Running Blind (Jack Reacher Series #4)

Fast read

Love the series...it gets better and better with every book.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Best so far

I am reading the Jack Reacher series in order and this is definately the best of the series so far. It caught me early and held my attention throughout.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Another Good Reacher Book

Worth the read if you're into the series.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Excellent serial killer tale

He is a hero, trying to right the injustices in his part of the world. Though at times he goes outside the law, he always makes life better for the person he is protecting. At a new Italian restaurant in New York City, former MP Jack Reacher observes two thugs hitting on the owner for protection money. When they return to collect their fee, Jack provides personal payment, sending both punks to the hospital.

FBI agents greet Jack with the knowledge that they believe he is a serial killer targeting female soldiers complaining about sexual harassment. Apparently, Jack knew three victims, but he has the perfect alibi since FBI agents had Jack under surveillance at the time the fourth murder occurred. The agents want Jack to help them uncover the identity of the killer because a department profiler insists that his personality is a match to that of the perpetrator. Jack refuses until they threaten his girlfriend. Jack begins his unique gathering of information that leads him to conclude that the FBI is traveling down the wrong paradigm, leaving former women in uniform in jeopardy unless he can persuade the department to change course.

RUNNING BLIND is an exciting thriller starring a sensitive, honorable person struggling with keeping one foot in the civilized world. Anyone who has ¿profiled¿ F. Paul Wilson¿s ¿Repairman Jack¿ novels will realize the characters share many traits with the biggest difference being that Reacher is grounded in the physical realm while Repairman Jack deals with supernatural elements. The crux of this mystery lies in the intensity of the killer whose extraordinary energy matches that of Jack, thus freshening up the serial killer tale. With more novels like this one, Lee Child has the talent to become a superstar.

Harriet Klausner

2 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

Recommended!

Pretty good story! I felt bad I had figured out the murder before I was 1/2 way through. He had almost convinced me I was wrong 50 pages from the end, but it turned out the other way. Looking back I can't tell you what clues led to my decision, but one happened really early in the book and the other was something that never happened to any of the victims.

It is a good mystery and I'm interested to see if anyone else figures it out.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Jack Reacher

What can I say. Another great Jack Reacher story. So far this is a great series of books.

:)

I really like the Jack Reacher series. This book was interesting and hard to figure out. I feel like I get a suspenseful and thrilling story while learning new things every time I pick up a Lee Child book.

It was okay

Fairly predictable but fun overall. The method used to kill the victims though is not possible. That was a huge problem for me.

Another Fun Quick Read

Spent another short week with Jack Reacher. Love the book and keeps me reading long into the night, even missing a stop on the train.

NO.

This is shockingly bad considering the first 3 Reacher books. Three main problems:

1. Reacher is completely infallible compared to everyone else. It's bad enough that his chest is bulletproof, but in this book an MP is smarter than everyone at the FBI. The Behavioral Science Unit is not perfect, but they are certainly smart. This idea that Reacher is the only intelligent person is ridiculous. Consider the scene where he tells the profiler/hypnotist extraordinaire that what she calls 'profiling' he calls 'common sense.' So, that means that although the art/science of profiling took years and years of refining, failure, attempts and effort, our little MP-turned-Navy Seal-turned Sherlock Holmes-turned Clarice Starling has the same investigative abilities because of....common sense. He isn't superman, don't make him out to be. By the middle of the book I hated Reacher, hated what happened to character and was legitimately rooting for him to be wrong at every turn.

2. Learn the absolute most basic, fundamental information about hypnosis before writing a ham-fisted Manchurian Candidate plot. Ridiculous.

3. The "just in time" ending is preposterous. Like a bad episode of Criminal Minds without the attractive people to look at. If you can't find a way to get Reacher/Harper in the same area as the murder fluidly, then don't do it. Let the murder happen and go about your business. The contrived deus ex machina of Reacher keeping things to himself so no one else can be involved and go check on the victim first is nonsense.

Don't buy this book. Really. For the reasons above, and others, it is a weak, contrived book showing how the author's work must suffer when he cranks these out so quickly. Personally, I'm giving Reacher and Child one more shot. Unfortunately, I expect that Reacher learns to fly and becomes omnipotent in the next book changing this from some decent thriller fare to out and out superhero-fantasy.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Another great Reacher story

Jack Reacher is the greatest vigilanty detective character of all time. If you've read other Reacher Novels you already know how much of a bad ass Jack Reacher is. THE FBI ISN'T SO INOCENT? And Jack Reacher learns a little to late that they play by a different set of rules. This book has many great twist and as usual beautiful women Lee Child puts up on of my top ten Reacher stories.

good book

a fast read

I liked parts of this...read on...

I read all of this book (sort of) and I rated it high because I enjoyed it but...it has sections in Italics that are the thoughts of the "bad guy". I do not like to read this kind of jumping back and forth thing so I did not read any one of those areas. I don't want to have an idea of what is going to happen before I read it. So if you don't mind skipping a few pages every chapter so to speak, I really liked the parts of this book that were not the "bad guy parts" and I love Jack Reacher and his attitude!

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Page Turner

A Fast paced, fun read. One of my favorite Reacher novels.

great book, great writer

great book, great writer

Another excellent Jack Reacher Novel

Lee Child does it again with another excellent Reacher thriller. Jack Reacher and Jason Bourne could be an unbeatable combination

Good for all Jack Reracher fans

Good fun. Exciting and unpredictable. Good beach reading.

One of his worst

I usually enjoy his books but this one fell so flat. You figure out who did it and how 1/2 way through the book. So implausible too. I wish I wouldn't have spent my time reading this one. It started out promising but then fell real flat. Didn't even seem like the same author. And it was released under another name over in the UK, people are mad about that but it does state inside that it was previously released under the other name. I hope his next book is better.

Substitute your own ending!

Lee Child built up such a great premise for a mystery novel that he apparently didn't quite know how to defuse it. The action and the narration was immaculate like most of Child's books but the ending wasn't up to snuff. The last 50 pages or so will look rediculous to anyone with even a basic knowledge of hypnosis. The average reader won't even have to scratch the surface on hypnosis facts and research to know the ending is the book's achilles heel. This book provokes a strong desire to tear out the last 50 pages and leave it as a tortuous cliff-hanger.

Huge Disappointment

I have read the first four Jack Reacher novels in order, and thought the first three were phenomenal, five stars each. Which is why I was so disappointed with this one. The first 450 pages are great, on par with the first three novels, but the story unravels horribly with a ludicrous ending. Further, there was a theme throughout the story that makes absolutely no sense if you've read Die Trying. Neverthless, I think Child is a super writer, and despite my disappointment I look forward to reading the rest of the series. I welcome any further discussion as to my specific problems with the book, which I omitted here because they are spoilers. jmwicke@optonline.net