Before Lee Child's Jack Reacher became a wanderer, stumbling into desperate situations and sorting them out with his two fists and sharp brain, he used his skill for the US Army's military police. When he is accused of a series of killings--women who left the army after sexual harassment proceedings found with their hearts stopped in baths full of camouflage paint--he has to use his skills to clear his name, and to do the Army and FBI's work for them. The … mehrnear-impossible perfection of Reacher's physique and brain are met here by a puzzle that almost meets the same standard of perfection--the reason he is suspected is simply that perfect detectives are handy patsies for perfect murders, and Reacher is, besides, a man whom those in authority find making them itch..."As a rule, the Bureau and the military don't get along too well."
"Well, there's a big surprise. Who the hell do you guys gel along with."
..."You know how it is. Military hates the Bureau, the Bureau hates CIA, everybody hates everybody else...So we need a go-between."
Reacher shrugged.
"I don't know anybody like that. I've been out too long."Lee Child's remorselessly perverse ingenuity is working overtime in this, his fourth book, though like most great puzzles or tricks, his secrets depend a little heavily on mere misdirection. A book this driven by the central character's laconic aggression ought not to be quite as smart as this is, or quite as likeable--Lee Child's clever formula is to make that paradox work. --Roz Kaveney weniger