Die Trying by Lee Child
Having now read the first two Reacher books in quick succession I am coming to the conclusion that the series has a great strength which is also a weakness: Jack Reacher. This entirely rootless and ruthlessly competent man is an incarnation of a fantasy that appeals to many of us. The sections of this novel that feature him are a treat. The problem is, there are sections where the POV character shifts, and they are uniformly less interesting than the Reacher sections. One scurries through them to get back to the main attraction. The main attraction will certainly draw me back, but maybe not right away. In Die Trying Reacher is dealing with a right wing group based on the sort of wackos that used to infest the less populated parts of Michigan and the American West. Reading the novel, published in 1998, takes one back to a simpler time when we could view these militia types as fringe wierdos and usually not much more. Alas, that was long before they and their sympathizers inf...