Jack Reacher Books In Order
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Chronological Order of Jack Reacher Books
Publication Order of Jack Reacher Short Stories/Novellas
| Second Son | (2011) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
| Deep Down | (2012) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
| High Heat | (2013) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
| Not a Drill | (2014) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
| Good and Valuable Consideration: Jack Reacher vs. Nick Heller | (2014) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
| Small Wars | (2015) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
| Too Much Time | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
| The Christmas Scorpion | (2018) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
| The Fourth Man | (2019) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
| Cleaning the Gold | (2019) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
| New Kid in Town | (2024) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Jack Reacher Collections
| No Middle Name | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Jack Reacher Miscellaneous Books
| Jack Reacher's Rules | (2012) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Jack Reacher Biography:
Jack Reacher is the lead character and the protagonist in the series of books by British author Jim Grant who writes under the pseudonym of Lee Child. The books in the series follow Reacher as he goes through a number of exploits in his world. Reacher has been called one of “this century’s most original, tantalizing pop-fiction heroes” by the Washington Post. While Lee Child himself has been called a master of his craft by publications such as Entertainment Weekly and the series has drawn quite a following.
Killing Floor: This is the first book in the Jack Reacher series. Child was awarded with both the Anthony Award and Barry Award for Best First Novel. The book starts with Jack Reacher getting off of a Greyhound bus in the town of Margrave, Georgia for the simple reason that he heard that a blues musician that he liked had died in that town.
However, to his surprise he is arrested shortly after on the orders of the local sheriff. The sheriff claims that he saw Reacher leave the scene of a murder and arrests him for that crime. What they don’t know is what Reacher is capable of. Reacher meets the detective, Finlay, and a female officer named Roscoe who believes that Reacher is innocent. Jack will work together with them on the case to bring the right killer
to justice.
Die Trying: This book sees Jack Reacher heading to Chicago where he is witness to a woman being kidnapped off of the street. He’s in the wrong place at the wrong time which leads to him being kidnapped with her. The two are chained together and locked in the back of the van as it heads to an unknown destination. The men who kidnapped them are looking for an impossible ransom. The woman is worth a lot of money to someone and they just might get it.
However, the bad luck turns out to belong to the kidnappers. Jack may have been at the wrong place at the wrong time, but they kidnapped the wrong guy. Jack will do what it takes to save them both from this ordeal – or die trying
Tripwire: Jack is in Key West trying to enjoy the weather and the anonymity, far away from his life in the military police. That anonymity is soon dashed when a stranger show up looking for him with a lot of questions. Jack has questions of his own, but he won’t get any answers from him as the man has just turned up dead.
Reacher will leave Key West behind and head on a trail back to New York where the dangerous corners of his own past await him. A merciless killer lurks and Reacher is the only one who can bring him down.
Running Blind / The Visitor: Jack is trying to settle into a house in New York that he recently inherited from an old mentor. He’s never been one for being tied down though and feels like the house may be tying him down.
Meanwhile, a dangerous serial killer is making their way across the country. Everywhere they go women are being murdered with no evidence left behind, no wounds, no clues, and no motive. These are the perfect crimes and the authorities are struggling to stop them. However, there is one thing that links together all of the victims: each of these women knew Jack Reacher.
Reacher is out to find the killer, but he is running blind.
Echo Burning: Reacher is traveling across the scorching Texas desert when he ends up catching a rife from a woman. Her name is Carmen Greer and she has quite the story to tell him. The woman tells him that the only reason that she stopped is because of her problem: her husband. He is getting out of prison soon and she’s afraid of what will happen to her. She’s looking for someone to kill her husband and she thinks that man is Reacher.
Reacher doesn’t agree to those terms and even tries to escape, but eventually decides to at least look into the situation. It’s a decision that could cost him his life.
Without Fail: The story begins in Atlantic City where Jack has just arrived after hitching across the country. Upon his arrival, he meets a Secret Service agent, M.E. Froelich, who once dated Reacher’s brother Joe.
She needs Reacher’s help with a job to assassinate the Vice President of the United States, theoretically. Froelich needs his help to find the holes in her system because there is a covert group who plans to do it for real. The would-be assassins have thought of nearly everything in their plan to kill, but there’s one thing they didn’t plan for: Reacher.
Persuader: Reacher is on a seemingly never ending quest to right wrongs and rewrite his past. He’s working, unofficially, of course, with the DEA when this story begins to bring down a man suspected of smuggling drugs, but he has his own motivations as well. The plan is to stage a kidnapping of Zachary Beck’s son, Richard, to ingratiate Reacher with them. The plan works and Reacher is soon hired as the man’s bodyguard.
The move will send Jack into a dark world of secrecy and violence as he works towards his ultimate goal of finishing some unfinished business form his past.
The Enemy: On New Year’s Day, 1990, a two-star general was found dead in a North Carolina motel. The only thing missing from his room was his briefcase, but nobody seems to know what was in it. Reacher is called in to control the situation. However, hours later the general’s wife is also murdered and it’s only the beginning.
Somewhere in the U.S. Army, someone is trying to set up Reacher as the fall guy in this case. Some men may go down without a fight, but Reacher is not that man. He’ll fight against an enemy he didn’t know he had and a conspiracy darker than he ever could’ve imagined.
One Shot: The book starts with six shots and five people are left dead. A city is thrown into a state of terror and the police need to work fast to apprehend the killer.
They do just that and make a quick arrest, but the man claims to be innocent. Worse the police, he’s asking for help from one man: Jack Reacher. Reacher heads to town and he knows the shooter well, a trained military sniper who would never miss a shot. That extra bullet is telling to him and he knows that something is not right here. Reacher teams up with a beautiful young defense lawyer as they work to clear the name of this man and find the real enemy who is pulling the strings here.
Whoever the enemy is, Reacher knows that the only way to stop him is to match his ruthlessness and cunning, and beat him at his own dangerous game.
The Hard Way: Jack Reacher sits in a Manhattan coffee shop when he notices a man unlock a Mercedes and drive away. Twenty four hours later, he’s in the same coffee shop and is approached by men looking for answers. The men take him to Edward Lane who wants to know Jack’s description of the man and offers him a job: one million dollars to find his wife and daughter.
As Reacher is on the trail of these vicious kidnappers, he’ll learn the dark secrets of his employer and find that he’s in deep, but it’s too late to stop now.
Bad Luck and Trouble: With no phone and no address, Reacher thinks he’s isolated from the world and his former life, but it’s never that far from him. A woman from his old unit has put up a signal that only the eight members of his former team of army investigators would know so he contacts her.
What she has to tell him is a story of a man they served with’s brutal death and the killer isn’t finished. Reacher gets together with the other survivors of his elite team as they try to put together the pieces of this puzzle. Their trail leads them to more missing comrades, the city of Las Vegas, and the dark world of international terrorism.
Nothing to Lose: Like the singer in the classic Suicidal Tendencies song just wanted a Pepsi, Reacher just wants a cup of coffee. Just one cup of coffee, but he ends up finding himself in a world of trouble.
Reacher finds himself between two Colorado towns: Hope and Despair. He arrives in town and within minutes a deputy is in the hospital, sending Reacher back to Hope. Here, he will set up a base of operations against Despair as the town is doing something that nobody is supposed to see. A group of well-trained soldiers guards the facility.
A beautiful cop who runs Hope joins forces with Reacher to break open the secrets of Despair and expose their connection to the war that is killing Americans.
Gone Tomorrow: It’s 2AM in New York City when Reacher is riding a subway car uptown. There are five other passengers on the subway and one of them isn’t okay. If you think Reacher isn’t going to do something about that, you haven’t been paying attention.
The passenger is Susan Mark, an average woman with a big secret. She’s being watched by people in Washington, California, and Afghanistan, and her watchers all have one thing in common: they are lying to Reacher and it could be enough to get him killed. Reacher will end up fighting against soldiers from all sides of this shadow war, but he won’t stop until he comes face-to-face with his worst enemy.
61 Hours: A woman in a small town is standing up for justice in a small town. She is set to testify in a big case, but there are forces that don’t want her to make it to the trial.
Reacher ends up in South Dakota after a bus crash in a snowstorm which leads him to helping her out. It’s a good thing too because there is a proficient assassin making his way to the small town, a killer who never misses. The enemies he faces will be stronger than he imagined, but so is the woman he is risking it all to keep alive.
Worth Dying For: In the corn country of Nebraska, Reacher finds himself in a world of trouble. First, he meets the Duncans who have been terrorizing the entire county which means that they are immediately on Reacher’s bad side. However, there is also a cold case of a missing child, decades old at this point, that captures his attention and puts him into Reacher-mode.
Jack tries to look into the case, but the Duncans want him gone. They are awaiting a shipment that is already late which puts them at risk of angering their more powerful customers. A normal man would leave this town and its troubles behind him, but Jack Reacher is not a normal man.
The Affair: This is the sixteenth entry in the Jack Reacher series. This book is actually a jump back in time to 1997 when Reacher was still in the U.S. Army. The story sees the elite military cop sent to Carter Crossing, Mississippi where he is sent to uncover all that he can after a murder. A young woman died and there was a cover-up.
The evidence points to a soldier from a local military base who has someone powerful friends that could help to cover up something like this. Reacher meets with the local sheriff who is looking for justice in this case, but the two are uncertain if they can trust each other. As Reacher looks to uncover the truth, there are others trying to bury it forever. He’ll end up uncovering a conspiracy that threatens his faith in his mission and turns him into the scary man that readers know well.
A Wanted Man: This book starts with Reacher in the back of a car, hitching his way to Chicago. He’s in the guy with three others, one of which is telling stories that don’t quite add up. Meanwhile, an hour behind them lies the body of a man who was stabbed to death at a gas station. It was no ordinary crime, it was the work of professionals, and now the FBI has descended on the station to claim the victim.
All Reacher was looking for was a ride, but he now finds himself into something much bigger: a massive conspiracy that will make him a threat to both sides. What they don’t know is just how big of a threat he is.
Never Go Back: Reacher returns to northeast Virginia, the headquarters of his old unit, and the closest place he’s ever had to a home. He’s here to meet Major Susan Turner, the new commanding officer, who he has only spoken to on the phone. However, as he heads to her desk he finds someone else in the seat.
He quickly learns that she is in trouble and he is too. He’ll have to fight his way out, find Turner, and clear both of their names as the Army, the FBI, the D.C. Metro police, and some unidentified thugs are hot on his tail.
Personal: Reacher may have left the Army, but it’s never left him and now he’s being called back into action. Someone has taken a shot at the president of France in the City of Light and the shooter was American. The angle that the shot was taken at was so exceptional that there are very few people on the planets who could’ve made the shot.
One of those men is John Kott, an American marksman who went rogue. Kott is out of prison and unaccounted for, likely headed for the G8 Summit to take out other world leaders. Reacher is the man who stopped him before and now he’ll have to do it again.
Make Me: When Reacher heads to a town called Mother’s Rest all he wants to know is why the town is called that, but no one will tell him. Mother’s Rest is a tiny town in the middle of nowhere filled with watchful people. A woman named Michelle Chang mistakes Jack for her missing partner. He doesn’t have much else to do so he sets out to help her find him.
He thinks it won’t be a tough job, but soon finds himself racing through LA, Chicago, Phoenix, and San Francisco, going against thugs and assassins at every stop. The search will ultimately force Reacher to confront one of the worst nightmares that he could possibly imagine.
Night School: This is another flashback book that takes place in 1996 and sees Reacher sent back to school by the army. He’s one of three in the class with the other two being an FBI agent and a CIA analyst. Like Reacher, they are both wondering why they were sent to this school. They all find out when they learn of a Jihadist sleeper cell in Germany that has received an unexpected visitor with a message.
The message is what draws their attention as the courier states that an American wants one hundred million dollars. They don’t know who is asking, who they are asking from, or what they are giving in return; and this group is tasked with finding all that out. Time isn’t on their side and all they know is that they need to find this man before an epic act of terrorism is committed. Their mission will send them from Langley to Hamburg, Jalalabad to Kiev as they try to stop this act of terror.
The Midnight Line: Reacher makes his way to small Wisconsin town where he notices a class ring for West Point in the window. The year on the ring is 2005 which would’ve been a tough year to graduate with Iraq and then Afghanistan. He notices that the ring belonged to a woman and sees her initials on the inside. This leaves his wondering why she would’ve given up something she worked so hard for and decides to find out by finding her and returning the ring.
His journey will take him through small towns, the middle of nowhere, and the Wyoming wilderness. As he digs deeper into his search, things get more dangerous for him. The ring is just a link on a chain that leads Reacher to a vast criminal enterprise.
Past Tense: A trip from Maine to California sounds like a heck of a journey to Reacher, but he doesn’t end up making it very far. He gets as far as New England before he notices a sign to a place that he has never been before: the place where his father was born and he decides to take a detour.
Meanwhile, a couple of young Canadians are stranded at a motel after their car breaks down. The two were on their way to New York City to sell a treasure and now find themselves stuck in this small town. The owners of the motel are friend at least. Maybe a little too friendly.
Reacher decides to head to the city clerk to see his old family home, but is told that no one named Reacher has ever lived in the town. This leaves him with more questions than answers and he starts to look into things. As he explores his father’s life, his investigation and the danger the Canadians face begin to merge.
Blue Moon: Reacher sets out to help the Shevicks, an elderly couple who are down on their luck. The two have made a few mistakes that have left them owing a lot of money to some very bad people. Reacher’s attempts at help end up turning him into a wanted man in the middle of a turf war between rival gangs. In order to stay ahead of the loan sharks, thugs, and assassins, Reacher will team up with a waitress who knows more than she lets on. Reacher has a plan to make the greedy pay, but it’s a long shot and all the odds are against him.
The Sentinel: Reacher ends up in a town near Pleasantville, Tennessee that is anything but pleasant. In the middle of the day, Jack sees a man about to be ambushed four on one so he does what he does and takes care of it with his unique brand of conflict resolution. The man’s name is Rusty Rutherford, an IT manager, who has just lost his job after a cyber attack took down the town’s data. Rusty thinks that he can clear his name, but Reacher knows there is more to the story. What he’ll find is a conspiracy, cover-up, and murder that some people will go very far to keep secret.
Better Off Dead: When Reacher is out for a walk in the hot desert sun when he comes across a Jeep that has crashed into a tree with its driver slumped over the wheel. The woman isn’t dead, thankfully.
Her name is Michaela Fenton and she’s an army veteran turned FBI agent who is out looking for her twin brother who is into some trouble. Her brother is mixed up with some dangerous people who would rather die than betray their leader, the mysterious Dendocker, but he’s the one who would know what happened to him. Reacher is good at finding those that don’t want to be found and offers his help. Jack has been in some tricky situations before, but going against Dendocker will be one of the most dangerous situations of his life.
No Plan B: This is one you will have to pay attention to! It’s one of those books where there are 4 separate storylines essentially going on. They all come together in the end of course, but it can be a little hard to keep track of initially.
The primary storyline of course involves Jack Reacher. He is standing at a street corner when he sees a man push a woman in front of a bus. He chases (as fast as Reacher can go) after the man to stop him. The man has help, and there’s a big kerfluffle. When it all comes to a head, Reacher is told that the woman actually killed herself.
With so many people involved in the murder of one woman, you know Jack has to get to the bottom of things.
Jack Reacher Novellas
Second Son: This novella focuses on Jack Reacher as a 13-year-old in Okinawa, Japan. Even at this age, he knows how to outwit and overpower anyone that stands in his way. Jack and his older brother get a rude welcome from the other Army brats and make plans to get even, but it quickly becomes clear that there is more at stake here. With his family’s future in trouble, young Jack will rise to the occasion to put things back together.
Deep Down: Reacher is called in by Military Intelligence and sent undercover on a mission. Classified talks about a state-of-the-art sniper rifle are being infiltrated and it’s up to Reacher to sniff off the mole. It’s meant to be a zero-danger mission with no weapons involved, but if there’s one thing Reacher knows it’s that things rarely turn out that way.
High Heat: Jack is seventeen-years-old in New York during the Summer of Sam in this one. Reacher meets a young women who needs help and agrees to help her. Soon after, the power grid fails and the city is plunged into a lawless darkness. What can a visiting teenager do in the dark city? A normal teenager might be in trouble, but Jack is no ordinary teenager.
Not a Drill: Back on the road, Reacher hitches a ride with some Canadians on their way to hack in the forests of Maine. Reacher decides to check out the quiet town, but soon after the trail is closed and the military police arrive. It could be just a drill, but Jack finds that is rarely the case when he’s in town.
Too Much Time: This book works as a prequel to the Reacher novel, The Midnight Line. It takes place after Jack’s time in the Army when he witnesses a random bag-snatching in a small Maine town. To some this would be a simple crime, but Reacher sees much more of it.
Good and Valuable Consideration: Jack Reacher vs. Nick Heller: Jack Reacher makes a new acquaintance, Joseph Finder’s Nick Heller, in this short story. The two are sitting in a Boston bar watching a Yankees/Red Sox game when the man sitting between them turns out to be a marked man. We know what this two will do individually in this situation. What will they do together?
Small Wars: Lee Child takes Reacher to the 80s, 1989 to be exact. At this point Reacher is working as an MP who trying to solve the murder of a young officer. The officer was on the fast track to greatness and the hit appears to be a professional one. Reacher will get help from his older brother Joe and Sergeant Frances Neagley to figure out why.
The Christmas Scorpion: Reacher is spending the holidays in the California desert. It’s Christmas Eve and he finds himself in a roadhouse with a bartender, an elderly couple, and two members of the British Royal Military Police. The officers tell Reacher they were escorting a VIP to a top-secret meeting, but have since lost their charge. The threat is coming from a notorious assassin known as the Christmas Scorpion. It will take a Christmas miracle to save their charge and Santa brought Reacher.
Cleaning the Gold: A crossover featuring Jack Reacher coming face-to-face with Karin Slaughter’s Will Trent. Reacher is in Fort Knox looking to bring down a criminal operation while Will Trent is there to bring down a murder suspect: Jack Reacher. What the two don’t know is that there is a much larger conspiracy at play here, one they will have to team up to fight.
Killing Floor details the story of a ex military policeman and a drifter by the name of Jack Reacher. Reacher is just passing through a town by the name of Margrave, Georgia to find out information about a musician by the name of Blind Blake, and finds himself arrested for murder in less than an hour. Reacher is quite aware he did not kill anybody. The detective finds the phone number of a man named Hubble in the shoe of the dead man. Both Reacher and the next defendant Hubble are arrested for murder,and sent to the state prison. While in prison Reacher meets Roscoe a female police offiicer who helps with the two individuals defense.As Reacher alone is not about to convince anyone in Margrave, Georgia of his innocence.
The book details some of the exploits of Reacher as he tries to convince an unwilling populace that he is not guilty of the crime he is accused of committing. The book details Reacher’s interactions with a detective by the name of Findlay one of his main accusers.There are other characters that feature prominently in the novel as well. Some of the other characters of note that are part of the plot in the Kililng Floor include Chief Morrison and his wife who also are murder victims. There is also a multi billion dollar counterfeiting ring that comes in play in the action of this award wining book. There are other sorts of interesting plot twists within this novel that many people will read. Use this story for a great summer read and enjoy the time to delve into this exciting and powerfully written novel.
Some of the acclaim attached to this book includes USA today who stated the “indomitable Reacher burns up the pages. The New York Times called the action “Smart and Breathless.” Newsweek also called the action in he Killing floor “Subtle and nuanced with seductive writing and irresistible plot twists.” This book was followed by a succession of other novels featuring Reacher. All of them have been well regarded and well read. This book is something that you can find and take advantage of when you are looking for classic mysteries. This is one great read, and the Jack Reacher story The Killing Floor is a real page turner as literary critics and readers both agree.
The second Reacher novel to hit the scene was Die Trying. Although, the first novel the Killing Floor was widely acclaimed it did fall party to some critics who stated that the character of Jack Reacher was an unconvincing protagonist.Child attempted to address some of those concerns, in the second novel, lathough he largely paid no heed to the voices of the critics. The second novel may be one of the attempts to get the support of both readers and the voices of the critics.
In the second novel the ex military policeman Reacher is walking by a Chicago dry cleaner when an FBI agent also attractive and young, by the name of Holly comes by carrying some large packages. Holly is also the daughter of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. she is Kidnapped off the street along with Reacher. Only Reacher has the complex finely honed instincts to foil the kidnapping plot, and to see beyond the complex deadly plan of the Montana militia group that has kidnapped him and this young woman. The leader of the military group is a dangerous and charismatic leader who has some brutal action planned for both the kidnapped, and ruthless plans for the United States as a whole. This is a thrilling novel that has numerous plot twists to keep the reader entertained.
This novel is one of the things that you can look forward to when you are looking to find novels that have great stories and the great action that you need to stay involved This novel is one that will thrill the individual. It is one that makes a great summer time read.Readers will be stunned by the action with Die Trying when they decide to read this novel.
Both of these novels follows the larger than life character 6’5 Reacher as he gets very involved in the action and is a hero in his own way. His military training comes in handy within these novels. Read both of these novels as an introduction to the Jack Reacher character, and you may find that you wish to read more. These are some of the amazing novels by Child and can really be interesting and easy to find.
Any issues with the book list you are seeing? Or is there an author or series we don’t have? Let me know!
I’ve read this thread of comments and what has become clear to me is that the movies need a new actor, someone we’ve never seen before. Basically they need to go through the portfolios of the major acting agents, cull them to all the fair haired males of between 6’3 and 6’6, and then pursue a rigorous audition process, with the proviso that they’d have to be able to seriously beef up in the gym, if they’re not already.
I think that could be magic, and of course launch a new career for the actor. Sure you lose the major star factor for audience pull but, a) the novels are already immensely popular and if you get the character right the fans of the books will do your publicity for you, and b) you still have available of the trick of a star cameo in each of the movies. Each of the books has a potentially amazing female role btw, and not just for young spunks.
I get what most of you are saying about JRs physical attributes and how it affects the character being portrayed. I am a huge fan of reading as well as watching movies.I saw the movie first, that being said I believe that a movie should have a beginning a middle and a end. It should take you on a ride transporting you into the character and the story. Not knowing the details of JR were unimportant to me just was the story and actor believable IMO Tom cruise did this I don’t care about his beliefs the size of his wallet or what he does off set did he play the role was it entertaining and believable.. I am running out of things I want to read and stumbled into this site. So i am going to start the series and see where it takes me I know I will enjoy the books more so then the movie as far as reading and interpreting the characters in my mind and look forward to getting to know the writer and his character.this will be my around my 150th book this year I mostly read sci-fi and fantasy looking forward to a comfortable change.
AAEII
I am a HUGE Reacher fan and I just hope than one day I can enjoy a movie with Tom Cruise playing Reacher. It is so difficult to overlook the lack of size. In One Shot, Tom Cruise beat up 5 skinny 15 year old kids instead of what should have been 5 huge +200 lbs men. So dissappointed!
I did not like the idea of Tom Cruise being Jack Reacher. He would have to look up to everyone, something Jack would never do. After saying this I forced myself open minded to watch Öne Shot” and thought he did quite well. The actor that came to mind to take the part of Jack Reacher was Clint Walker of Cheyenne Bodie fame TV series in the ?60’s. A tall well built, luberring slow talking cowboy not to be trifled with.
Clint Walker, otherwise known as “The Chest” We had real men as actors back then, not these pretty-boys who run around pretending to be tough guys.
MAKE ME read another 500 page mystery by David Child, use a .357 because that’s not what I want for my $10 paperback! Action, thriller, adventure. Paladin reborn. Paladin didn’t solve mysteries. WTF is Child doing? Agatha Christie has Mysteries all locked up. EGAD! Shame, shame, shame and then to make another Reacher movie with Cruise,should have cast Peter Dinklage because he can actually act.
TOM CRUISE IS THE BEST 5-6 GUY EVERY TO PLAY A 6-5 JACK REACHER. Casting must have been a bitch. “Bad guy wanted, any ethnic group, MUST BE SHORTER THAN 5-6.” Female action character, must be no taller than 5.0. And so on. Cameraman must be able to get camera low for every shot including fight sequences. Prop master must have boxes of heights 2 inches to 12 inches for Cruise to stand on for scenes involving face to face dialogue.
Can someone explain to me the short stories? Should I be reading them in between the series in the order they were released?
I wouldn’t worry about when you read the short stories. They’re standalone and even though one or two of them “fit” between books in the chronological order of there’s nothing to them that is required reading. A couple of them go back to when Reacher is a kid or not in the army yet. You could read them whenever.
Forget ’em. Every one of them suck.
I had my serious doubts when I heard they had cast Tom Cruise as Reacher. For one thing, his diminutive size belied the character. However, after seeing the movie I was very much surprised and pleased. I think Cruise has the right amount of ego and chutzpah to pull it off. He WAS Jack Reacher. Kudos to the casting director.
Started reading the books when the first one came out and the image of Cruise as Reacher was a problem. Cruise did an aright job as Reacher but I have to agree with the Johnson as a better choice simply based on body size.
It does not matter since Cruise has a second Reacher movie due out in October 2016 but perhaps Reacher can become like Bond and have several actors play the part since Child has produced far more books than Ian Fleming and the movies could continue for years.
I just heard that Tom Cruise is going to be in the new Reacher movie. Too bad. He is too short and doesn’t have enough macho to portray Reacher. Another disappointing movie.
Michael Madison would make a good jack reacher not tom cruise
Tom Cruise spoilt it.
A bloke who’s really big-made (Like Steven Segal) should have been Reacher.
When I read the books after warching the film (which was ok) I couldn’t believe they were about the same character.
I experienced the kind of cognative dissonance I had seeing Adam West as Batman the first time, but without the excuse of it being a campy parody, or the James Bond films that drifted away from the brutal direct Fleming character into an unbelivable romantic Hollywood charactature.
As an avid reader, I can fully understand why a devoted series reader would find Cruise unbekievabke in tge role of a character who could intimidate simply by walking into a room, who believes only a dozen people on Earth might be a physical threat to him.
Cruise isn’t that kind of presense. His sucessful characters share a common thread of brains not brawn, courage and determination being the reasons for success, not physical prowess. His characters are a better version of himself. Though they always seem to share a little bit of being a arrogant jerk, that flaw makes the characters more human, and is even mocked by antagonists in the MI films.
Reacher is a polar opposite. He isn’t courageous because he has no doubt that he will prevail. There’s no question that he will succeed by just being there. Seen from the outside, he could be a robot. Reacher appeals because the reader had no doubt that the bad guy will lose, the wrong made right without trickery, but using the kind of brute force that can’t be ignored.
If I had been reading Reacher novels for 10 years, I would have expected to see someone like Dwayne Johnson or Daniel Craig in the movie, or it done like a first person shooter game (Doom) with
some CGI or long shots of the character in the action scenes. The menace of the character needs to manifest in his voice, like Darth Vader.
While I will continue to enjoy Cruise in other roles, I’m doing my best to forget the Reacher movie, and won’t watch the sequel until long after I’ve read the final novel that Child writes.
Although I think the film can stand on its own, it would have been better to change the protagonists name.
I really can’t see how the series is “ruined” because of Mr Cruise, I’m not going to stop reading the books because I disagreed with a casting choice (it’s not the first time) Yeah; I liked the movie, I thought Tom pulled off Jack’s nuances quite well. No; I wasn’t even remotely happy with the casting choice, but what are you going to do. Yes I’m going to go see the new movie when it’s released, even tho Mr Cruise is still at the wheel. On a side note; I believe John Corbett would have been an excellent choice as Mr Jack (none) Reacher, he’s the same height, same age and has blueish eyes, tho he’d have to bulk up 40 odd pounds like Chris Hemsworth had to for Thor 😅 Can’t wait for a new novel.
Tom Cruise is a teeny weeny Jack Reacher. There is no way else to say it. Cruise is NO Reacher. 5 foot 7 inches is not 6 foot 5. Sorry Tom you just ain’t got it.
Jim Grant sold out. Sorry to say but Cruise has a lot of money $$$ so maybe you too would sell out.
Sad.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan is the only actor I can imagine coming close to the “real Jack Reacher”. Sorry, Tom Cruise.. you trying to be the real “Jack Reacher” is like maybe his little boy trying on his daddy’s shoes.
Liam Neeson would have made a much more realistic Reacher than Cruise. I watched the movie and could never get my head into it because Cruise does not fit the book character.
i actually think Joe Manganiello would have been the perfect jack reacher. He’s kind of who i see in my head when i’m reading these books. Also hits the height at 6’5″
yeah, and we could get Joe to dye his hair blond (don’t think he’d do it, but he IS 6’6″!
This list doesn’t show “The Visitor” published in 2000. Any reason.
The Visitor in the UK/Europe is just renamed. It’s Running Blind in North America.
Sean Bean would have made a great Jack Reacher….
OK. I just hafta say it. LC sold out. How old is Reacher? How tall is Reacher? What ethnicity is Reacher? Getting a 50+yr old to play a 35-45 year old is just s setup up for having to get someone else in another 5 years. But I guess they do it with Bond and Batman. Any way, I think they should just get Dick Hill to do it.
I also thought Tom Cruise was a bad choice, but who is Tim Hill, I’ve never heard of him?
ok. I decided after saying I thought Cruise was a bad cast for Reacher. So, after reading five of the books, I watched the Reacher movie again. Cruise actually does a great job in that movie. The only mistake he made was not putting his hand over the rifle barrel when he shoots at the range. Jack does that when he shoots long distance. Guess I am ok with Cruise after all. Just saying.
A young Fess Parker is a perfect Jack Reacher. Dwayne Johnson ok or maybe the actor that played Longmire. I like tom cruise. But not for reacher.
I’m not a Tom Cruise fan at all. But I have to say, even though I wish they would’ve gone with a different actor (Gerard Butler, Hugh Jackman, even John Travolta -loved him in General’s Daughter), Cruise did a good job. He wasn’t his normal, grinning-idiot self, which made him a little more sullen and matter-of-fact.
The perfect Jack Reacher would be Gerard Butler. All 6’2″ of him. His 45 years are also right on. AND he can act.
I literally stopped reading Reacher novels for a year after the movie. I have a very vivid imagination and I kept seeing his face in the same sceneries and senarios of this other faceless yet hunky tall man that was hard to miss. Tom Cruise has one of those blends in with the crowd looks. It made it hard to enjoy the jokes of how he stood above everyone and picked out of a crowd easily. Its like we read a book on little people and how they live in their house with the conviences of a little person and then the movie is made with an average size person. It just takes away some of the context. Good movie, great books, just two different things.
Yikes, lots of complaining about Cruise in this role. He did a great job with the role, if you couldn’t get passed the size that’s unfortunate. I don’t understand people talking about the rock in this role, Cruise played a great character, the rock is big but he doesn’t have the chops and he’s ripped in a way Reacher wouldn’t be caught dead. If you guys are Reacher fans then you know he’s naturally athletic and big, gets in shape through physical work but doesn’t lift weights. The rock would have ruined it for me, Reacher’s character is about no bs, getting it done, buffing up in the gymn is not his style at all, it’s the kind of self focus that is the opposite of who he is. Jackman could do it well, tone down the workouts.
Cruise brought life to the character. There’s so many characters that get re-invented over time. How many different versions of superhero adaptations have there been, in print and in film? Someone reimagines it and goes with it. James Bond films are filled with different takes on the hero.
If Cruise ruined it for you then that’s too bad but he seemed to capture the character. Someone like the rock couldn’t do it. The rock is the type of gymn rat that Reacher would take down because he’s smarter,, more trained and a badass. Reacher is big and strong just not in the beach body muscle way.
Here’s a few for you all to consider…
Clive Owen 6’2.5
Gerard Butler 6’2
Eric Bana 6’3
These gents all have the “rugged” look I believe needed to play JR.
Where dose “the visitor ” fit in the series?
The Visitor is known as Running Blind in North America. It is the 4th in the Jack Reacher series, after Tripwire and before Echo Burning.
Neil Flynn the tall actor Mike Heck from The Middle. I can not get his image out of my head when I think of what Jack Reacher should look like.