Promotional Information

The very first book by number one bestseller Lee Child, which introduces his iconic hero Jack Reacher.

About the Author

Lee Child is one of the world's leading thriller writers. He was born in Coventry, raised in Birmingham, and now lives in New York. It is said one of his novels featuring his hero Jack Reacher is sold somewhere in the world every nine seconds. His books consistently achieve the number-one slot on bestseller lists around the world, and are published in over one hundred territories. He is the recipient of many prizes, most recently the CWA's Diamond Dagger for a writer of an outstanding body of crime fiction. Jack Reacher, the first Jack Reacher movie starring Tom Cruise, was based on the novel One Shot, and the second is Jack Reacher: Never Go Back.

Reviews

'Great style and careful plotting... Depicted with the kind of detail that builds dread and suspense.' New York Times

'Beautifully detailed action scenes and fascinating arcana about currency and counterfeiting enliven this taut and tough-minded first novel... Child writes with a hand as strong and steady as steel.' Publishers' Weekly

At least as good as any of Grisham's.
*Cork Examiner*

Stunningly dynamic
*Daily Mail*

The best thriller I've read in years
*New Statesman*

Although the tale is built around a coincidence as big as the author's talent, beautifully detailed action scenes and fascinating arcana about currency and counterfeiting enliven this taut and tough-minded first novel by British TV writer Child. Out of sheer restlessness and rootlessness, 36-year-old ex-military policeman Jack Reacher persuades a Greyhound bus driver to make an unscheduled stop in Margrave, the small Georgia town where Reacher's brother, a U.S. Treasury official, just happens to have been murdered a few hours earlier. Reacher doesn't know about his brother's death or suspect his presence in the town. Indeed, when he's arrested in a local diner for being a conspicuously mysterious stranger, Reacher tells the detective who interviews him that he dropped off the bus to investigate the death of Blind Blake, a guitar player murdered in Margrave 60 years ago. Downsized out of the military, Reacher has cutting-edge investigative and killing skills that come in handy the moment he learns of his brother's murder. This combination of events is so unbelievably convenient that it almost overwhelms the book's solid writing. The reader expects the other shoe to drop-for Reacher to be revealed as an undercover agent, or some such; but it never does. Otherwise, Child writes with a hand as strong and steady as steel. Margrave is a wonderful creation, a seemingly picture- perfect community under the care of a mysterious foundation where the streets are always swept and the people who run the tiny local businesses get grants of $1000 a week to stay open. Two scenes of brutal violence in a nearby prison are rendered with exquisite precision, as is a stalking murder inside the baggage area of the Atlanta airport, and the vast counterfeiting conspiracy that Reacher's brother was probing is wholly credible. (Mar.)

'Great style and careful plotting... Depicted with the kind of detail that builds dread and suspense.' New York Times
'Beautifully detailed action scenes and fascinating arcana about currency and counterfeiting enliven this taut and tough-minded first novel... Child writes with a hand as strong and steady as steel.' Publishers' Weekly
At least as good as any of Grisham's. * Cork Examiner *
Stunningly dynamic * Daily Mail *
The best thriller I've read in years * New Statesman *