I would be surprised if many of you had failed at some point over the years to have read at least one Jack Reacher novel by Lee Child’s, after all ‘Past Tense’ is the 23rd instalment of the tales of the Giant of a Man and former US Marines MP officer who just wanders across the US continuously with just a toothbrush in his pocket. Me, I have read every single one of them in order, mainly on my kindle and whilst I’ve really enjoyed some, others I’ve just read through and gone hmmmmm yep ok let’s move on to the next book. November always seems to be the time for a new Reacher novel and I usually order my copy in advance and start reading it as soon as I receive it.
Before I go on and talk about the book and plot itself let’s just talk about Reacher, the man and his portrayal on the screen. So, Reacher is 6ft 5ins tall and allegedly nearly as wide, he is full of muscle, completely solid, can shoot a man with a rifle from a fair old distance, and can kill one almost with just a mean stare. So why oh why has he been played by a man on the big screen who is not much over 5ft 4ins tall in heels, ok he can be a tough nut, but if he stares at you, you are more likely want to fall into bed with him, irrespective of your sex, and I’m pretty sure he is better at flying a plane that shooting a rifle !! Yes Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher has to be the biggest miscast of all time and has always been a bit of a strange fit I think for most people. Well the good news I heard last week as I read ‘Past Tense’, is that Tom Cruise as Reacher is no more. Lee Child has announced that he is taking Reacher off the big screen and he’s signed a deal with Netflix to put him on the small screen with a new Reacher who is yet to be named and a promise that he will be a man mountain !!
So let’s get back to the actual book ‘Past Tense’ which to me sounds like a title of an English lesson back at school. We find Reacher looking to hitch a ride out of a small coastal town in Maine looking to head towards San Diego on the other side of the US. Finding a ride and first heading down towards Boston, Reacher doesn’t get that far as his driver gets a call after a short while to turn back to deal with a business issue he has. Reacher gets out and starts walking both coming to a junction with a road sign where if he goes left it will take him to Portsmouth (and no not the English coastal city of Portsmouth), or if he goes right it will take him to Laconia, New Hampshire.
Laconia, is a name that Reacher knows but has never visited as it was the place where his father was born and raised before he left at the age of 17 to join the Marines. Whilst Portsmouth would provide him with better options in getting to San Diego, what is one day in Laconia to see a bit of his family history ?
At the same time, 30 miles away heading south on another road, 25 year old, Shorty Fleck and his girlfriend Patty Sundstrom from New Brunswick, Canada are en route to New York in their worn out old Honda Civic to with a full suitcase of items to set them up with enough money for a new life in Florida. Feeling tired after a long drive and with their car overheating, they see a sign for a motel and are in need of a rest. Upon finding the hotel they are met by the owner, who goes by the name of Reacher, Mark Reacher.
Jack meanwhile arrives in Laconia and starts looking into his ancestry by checking out the Census' over the last 80 years but there is no mention of his father or grandparents. Eager to find out more, Reacher extends his stay and that's when his trouble's begin. Hearing a noise in the early hours of the morning, Reacher comes to the aide of a damsel in distress and rearranges the jaw of the young buck that is over hitting on her. Somehow from this, the story spirals out into Reacher finding out more about his family, upsetting both the local and Boston mafia and finally meeting Mark Reacher attempting to save the lives of Shorty and Patty.
Jack Reacher is a mix between The A Team, John Mclean from the Die Hard Movies and Martin Riggs from the Lethal Weapon franchise in all that he does but, sadly for me in 'Past Tense', the story line lets him down significantly. We all love to see Reacher in a fight or shooting someone, but the plot takes too long warming us up and giving us background on his family and Laconia, until we get the first sniff of a punch being thrown. The various sub plots to the story line are tenuous and for me didn't quite get followed up in the way that they would do normally in past Reacher books. Finally, the big finale to the story is a bit of a let down by Reacher standards and I was left pretty disappointed after looking forward to the arrival of the lastest Lee Child novel.
This leaves me in a bit of predicament as to how to rate 'Past Tense' as on one hand I love the franchise but on the other this was probably the poorest Reacher book to date. Yes of course I will have to recommend it, especially to others who have read all the other Reacher books or a number of them. However if you haven't read a Reacher book before, I would probably go back to his very first book and maybe start there instead.
So a disappointing book and therefore only a rating of 4 out of 10 from me this time around, with a note to Lee Child's that next time he really needs to send Jack back into the Miltary for a stint to toughen him up. If you do want to read it on a cruise this winter, keep it for down time in your cabin as its not lively enough to be read anywhere else !
More information on the Jack Reacher franchise and Lee Child can be found at https://www.leechild.com/
Happy Reading !
Canberralover
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