Where Reacher Hunts an American in Germany

Night School by Lee Child
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I liked it quite a bit. I found this one more rewarding to pick back up than the first couple I've read; either it's a little better or I'm more in the groove with the series.

Reacher is a good character, and I feel like Lee Child uses him well. He's not unstoppable or a super genius, but he's good at the things that an investigator should be good at--like reading witnesses and guessing how a suspect might be thinking and getting ahead of them--and he's especially good at not getting beat up by a random bad guy. And he's not just good at that; the author uses those things in the plot. You can count on him to come out on top in most hand-to-hand encounters, which so far are found in every novel I've looked at.

(I point this out because I've read a few books lately where the main characters are supposed to be good at something but then we don't see it much or at all in the story. Sherlock has got to see clues nobody else sees. Elizabeth Bennet has to say witty things. Captain Kirk better win against the odds. And Reacher needs to show out. He's a good investigator, so he's gonna figure some stuff out in a clever way, and he's a great big guy who can fight, so he better be fighting somebody or I'm gonna be disappointed.) ;)

This novel is set earlier in his career when he was still in the army, and I found that difference interesting. He had to work with a number of people instead of just doing everything his way, and he had to restrain himself in some cases. The constraints made him have to be even more creative than usual, and I think it made the plot work.

I thought it was pretty fun. 4 stars.

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