most honest and open in a long time. As usual, he is able to see things and reach conclusions that the local police can't. In the words of one character, he's "the sort of guy who sees things five seconds before the rest of the world."
Readers should be aware that this is the first Lee Child book that is not entirely self-contained. It ends with a cliff hanger and the words "to be continued". If you don't want a six month gap between installments, you may choose to wait to read this closer to the release date of the next book in September.
37 of 41 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This has been a saviour for me for the Reacher series. I was getting slightly worried as Lee's books were becoming merely good books, with outstanding moments, rather than the norm - which was outstanding books with magnificent, heartpounding, pulse-racing moments.
I do genuinely believe that Lee has taken the criticisms and concerns that Reacher fans had, absorbed them, looked at Reacher's character and decided to go back to focusing on Reacher the character and man, instead of his near superhuman feats.
This was a totally stripped down Reacher, being unmanned by something even more fierce. The cold. This really was another dimension to the story, and could even be argued to be a main character, just as the heat is in Echo Burning. The description of the snow and ice was excellent, and was as good as anything that even the great Alistair McLean managed (which is a feat in itself!)
The countdown device at the end of each chapter - in most other authors hands - could have been hackneyed and tedious. In Child's hands (keys?) it's ridiculously exciting and builds the tension superbly.
Only when I did I get to the end of the book did I realise that there was barely any of the usual byzantine complex plot, or the usual crunching action scenes. And it was all the better for it.
Lee is back and has written one of his best books. Which makes it one of the best thrillers ever.
As Reacher's sit-rep says for his Unarmed Combat capabilities; Beyond Outstanding.
I do genuinely believe that Lee has taken the criticisms and concerns that Reacher fans had, absorbed them, looked at Reacher's character and decided to go back to focusing on Reacher the character and man, instead of his near superhuman feats.
This was a totally stripped down Reacher, being unmanned by something even more fierce. The cold. This really was another dimension to the story, and could even be argued to be a main character, just as the heat is in Echo Burning. The description of the snow and ice was excellent, and was as good as anything that even the great Alistair McLean managed (which is a feat in itself!)
The countdown device at the end of each chapter - in most other authors hands - could have been hackneyed and tedious. In Child's hands (keys?) it's ridiculously exciting and builds the tension superbly.
Only when I did I get to the end of the book did I realise that there was barely any of the usual byzantine complex plot, or the usual crunching action scenes. And it was all the better for it.
Lee is back and has written one of his best books. Which makes it one of the best thrillers ever.
As Reacher's sit-rep says for his Unarmed Combat capabilities; Beyond Outstanding.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Tic toc, tic toc...........
It's inevitable that a prolific author cannot churn out consistently high quality work book after book after book and will have lapses now and again an example of which,... Read more
Published 17 hours ago by still searching
61 Hours (Jack Reacher)
If you like Lee Child books this is a brilliant continuation of Jack Reachers story. Definitely one to read. I have read all of them.
Published 1 month ago by sean
61 hours
As we have come to expect from Lee another good book - BUT- I was dissappointed not to be able to find where in another book it concluded! left me somewhat in the air.
Published 1 month ago by J. Hart
Books you can't put down
Yes i found this book a great read. It's got all the ingredients i look for. A very likeable hero with a good story . There are plenty of twists and turns. Read more
Published 1 month ago by lizzie
edge of the seat thrills
You must have read the main book review so I wont bore you with more drivel,it is an excellent book and is well written,Im hoping this will be made into a movie. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Lewy
Slow, patchy, but more character driven than some earlier stories
The fourteenth book in the Jack Reacher series sees the former military policeman back in the wrong place at the wrong time. Read more
Published 2 months ago by J. R. Johnson-Rollings
Not the strongest title for Reacher, but still a great read
Book 14 for Reacher and this starts with him asleep on a coach that breaks down in a remote town in South Dakota in a bad snow storm. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Mrenshaw
Cold and chilling
The cold in this book is palpable, I don't know how people can live in such freezing temperatures. There are some great characters in this book. Read more
Published 2 months ago by D. M. Dickson
Incredibly boring, predictable and improbable
I would give this book a 0 star if I could. What a lousy plot. There is really nothing else to say.
Published 3 months ago by Jupiterrose
Another good one
This book has a good plot, good characterisation and holds the attention well. Set in a remote part of South Dakota in the midst of winter, it's really quite gripping. Read more
Published 3 months ago by W. Tegner
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