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New Author Mark Greaney – Books like Jack Reacher

I am getting lazy, it is one of those things that happens to lots of us who review books. I’ve read a few over the last month and the problem that I am starting to have is, that unless the book grips you from the first chapter then I’m onto another one.

So superficial you may say, you are missing out on so many good books that are slow burners. You would be right, I’ve missed out on some good books probably so I will change my ways. I will go back to my roots and finish books that I have started even if they don’t grip me straight away. You have my word. Only after this latest book that got recommended to me on twitter. The cover page has a great quote from author Lee Child “exactly what a thriller should be”. Just in case people don’t know who writes Jack Reacher books, YES it is Lee Child.  See how Lee Child got the inspiration for his Jack Reacher character here.

I need to read this – so here is my starter review…….

The Gray Man

I have read the first two chapters and I’m hooked. I’m hooked, the opening scene of a soldier in a Land Rover, seeing a US helicopter being gunned down bu he is on his own mission. Can he go back and help the soldiers or keep focused on his own mission, the torment inside is too great. Being the super soldier like Jack Reacher we get to see a man who is at the top of his training as he takes out lots of terrorists who are Al-Qaeda that have rounded on the crashed helicopter.

I know that I am in for a great read, just the rapid descriptive writing of the opening chapter we can clearly see that author Mark Greaney is a top writer. Like the Jack Reacher books I can see that the Gray man is going to be a reluctant hero, writing the wrongs of the world. CLICK ON THE PICTURES TO BUY


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mark Greaney is now one of my recommended authors, It was a bit like reading a Greg Hurwitz Orphan X book. I couldn’t believe just how similar the main character was too Jack Reacher. If you though that Jack Reacher liked to remain anonymous then wait until you read about Gentry aka The Gray Man. He is just off the grid, described as someone who can kill you from a long distance or can easily sit next to you and slide a knife across you throat, a ghost as they say. As I am reading this book, I am so enthralled with the plot, the Gray Man being double crossed by his handler who in turn is being blackmailed and then to add more insult to injury the worlds best military teams as assigned to kill him.

How is this guy going to survive, we know he does as there are more books in the series, even so this is top writing crime thriller writing at its best. Descriptive fight scenes, great unlikable baddies and a reluctant hero, what more could I ask for. I like the way with this book, The Gray Man was betrayed, we knew he was going to be betrayed as we read the various conversation before the actions were implemented. This is a good twist as you know before the Gray man that he is up to his neck in deep water. Can he survive with all the hunters after him?

If you like Lee Child?

If you like Lee Child as an author then I have to recommend reading this book. Lots of Lee Child fans always ask me, “There’s Rapp. There’s Reacher. Who else is there?” Well now we can add to this list another person, The Gray Man!

The highlight for the book to me was the plot folding out and then going back over a scene that we see from the Gray Man’s perspective. This was a really good technique as we see a situation happen and then we see how it really played out from our Hero’s perspective.  An example of this would be when The Gray Man is in small storage hut in the middle of nowhere, the baddies ambush him but we get the story told from the baddies side up to the entry of the storage hut.  Then it reverts back to the story from The Gray Man’s side to show what happened when the baddies do show up.  Powerful stuff and it got me reading until 1am for two nights in a row……

Well done Mark Greaney – a great book and one that I shall mark very high. The ending is really clever as it leads you into the next book of the series.  So after reading many Jack Reacher books and you are now at the end of the Jack Reacher series, it may be time to look at something that is just as powerful.

If you are questioning Who is the Gray Man, then look HERE.

 

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Book of the Year 2018?

I had done that thing, you know the thing that really you shouldn’t do as a reviewer. I’d read some tweets about the latest Greg Hurwitz book, people seemed to be overwhelmed with praise for his latest book. Even though I tried to block out the praise and euphoria, I still couldn’t help myself. I went out and bought “Hellbent”, the latest Greg Hurwitz book that all of twitter was raving about.

Now I was in a dilemma, twitter fans talking about the book but I had not even started the second “Evan Smoak” book called “Nowhere Man”.

I knew that one of my rules is to read a book series from start to finish, rather than dipping in and out. So I got back to “Nowhere Man” hoping that it would still be a good read and worthy of the Orphan X book rating. See HERE.

So you finished “Nowhere Man”

I finished the “Nowhere Man” book and was pleasantly surprised that it had a great ending that lead straight into the third book in the “Evan Smoak” series. As I mentioned in the review the book was good, very good but not as good as “Orphan X”. Maybe my mind was already getting prepared for this third book, due to the twitter reviews, the retweets, the anticipation, could the third book in the series live up to the hype.

See the Orphan X review HERE!

Is “Hellbent” a good book?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a short answer to this question, YES, YES, YES. If “Orphan X” was the book to hook all readers of Jack Reacher novels into the series, then the “Nowhere Man” was a kind of middle story carrying on the journey for the fans. This third book blows you out the water, flips you around onto your back and then the ending, slaps you in the face just for good measure.

“Nowhere Man” had you scared for Evan, how was he going to get out the situation he was in, the helper becoming the person who needed the help. The odds were stacked high against Evan, but not nearly as high as in the book “Hellbent”. We get the full picture, all bells and whistles of it, conspiracy, government, family, revenge, you name it, it is in this book.

So what was so good about this book?

By now after the second book “Nowhere Man” we have got used to Evan Smoak, trying to live a normal life in his apartment but also helping out people in distress. Not unlike Jack Reacher, but younger and probably with a lot more skills at his disposal, which he really needs, as people are trying to find him and kill him.

The opening of this book is brilliant, from the start there is a casual apartment chat with Evan’s love interest, straight (I mean straight) into a kidnap situation with his one and only mentor. The story then unfolds into such an amazing plot that we have to give Greg Hurwitz a pat on the back, he really utilises his skill full writing to create a bleak picture of Evan’s future. There are so many nice touches, Evan having to leave his so called “normal life”, bringing in additional characters to help assist him and a baddie that is truly bad.

I think this is the one thing that kept me so hooked into the book, Evan trying to understand “normal life” and human feelings as well as having to avenge a friends’ death and look out for people calling him for help on his emergency phone. He really is torn throughout the plot, on one hand trying to do the right thing, on the other hand wanting to gain a personal revenge. To have three rogue Orphans after him as well as twenty five trained operatives, you know the stakes are really high, how can he possibly survive this?

Final thoughts

With the intensity that Greg Hurwitz writes, you can start to feel a little out of breath whilst reading this book. There is one scene in the book, where Evan has to challenge a terrible gang leader in a ruined Church, just to protect an innocent. The scene layouts with descriptive writing and characterisations are so on point that you sense the loneliness Evan is feeling against the force of this whole army.

The main reason you start to feel out of breath, is you are not fully sure if the main character really wants to live or is going to stay alive. Most books like Jack Reacher, you kind of know that the main hero will live, fights are easily won and there are no wounds to the Hero at all.

Here though, you go through lots of Evans emotions, how should he act, will he gain revenge and what will that hold for his future? When you through into the mix a baddie like the new head of the Orphan Program, Van Sciver, (you can practically feel the hate oozing out of him towards Evan) you are then caught in the whirlwind of Evan’s survival world. Cue lots of fight scenes, last minute ingenuity, grit and determination, family bonds of love and trust plus an ending that leads into book number four I have to rate this as one of, if not the BEST book of 2018 so far……..

UK – BUY “HELLBENT” HERE!

 

 

Let me know what you think in the comments.

 

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Jack Reacher Books Order?

I have found that lots of people are asking, what order to read the Jack Reacher books? Now most avid Jack Reacher fans would suggest reading from Book 1 “Killingfloor” to book 22 “Midnight Line”. Most people who are not avid Jack Reacher fans would not know that there are other books in between this selection. These otherwise unknown books really do enhance your understanding of who Jack Reacher truly is.  For some of you who are not familiar with the Jack Reacher book series may be wondering who writes Jack Reacher novels.  Find out below who writes Jack Reacher novels.

Jack Reacher Book order

The order of the Jack Reacher books are as follows:

Killing Floor (1997)

Die Trying (1998)

Tripwire (1999)

The Visitor (2000)

Echo Burning (2001)

Without Fail (2002)

Persuader (2003)

The Enemy (2004) Prequel set eight years before Killing Floor

One Shot (2005)

The Hard Way (2006)

Bad Luck And Trouble (2007)

Nothing To Lose (2008)

Gone Tomorrow (2009)

61 Hours (2010)

Worth Dying For (2010)

The Affair (2011) Prequel set just before Killing Floor

A Wanted Man (2012)

Never Go Back (2013)

Personal (2014)

Make Me (2015)

Night School (2016) Prequel set in 1996 before The Affair.

The Midnight Line (2017)

Past Tense (2018)

CLICK THE IMAGE TO RESERVE THE LATEST JACK REACHER BOOK!

Lee Child short stories

Fresh Blood 3 (1999) Lee’s story, “James Penney’s New Identity”, features a pre-Killing Floor Jack Reacher.

Like a Charm (2004) Serialized novel; Lee Child wrote Chapter Six: “The Snake Eater by the Numbers”.

The Cocaine Chronicles (2005) Lee’s story: “Ten Keys”.

Greatest Hits (2005) Lee’s story: “The Greatest Trick of All”.

Thriller (2006) Contains an edited version of “James Penney’s New Identity” originally published in Fresh Blood 3.

MWA Presents Death Do Us Part (2006) Lee Child’s story: “Safe Enough”.

Bloodlines: A Horse Racing Anthology (2006) Lee Child’s story: “The .50 Solution”.

The Best British Mysteries IV (2007) Lee Child’s story: “The Greatest Trick of All”.

The Chopin Manuscript (2007) Audio serialized novel; Lee Child wrote Chapter 15.

Killer Year: Stories to Die For (2008) Lee Child edited but did not contribute a story.

Guy Walks Into a Bar (June 7, 2009); prequel to Gone Tomorrow includes Jack Reacher.

Phoenix Noir (2009) Lee Child’s story: “Public Transportation”.

The Copper Bracelet (2009) Audio serialized novel; Lee Child wrote one chapter.

The Line Up (2010) Lee Child gives the inside story on Reacher and his origins.

What other books are from Lee Child like Jack Reacher?

Lee Child also published some short stories that give a back ground to Jack Reacher and also his many adventures from the past. I would seriously buy these short stories as they range from Reacher being younger and in his army days right through to when he left the army. They also give some clues into Reacher’s character and psyche’ why he thinks like he does and respond the way he does.

CLICK THE IMAGE TO BUY THE COMPLETE COLLECTED SHORT STORIES!

 

Competition for Jack Reacher?

It does seem that there are a lot of books out there with a one man hero going around unscathed and righting wrongs in the world. Now I know that you could look at it as since Lee Child has got famous from the Jack Reacher books, everyone has jumped on the band wagon and created similar characters. Well I did some research and after looking through some crime thriller books history, I have to conclude that again, NOTHING IS NEW UNDER THE SUN!

As you can see there are many Jack Reacher books to get stuck into.  I guarantee that you will not be bored once you start on the once one which you can buy here.

Conclusion

One of Lee Child’s influences for the Jack Reacher book series was an author called “John D MacDonald”. John D MacDonald wrote about a character called Travis McGee who has similarities to Jack Reacher in that if you are in trouble and lose something, Travis McGee can get it back for you for a fee!


There are 21 books in the series, and there’s only one of them where anything actually happens on page one. All the other 20, nothing ever happens on page one, nothing happens on page two… but by page three you cannot put it down. The thing that I found about these books that were published in the 60’s was that Travis is very much a hero no mess around type of guy. He looks the part – was in the US army, has few possessions and lives in a house boat. Thick wrists and long arms, 6ft 4″with superb reflexes just like someone else we know.

If you are interested in seeing another slightly older series but just as good as the current Lee Child Jack Reacher books, then look here to buy the first selection of them.  Don’t forget the latest Lee Child novel is available to pre order HERE.

Click the image below to buy the books!