Echo Burning (Jack Reacher, No. 5) - Hardcover

Child, Lee

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0399147268 ISBN 13: 9780399147265

Publisher: Putnam Adult, 2001

Synopsis

While hitchhiking through West Texas, former MP Jack Reacher encounters a young woman seeking protection for herself and her little girl from her monstrous husband, due to be released from jail, and his horrible family, but Reacher soon finds himself over his head among the simmering secrets of Echo, Texas. 60,000 first printing. BOMC, Lit Guild, Mystery Guild, & Doubleday.

About this title

Review:

Jack Reacher is Spenser before Robert Parker domesticated his Boston PI--in fact, Reacher's even tougher than Hawk. He can inhale and exhale a few times and pump up his muscles so they make a bad character think twice about tangling with him. And he's spent enough time on the right side of the law to know how to operate in the gray zone if that's what it takes to save the fair maiden, punish the bad guys, and right any other wrongs he happens to encounter in the course of his wanderings. Echo Burning is vintage Lee Child, a smartly paced, intricately plotted, and masterfully characterized thriller starring Reacher, the ex-military cop who's so concerned about commitment to anything--a woman, possessions, a permanent address--that he only owns the clothes on his back. But he's the kind of justice-seeking guy you'd want on your side, especially if you were an abused wife trapped in a marriage you can't get out of until, and unless, somebody bumps off your old man.

Reacher's sympathetic, but he's not crazy. Nonetheless, he allows himself to be drawn into beautiful Carmen Greer's orbit, which ought to teach a guy not to hitchhike. Agreeing to protect her from the husband who's about to be released from jail and, according to Carmen, who's about to pay her back for tipping off the authorities to the tax fraud that landed him in prison, Reacher moves into the bunkhouse of the Echo, Texas, ranch that's owned by the bigoted, bitter, but powerful Greer family, which despises Carmen because she's Mexican and tolerates her only because she's Sloop Greer's wife and the mother of his child. The expected bloodshed ensues, but it's Sloop, not Carmen, who ends up with a bullet in his head. Reacher's convinced that Carmen acted in self-defense, even after other evidence comes to light that suggests there's more--and less--to her unhappy tale than even her own lawyer believes. This is the best Jack Reacher yet, smart, stylish, and convincing. If it's your first encounter with Child's work, be sure to check out his backlist--Running Blind, Tripwire, etc. --Jane Adams

About the Author:

Echo Burning is Lee Child's fifth novel. Killing Floor, his debut, won two awards for Best First Mystery and was nominated for two more. Child is a native of England and a former television writer.

About this edition

• Publisher: Putnam Adult
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0399147268
• ISBN 13: 9780399147265
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384