'Personal' by Lee Child
'Personal' by Lee Child

4.5 stars.

The good

  • As is often the case with Jack Reacher novels, this book pulls you in quickly and is hard to put down.

  • Plenty of good action, detective / deduction work, and a bit of humor.

  • Some good characters. Jack Reacher is of course the star; but the main bad guys, Little Joey and John Kott, are also fun.

  • A plot and conclusion that are a bit convoluted, for the most part, make sense, and are reasonably satisfying.

The not so good

  • The book doesn’t use its bad guys as well as it could. The whole book seems to be building up to (a) a hand-to-hand fight with Little Joey and (b) a sniper duel with John Kott, but both are a bit of a let down. We do get the hand-to-hand fight with Little Joey, but he’s weirdly ineffective, and it’s not particularly satisfying. We do not get a sniper duel with John Kott; for some weird reason, he never even takes his sniper rifle out of its carrying case in the final battle. What a waste!

Rating: 4 stars