New York City. Two in the morning. A subway car heading uptown. Jack Reacher, plus five other passengers. Four are okay. The fifth isn't.
A few weeks ago I was lucky to receive several boxes of books for absolutely nothing and this is the first one that immediately caught my eye. It's also my first Lee Child book and apparently the thirteenth to feature his action hero, Jack Reacher. I liked it and didn't like it in equal measure.
So what didn't I like?
Gone Tomorrow starts off with a bang. The opening scenes grip you by the scruff of your neck and you're left with no doubt that the book is going to drag you by the ankles through a roller-coaster ride of thrills and spills. Unfortunately as a reader I was then left dangling.
A good portion of the book is then spent in what I can only describe as wall to wall meetings and interrogations. Meetings in cafes, meetings in hotels, meetings in police buildings, meetings in city squares, meeting after meeting after meeting! Meetings aren't very exciting. Not for me anyway.
Add to that the amount of time the main character and narrator spends banging on about the streets of New York. I don't know anything about New York and wouldn't know one street from another. So I found the constant street descriptions boring as well as confusing. Maybe if I knew the area I would have enjoyed those parts more.
So the good points?
Gone Tomorrow does keep you guessing all the way to the last page. You think you know what's going on and then you find out that you're wrong again, and again and again! The mystery does build up nicely and keeps you on your toes.
The action sequences ( when they happen) are brilliant. I don't think I've ever read a book where the action has been written so perfectly. Lee Child certainly does that well and probably better than anybody else.
So I'd give this one a 3.5 out of 5. A decent read with a well crafted thriller/mystery plot. It's just a shame that it was bogged down with so many tedious meetings and street descriptions.
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