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The Hard Way: A Jack Reacher Novel
 
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The Hard Way: A Jack Reacher Novel (Paperback)

by Lee Child (Author)
3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (68 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
Price: £4.84 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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The Hard Way: A Jack Reacher Novel + One Shot + The Enemy
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Product details

  • Paperback: 528 pages
  • Publisher: Bantam Books; New edition edition (1 Mar 2007)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0553815873
  • ISBN-13: 978-0553815870
  • Product Dimensions: 17 x 10.6 x 3.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (68 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 7,021 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #14 in  Books > Crime, Thrillers & Mystery > Authors, A-Z > C > Child, Lee

Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

The ‘surprise’ factor when reading the thrillers of Lee Child has, it must be admitted, vanished. Most readers who pick up the new book, The Hard Way, will be well aware that this extremely American narrative is, in fact, written by an Englishman. The days when early readers of Child (notably his American fans) would exclaim how amazing it was that Child got all the cultural reference points correct are long gone. And, in a way, that's not a bad thing--now we can judge the novels purely on their own terms. And if The Hard Way doesn't initially appear to be quite as impressive as its predecessors, that's not to say that it isn't a supremely assured piece of work.

Child's durable hero is, of course, ex-soldier Jack Reacher. Child's publishers claim 'men want to be him--women want to have him', and there's no denying that’s a considerable part of Reacher’s appeal. His footloose lifestyle and handy way with the trouble that he’s always encountering are handled by Child with great panache. In some ways, Reacher is the perfect existential hero: he owns nothing or no-one, and he is, in his turn, owned by nothing or no one. He is defined by the actions he undertakes--and that definition only lasts as long as the problem he is involved with. This one has an even wider range than usual, starting on a busy New York thoroughfare and moving to a violent finale across the Atlantic in the sylvan depths of the English countryside, with Jack up against some very dangerous opponents. Interestingly, Child’s publishers describe Jack Reacher in this novel as ‘invincible’, and (ironically) they put their finger on an interesting point in this latest entry. While Jack has always been supremely capable, earlier books have always had a genuine sense of danger--how the hell would Jack get himself out of the latest lethal situation? Here, the outcome seems less in doubt. But this is a minor quibble--Child could not write a bad book if he tried, and all the narrative momentum that propelled the earlier Reacher adventures is satisfyingly in evidence in his latest outing.
--Barry Forshaw --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.



Product Description

Late at night, in a New York cafe, Jack Reacher orders coffee in a cup made of foam, not china. So he can move on at a moment's notice. He owns nothing, carries less. He has never met a woman who said no or a case he couldn't solve. But now Reacher faces a new case so disturbing that the truth eludes him. He has to sweat the details and work the clues. Doing it the hard way, until what started on a busy New York street explodes three thousand miles away, in the sleepy English countryside. With Reacher striding alone in the shadows, armed and dangerous.

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The Hard Way: A Jack Reacher Novel
73% buy the item featured on this page:
The Hard Way: A Jack Reacher Novel 3.9 out of 5 stars (68)
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Without Fail: A Jack Reacher Novel 3.7 out of 5 stars (30)
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Customer Reviews

68 Reviews
5 star:
 (20)
4 star:
 (23)
3 star:
 (23)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
 (2)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.9 out of 5 stars (68 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Not the hardest way, 28 Jul 2006
By J. C. Duff "Peanuts" (London, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Hard Way (Hardcover)
It is a testament to Lee Child's skill that despite this not being one of Reacher's best adventures, I still couldn't put the book down and finished it within 2 days.
The novel's opening gambit, a hook upon which the rest of the novel hangs is unfortunately quite flimsy. Not to give too much away, but in order to get the ball rolling Child has Reacher act in a way that will have regular readers scratching their heads; an action which is so out of character, the reader assumes it will be explained in some clever plot twist later on. But it isn't, and as such is an unusually weak opening.

Once over this little hiccup however, the novel trundles along nicely leading to a customarily understated finale. Other reviews have pointed to this being one of the more violent of Reacher's novels. I have to say I thought it was pretty tame compared to say, 'Persuader' or 'Without Fail', but no less powerful for that. Other reviews have also noted Child's now formulaic style as becoming stale. Again, I have to say this may have been true leading up to this novel, 'One Shot' for instance was disappointing in its format and predictable pace, but I found the Hard Way refreshingly different.

Indeed, Child shows a rare descriptive elegance, stepping outside his comfort zone of dusty rural Americana to deal with a shiny, frantic New York, satiric London and the comatose Norfolk countryside with consummate flair and no little amount of humour. Being a Brit who has mastered the American novel, it was a real pleasure to see him turn his eye to his native country, picking up subtle idiosyncrasies that are all the more amusing for knowing this is his real home-town.

Not his best, but still a great read from a very talented writer.

JD
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Always Good, yet Disappointing a little bit, 18 Jul 2006
By father ted (Cumbria) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Hard Way (Hardcover)
I thought the previous novel, whilst having a somewhat incredulous premise of a sniper who deliberately missed bullseyes to mask his talent, was actually very good. And I do own the whole series, so this is a comparison with all the other books. And so far I like them so much I will continue to buy the next ones.

This book "The Hard Way" is still very good. But there are some rottenly cliched phrases - "Reacher striding alone in the shadows, armed and dangerous, and invincible" - spare me, please.

The books really are great. There is a lot of other rubbish on sale in airports. Much of it with raving reviews across the cover, from the Washington Post or New York Times.

Ok, so if you've bought a few Reacher books before, you know the deal. An ex-MP, he had to be better trained than the soldiers he policed. Makes for a great read. But in this novel he seems to be trained in hostage negotiation, he cows 6 ex-Special Forces soldiers sufficiently that they don't simultaneously jump him and beat him up, and he strides through the night invincible. I hope that "invincible" bit came from some idiot editor and not from Lee, because it stinks a bit.

To close, I think it's still a top book, and I was motivated enough to read it in a single go. But writing novels with the end view of them being screenplays has to be some kind of compromise. There is easily enough legs in this series to turn out another few novels that you read and want to press into the hands of other people. I thought this was filler, albeit quality filler.
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars I liked it, 1 Aug 2006
By Peter Symonds "petersym" - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Hard Way (Hardcover)
To be honest after reading some of the reviews here I was a bit wary of buying this in hardback. Fortunately I was pleasantly suprised. The last couple of Reacher's haven't exactly blown me away and I was quite unimpressed by "One Shot", but "The Hard Way" is a distinct improvement. The kidnap (or is it?) plot works well and kept me guessing to the end. Equally the body count is pretty low, but as Reacher has probably killed a couple of hundred people in his past adventures (about the same number as Britain lost in the Falklands war!) it adds a bit of realism to the book.

I have to agree with certain other reviewers that "the Hard way" lacks the sense of danger thats been so strong in the early books. The best by far was "Killing floor" especially the scene where 4 masked killers dressed entirely in white disposable jumpsuits hunted Reacher through the driving rain. A bit more of this in this book would have been very welcome.

All in all this latest installment in Reacher's adventures is well worth reading- hopefully Lee Child can bring back some of the excitement of his first books for his next Reacher!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars The Only Way is Up
Jack Reacher is the type of character that is always able to find trouble and is in the wrong place and the wrong time - kind of like the anti `Littlest Hobo'. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Sam

3.0 out of 5 stars Reacher over-reaches himself
Reacher - a man of no fixed abode - is in New York, a city whose streets and their names he can recall in detail from memory. Read more
Published 5 months ago by G. M. Sinstadt

3.0 out of 5 stars Not the best, not the worst
I've read all the Jack Reacher books so far, and apart from one (without fail) I've enjoyed them all in their own right. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Stella

4.0 out of 5 stars Maybe not hard enough
Jack Reacher is now an established tough guy hero and this book delivers the same action adventure with just enough variations on the formula to keep us interested. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Tom Williams

3.0 out of 5 stars Fast-flowing? Yes. Riveting? Not really.
This is a very readable novel with the action starting virtually on page one and centering on an ex military policeman, Jack Reacher, who is a loner of no fixed address. Read more
Published 8 months ago by johnverp

3.0 out of 5 stars Really?
I wonder what a psychologist would make of this - a man, no fixed abode, a loner, money no problem, women no effort, weapons no sweat - really? Read more
Published 8 months ago by freedomrulesok

4.0 out of 5 stars Well worth reading
Whenever I pick up a Lee Child book I know I'm in for a great ride of a story and this did not disappoint. Read more
Published 18 months ago by S. West

5.0 out of 5 stars fabulous
Being a crime novel virgin (I bought this book for my dad and when he returned it, read it due to a book shortage), I didn't think I'd enjoy it. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Lynda Cook

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous!
Bought this book for my dad who then returned it to me when he'd read it. Never really been into crime fiction before but this book has converted me! Read more
Published 21 months ago by Lynda Cook

3.0 out of 5 stars Same ole same ole from Child
Several years ago now, Lee Child (an English writer living in the US) developed Jack Reacher as the central character for his books. Read more
Published 22 months ago by J. Bowen

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