Review: Personal by Lee Child

December 16, 2014

Author: Lee Child
Publisher: Random House
Year: 2014
ISBN: 9780857502827
Rating: ★★★☆☆
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Jack Reacher aka Sherlock Homeless, is back in this racing new thriller Personal, the nineteenth in the Jack Reacher series, where he is chasing after an old enemy who seeks a malicious vendetta!

Jack Reacher, the ex-military superhero, is a nomad(yes, just carries his toothbrush when he is traveling!) now drifting across the US when his ex-boss contacts him and arranges to meet him on a high profile case. The French president faces a failed assassination attempt and the army feels the assassin won’t give up easily. And what more! They also believe that the assassin is after more than one president(Gosh!) at the upcoming G8 summit in London. So Mr. Reacher travels to London, meets a few other spies, gets mixed up with the business of British Mafia(Oh yeah! Whoever knew they existed!) and then its pretty much the standard spy story reel.

The overall plot is quite good. Jack Reacher is quite the character! No wonder Tom Cruise has chosen to portray him in his upcoming movie. He is extremely smart and cerebral, quick-on-foot, knows his hacks, basically what you would expect an ex-military man/spy to be. He does have a few Sherlock Holme-sy deductions that are both cliched as well as intriguing. Then, there is Ms. Casey Nice, a newbie(read sidekick) to this work, learning eagerly with her own anxiety issues. I liked the way Child has handled the relationship between Reacher and Nice(unlike the other authors who love to mix business with pleasure). For all the action lovers, this is the way to go.

This is my first Lee Child book (Guilty!) and I must say that when I finished it, I was left with mixed feelings about it. I didn’t like the unnecessary verbose narrative and dialogues at certain areas which adds no extra value to the plot and the pointless sidetracks just numbs your mind.

On the whole, I didn’t find this book very interesting and a peek at a few reviews confirmed this(Too late!) But, it did make me add a few other Lee Child books to my To-Read list, which I think is a good thing. To summarize, this book is just an unfortunate, rushed-through miss by an otherwise good author!

Vanathi Parthasarathi

Vanathi Parthasarathi

Writer at IndiaBookStore
Love to read and have been reading since 5. Amatuer photographer and experimental cook! One of the best things in the world, according to me, is the smell of the pages in a book!
Vanathi Parthasarathi

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