Don't Know Jack

       


Review of Don't Know Jack by Diane Capri


Overview from www.barnesandnoble.com: It’s been a while since we first met Lee Child’s Jack Reacher in Killing Floor. Fifteen years and sixteen novels later, Reacher still lives off the grid, until trouble finds him, and then he does whatever it takes, much to the delight of readers and the dismay of villains. Now someone big is looking for him. Who? And why? Hunting Jack Reacher is a dangerous business, as FBI Special Agents Kim Otto and Carlos Gaspar are about to find out. Otto and Gaspar are by-the-book hunters who know when to break the rules; Reacher is a stone cold killer. Reacher is a wanted man, but is he their friend or their enemy? Only the secrets hidden in Margrave, Georgia will tell them.

My Review:

Don’t know Jack had me confused. I’d never read any of the Jack Reacher novels ever. I only heard of him through the recent movie that came out with Tom Cruise which I have not seen. After reading this one, I really didn’t want to see the movie either and not just because I am not a big Tom Cruise fan.


I thought, mistakenly as it turns out, that this was the first Reacher novel. According to the Barnes & Noble reviews that I read, that is not the case. No wonder I was disappointed. Guess I should have read them first.


The main characters, Kim Otto and Carlos Gaspar, are FBI agents who have been given the assignment to find Reacher. Their mysterious, and unnamed, boss says that is what he wants. Unfortunately, a local murder in the small town where they are sent gets in the way of all that. Or does it? Could Reacher be the culprit or is his connection with the town of Margrave, Georgia merely a coincidence?

But, spoiler alert here, they never find him. Sorry for that. I don’t usually like to give spoilers in my review but in my mind this was a major downfall of the story for me since I have not read any of the other Reacher novels. The story would probably have been more interesting to me if I had but I didn’t know that going into it.

As you might be able to guess from this, I am not a big reader of thrillers and I don’t believe that I have ever read a Lee Child story before so I guess this snafu was partly caused by my ignorance. Still it would have been nice to have some kind of forward or something that told me that I probably should read Mr. Child’s Reacher series before this one.

It turns out there is something in the parenthesis that says that it is written for Mr. Child and John Grisham fans but it is not exactly the same thing.

Anyway, that problem aside, the story is entertaining. There is something of mystery involved. The main characters are so engaging that we want to know if they will find out who killed a local Margrave cop and why. Was Reacher involved? I won’t spoil that part of the story for you in case you still want to read it but just know going in that it might help to have read at least some of the Reacher stories, or maybe even all of them, I am guessing.


The other plus for me was that although there is some foul language, it is not excessive, not like many other thrillers I have read. There are however some references to the sex trade.


Anyone out there with a different opinion? Any Reacher fans in particular? Let me know what you think.