"Blue Moon" by Lee Child

Above: "Blue Moon." - Lee Child - 347 Pages.

I have said "I'm finished with Jack Reacher" several times. But, Lee Child understands his fans are hooked. Reacher is like a drug. If Reacher is the worst drug I use, I suppose that's not so bad.

I completed reading this book today.

I have said "I'm finished with Jack Reacher" several times. But, Lee Child understands his fans are hooked. Reacher is like a drug. If Reacher is the worst drug I use, I suppose that's not so bad.

The book starts more or less the same as all the others. Reacher is on a bus to nowhere. He spots a geezer in the seat ahead, sleeping, with what is obviously an envelope with a large amount of money almost ready to drop out of his pocket. Reacher also spots an opportunist who sees the same thing. In the middle of the night the bus reaches a medium sized midwestern city, stops, the old man wakes up and gets off the bus. The opportunist follows. Reacher, who had intended to continue on, doesn't want to see the geezer robbed of his money and hurt. He gets off the bus and follows the pair. Reacher foils the opportunist and offers to walk the old man home.

The geezer and his wife, Reacher finds, are heavily indebted to some loan sharks, a Ukrainian gang, on account of having to come up with money for treatment of their daughter's cancer.

The elderly couple justified their borrowing "mistake" by believing that their daughter was expected to receive a large payment from her Ukrainian tech billionaire employer. Reacher discovers that the tech billionaire just declared bankruptcy and has disappeared off the face of the earth. No money to repay the old couple's loan.

Reacher engages the assistance of a pert cocktail waitress working in a club "protected" by the Ukrainian gang, and a couple of her ex US Marine friends to find the billionaire, who Reacher has reason to believe is alive and well and sitting on a big pot of cash being hidden from the bankruptcy court. Reacher and his team must get to the billionaire through the Ukrainian gang.

There is an Albanian gang on the other side of Center Street. The Ukrainians and the Albanians are always at odds... looking for ways to horn in on the other's turf. Reacher and team play the tension between the two gangs cleverly and start a gang war between the Ukranians and the Albanians. The gang war provides cover for Reacher and team to pursue the wily billionaire.

A dogged, principled attempt to help the old couple turns into a deep and risky penetration into the gang world. There are lots of shoot-ups, and the inevitable, detailed descriptions of Reacher's fist fights. I watched "The Matrix Reloaded" the other night. Remember the scene where Neo fights of about a hundred Smiths? Reacher doesn't have a hundred adversaries in his fights... but, there are always enough simultaneous opponents to stretch credulity. But, that's Reacher. Reacher is Reacher. All of his fighting moves are described by Child in his classic, geometrical, neurological and physics lingo.

Reacher and team locate the billionaire, who now, we find is working with the Russians to mess with the internet... holed up in a specially built sky scraper with a fool proof way of keeping unwanted visitors away. In addition to lots of guards, it has to do with the way the building is constructed and how the elevators are made to work... lasers, electronics, cameras... yada.

Reacher prevails. Via clever deceit he and his team gain access to the billionaire's otherwise impregnable digs. He squeezes the billionaire. The old couple get more than enough money to deal with their daughter's cancer treatment. The daughter, by the way, is showing promising signs of recovery. Read the book to get the specifics on the denouement.

And, so, Reacher, after trying unsuccessfully to get the cocktail waitress to go with him, gets on another Greyhound for points... and adventures, now lodged in Lee Child's brain, yet to be divulged.
I guess Child figures his fans know Reacher well enough that he doesn't have to do a lot of rehashing of the unique lifestyle of ex Army cop Reacher's retirement. But, Reacher is still Reacher. He carries only a cash card and a tooth brush... and buys new clothes at Walmart every three days. No entanglements…. just a principled guy out to help where he can.