Better Off Dead: (Jack Reacher 26) | AAGP library | TinyCat |

2024-05-04 1:43 pm

Better Off Dead: (Jack Reacher 26)

by Lee Child

Paperback, 2022

Status

Available

Series

Jack Reacher (26)

Tags

mystery and thriller

Genres

Description

Fiction. Suspense. Thriller. HTML:#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER �?� THE BLOCKBUSTER JACK REACHER SERIES THAT INSPIRED TWO MAJOR MOTION PICTURES AND THE STREAMING SERIES REACHER Digging graves had not been part of my plans when I woke up that morning. Reacher goes where he wants, when he wants. That morning he was heading west, walking under the merciless desert sun�??until he comes upon a curious scene. A Jeep has crashed into the only tree for miles around. A woman is slumped over the wheel. Dead? No, nothing is what it seems. The woman is Michaela Fenton, an army veteran turned FBI agent trying to find her twin brother, who might be mixed up with some dangerous people. Most of them would rather die than betray their terrifying leader, who has burrowed his influence deep into the nearby border town, a backwater that has seen better days. The mysterious Dendoncker rules from the shadows, out of sight and under the radar, keeping his dealings in the dark. He would know the fate of Fenton�??s brother. Reacher is good at finding people who don�??t want to be found, so he offers to help, despite feeling that Fenton is keeping secrets of her own. But a life hangs in the balance. Maybe more than one. But to bring Dendoncker down will be the riskiest job of Reacher's life. Failure is not an option, because in this kind of game, the loser is always bett… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member Hardboiled

The Reacher novels continue to go down hill. The overall plot concept is good but the journey to develop that concept is riddled with implausibilities and an overdose of seeing just how many fights Reacher can get into. Like the first book penned by Lee and Andrew Child this one foregoes any

serious development of character and plot. If that's what your looking for then this is the book for you. If not, move on to something else because there's a ton of great stuff out there. Think I'll be moving on.

LibraryThing member AMKitty

DNF @ 20%

I didn’t really like the first collaboration in the Reacher series, but wanted to give it a fair chance. So, I tried the second one /Better Off Dead/. I should have followed my instincts.

This is not Reacher. The MC is too sensitive, too talkative, too not Reacher. The story is told in

first person. It makes the pseudo-Reacher seem more soyboy than drifter.

I would have preferred it if Child had simply had his Jack Reacher walk away into the sunset or settle down in a foreign country over handing the character off to another author to change.

LibraryThing member Carol420

I always look forward to this series. I've read every one of them...but his might just be my last one. The one before this I forgave since it was Lee Child's brother, Andrew Grant, joining in. I've read his books also and always liked them, but he just doesn't have the "voice" of Jack

Reacher...actually we hardly recognized Jack. It's not a horrible book by any means, but this is just not the Jack Reacher we knew and loved. His lack of concern about crossing lines to get the job done, his violence without hesitation or remorse, his unapologetic appreciation of women; that's what made him stand out and endure through so many books. I love the books and the character enough that I'll give the new author another chance, but if he doesn't get Jack back like he was soon, I give up.

LibraryThing member Judiex

As Jack Reacher was walking through a southern desert on his way west, he saw a Jeep that had crashed against the only tree in a large area. When he went to investigate, he found a woman slumped over the steering wheel. He soon discovered that not only was the woman not dead, or even injured, she

was in position to fool someone who she believed had kidnapped her brother.
The story from then on is full of double crosses, extreme violence, and a psychopathic villain who is beyond belief. With all the thugs working for him, it doesn’t seem possible that they can’t break away. With all the violence in our world today, I see no reason for an author to raise the level in fictional works.
In addition, while the Childs (Children?) spends a lot of time describing the villains, they barely say anything about the woman’s appearance except that she has prosthetic leg, which is mentioned frequently.
Definitely the last book I read in the Reacher series and possibly by either Child.

LibraryThing member infjsarah

This was a lot better than the first Lee and Grant Child collaboration on Jack Reacher. More entertaining although as implausible and violent as always. But a few weeks later I can remember very little about it.

LibraryThing member hcnewton

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
---
WHAT'S BETTER OFF DEAD ABOUT?
Continuing the westward journey he started back in Past Tense, Reacher finds himself about as close to the US/Mexican border as you can get in one of the smallest towns we've seen him in.

He encounters an Army vet

hunting for her twin—who has gotten himself mixed up with some sort of smuggling operation—that might be getting into something more serious. Michaela Fenton gets Reacher to help out with a scheme to put her face-to-face with the head of the operation.

Things go south, and before you know it, it's Reacher against this shadowy organization trying to save the Fenton twins and put an end to a plot that's either an act of political protest or deadly attack (Reacher's assuming the latter).

That doesn't make a lot of sense—but trust me, something as convoluted as this plot doesn't make it easy to summarize in a coherent fashion.

SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT BETTER OFF DEAD?
I strongly considered listing all my problems with this—but why bother? Venting my spleen might make me feel better, but I don't want to spend the energy on it.

Let me try to be concise—it was a giant, implausible, mess. The original plan that Reacher and Fenton come up with to take down the bad guy makes every single machine that Rube Goldberg drew seem efficient and straightforward. I couldn't believe that Reacher would sign on to it—and even after he started voicing concerns, he still went along with it. Reacher's known for his brawn, but his brain has always been—up to this point, anyway--just as important (if not more so). This was just dumb.

I was annoyed very early on, texting a friend, "Worst.Reacher.Ever." Although I noted that the Child brothers had 250 or so pages to make me change my mind. I really wanted them to. But man, those short stories about pre-teen/teenager Reacher in New York City or Okinawa look really good to me now.

The least troublesome part for me was the voice—Lee Child tended toward the third-person, but occasionally used first to great effect. This time, first-person didn't help matter—and while I haven't read any readers complain about it, a lot of what I have seen people complain about I think would've worked if it was in the third-person (and/or wouldn't have been part of a third-person narration).

There were some good scenes, a handful of chapters that worked for me, in fact.* But they were a distinct minority. Still, in trying to be fair, I'd say if this was a thriller by a relative newcomer? I'd be more positive about it (not much more, but more). But Andrew Child (née Grant) has a dozen novels under his belt and Lee Child has twice that—also this is a Jack Reacher novel. There are standards that must be upheld.

*I'd planned on talking about some of those, but this post is longer than I'd intended it to be already, so let's leave it at "the whole thing wasn't a dumpster fire."

I knew that there's be some growing pains as Lee backed off to let Andrew take over, but this was worse than that. The Sentinel wasn't perfect, but it was something to work from. Better Off Dead was a major setback and will take some work to recover from. Sadly, I bet that no one's going to make Andrew buckle down and do that work (please, please, someone prove me wrong).

I walked away from the interview I heard with them a few weeks ago with the impression that Andrew doesn't typically work with the "no outline" approach of Lee—maybe if he didn't try to ape that style, he'd be better off. There were a few times in my notes I wondered if they'd changed their minds about where the plot was going.

Give this one a pass—go back and read/reread 61 Hours, Nothing to Lose, Personal, or...you know what? Anything from The Midnight Line or earlier. It'll be time better spent.

LibraryThing member capewood

2022 book #5. 2021. Jack Reacher sticks his nose where it doesn't belong and the next thing he knows he's fighting for his life. Unless you're a big fan don't wast your time with this by the numbers Reacher book. Reacher is more a comic book superhero than anything these days.

LibraryThing member lbswiener

Better Off Dead is not one of the better Jack Reacher stories. It takes place in a very small town in the desert that borders on the Mexico border. There is a lot of fighting, killing hand to hand combat all for what? It was difficult to follow because the story changed from first person to third

person. Hopefully as Andrew Child gets older, and writes more books, he will become more focused like his father.

LibraryThing member phoenixcomet

Written in the first person with Andrew Child as a co-author, Better Off Dead keeps your interest from the first page on. In traveling across country, Reacher encounters Michaela Fenton whose brother had gone missing from a shady organization and is searching for whatever happened to him. Reacher

joins in the search when discovering many more lives may be at stake.

LibraryThing member jfe16

Still headed toward the Pacific Ocean, Jack Reacher finds himself close to the Mexican border in the tiny Arizona town of Los Gemelos. Seeing what seems to be a crashed Jeep, Reacher steps in to help the woman driver and so meets army veteran Michaela Fenton who is searching for her twin brother,

Michael.

Michael seems to have gotten himself involved with some dangerous people, becoming part of a sinister plot hatched by Waad Dendoncker, but now wanting out of the racket.

Will Reacher find Michael? Can he find a way to put a stop Dendoncker’s evil machinations?

=========

In this, the twenty-sixth outing of Jack Reacher, a stunning turn of events in the opening pages pulls readers into the telling of the tale. The larger-than-life Reacher is as enigmatic, as observing, as loyal, as empathetic as ever. Here he steps in to help a damsel in distress [even though the damsel isn’t in quite as much distress as he’d thought]. Some unexpected plot twists that may surprise readers, but there’s plenty of action and more than enough villains to bring some suspense to the telling of the tale.

There’s an interesting disconnect running throughout the narrative: Jack’s interaction with the smartphone. He’s not particularly clueless as in several scenes he seems to have no difficulty in using the phone despite his professed lack of prowess with the phone.

Nevertheless, fans of the series will find much to appreciate here.

Highly recommended.

LibraryThing member RonWelton

Better Off Dead is the twenty-sixth Jack Reacher novel and he hasn't aged or slowed down. His fights are choreographed in such detail that the reader believes in the outcome albeit how very unlikely it would be. The only significant difference that I can find from the earlier novels is that now he

is accepted and even respected by authorities. Supervisory Special Agent James Lane who has asked Reacher's help toward the end of the book tells him " 'I'm sorry to be treating you like a regular visitor. I've read your record. I know all about your service.' "
Reacher also hasn't developed any guilt or remorse or inhibition against taking a life: "I was pretty sure he was down and out. But I never take that kind of thing for granted. I stepped in close. And stamped on the base of his skull. I felt his spine snap. I was sure about that."
So, if you have enjoyed any other of the 25 books in the series, you are certain to enjoy this one.

LibraryThing member waldhaus1

Another Reacher exploit with brawn and brains. Helping out a desperate twin. Southwest Texas. Subterranean passage, helicopters and jets.

LibraryThing member thewanderingjew

Better Off Dead, Lee Child and Andrew Child, authors; Scott Brick, narrator

The only thing I can say for sure about this novel is that Jack Reacher was almost a caricature of himself. As usual, the man who travels alone and without creature comforts, with no mode of transportation but his legs,

finds trouble everywhere he goes. He is the superhero of superheroes. However, this book felt disjointed and Reacher never really became the real Reacher, rather he was like Spiderman, bouncing back without any consequences from each violent encounter. All of the characters remained enigmas and disconnected. Their reason for being was never really evident. They just appeared to open or close a scene and then disappeared. There was too much violence and brutality with descriptions that were unnecessarily explicit. Some were grotesque. It was as if the authors wanted to push the envelope from the ridiculous to the sublime as the story became less and less plausible. Even the superb narrator could not save this book. I think that Lee Child should go back to writing books by himself. Let his brother write in this genre in his own way. Let him choose his own characters or let them create a new one together, but don’t destroy Jack Reacher with overactive plots and characters requiring the suspension of disbelief. This book had too much dialogue and far too much description and explanation that seemed only there to fill the pages. The plot consistently changed and that made it difficult to follow. Was the book about a terrorist, a weapon of mass destruction, a personal, petty vendetta, or misdirection so that one was constantly forced to ask if the real terrorist would please stand up. Who was telling the truth? Even in the end, it was hard to know who was the real culprit and who, if anyone, was innocent. Was someone, who was innocent, falsely blamed, actually framed, but really evil, as well. Was someone wrongly accused of building weapons of mass destruction, of terrorism? Were there really such dangerous weapons being built? Do the wrongdoers get punished? Who actually escapes besides Reacher? I am forced to ask once again; will the real Jack Reacher please stand up!

LibraryThing member TomDonaghey

Better Off Dead (2021) By Lee Child and Andrew Child.
Jack Reacher is back. I don’t know why I keep reading these stories. The plot is, generally speaking, the same. Reacher gets pulled into some mess the has nothing to do with him, usually there is a woman involved, and there is no real reason

for him to stay except he likes a little spice in his day.
I also get the feeling he truly looks forward to killing a bunch of people, or at the very least maiming them. He plays fair, giving the bad hombres a chance to walk away.
But they never do.
Reacher is massive but somehow a bigger guy will, in most cases, get involved in the fight.
And why doesn’t some smaller guy just pull out his pistol, at a distance from Reacher, and blast away. I’m a big guy and I would not want to square off against Reacher, I’d rather put hot lead down the barrel and into him and dispose of the remains later.
I suppose that wouldn’t make much of a story, but that is just how this book opens. While the fellow dying in the first chapter isn’t named, you know it has to be Reacher from the physical description alone. Intrigue flourishes at the start, while confirmation comes a bit later. You know Reacher can’t be killed in the initial chapters, so you have to read on and on.
Using their trademark short, punchy sentence structure, short chapters and involved plot twists, the Childs have once again made me rush through their book and left me satisfied by the end.

LibraryThing member JPodlaski

I thoroughly enjoyed BETTER OFF DEAD and found that the author9(s) are making some progress at recreating the Reacher of old. I think it's much better than the last book by this duo. Although the story dragged a little in the middle, it ramped up with classic Reacher taking out the bad guys one by

one. I also like that a new villain was introduced, the bodyguard that just wouldn't go down - even after Reacher's best shots...reminded me of James Bond and Odd Job in Goldfinger.

The story kept my interest but still lacked the excitement of forcing me to stay up later to read another chapter or two because of the lack of cliffhangers at the end of each chapter. So, it was a book that I could put down.

Still recommend reading BETTER OFF DEAD. I'll continue reading as new stories emerge - especially if they continue to improve as this story did.

LibraryThing member Dokfintong

Wow. This is a real disappointment. Whatever it is that I enjoy in Reacher books, this one doesn't have it. It's slow, kinda preachy, and full of set pieces, some of which are kinda stupid, and I didn't finish. I'll try the next one.

I received a review copy of "Better off Dead" by Lee Child and

Andrew Child from Delacorte Press through NetGalley.com.

LibraryThing member Tatoosh

Better off Dead is the 26th Jack Reacher book and the second Andrew Child co-authored with his brother and series creator Lee. Unfortunately, it’s a great disappointment. The story begins with Reacher being killed, but that teaser will not fool anyone. It piqued my curiosity about why and how

this red herring would be worked into the story, but answering that question is the only reason to read this offering.

Readers will be stunned by the Jack Reacher they encounter in the first 100 pages. He is disengaged, passive and subservient. A tectonic change has taken place in Reacher’s persona. Instead of an energetic, decisive character, we encounter a slow-moving plot marred by excessive description. Suppose Reacher approaches a building, enters, and sees another person. Child describes the setting and exterior of the building, the room he enters, and the person he sees. The story plods on and on, tediously, one paragraph-length description after another. Given this, the failure to describe Michaela, the woman Reacher (reluctantly) intends to help, and Sonia, the woman who assists Reacher, is puzzling. Reacher’s propensity to hop into bed with every woman he meets is overdone in the earlier books in this series. Still, this story’s lack of sexual tension is a misguided adjustment.

The story eventually becomes somewhat interesting, and the real Jack Reacher emerges, but readers hoping for a satisfying conclusion will be disappointed by the failure to generate any sense of tension. The coup de grâce is somewhat ingenious and unexpected but anticlimactic.

Has Jack Reacher reached the end, or will the Child brothers find a way to breathe an air of freshness into the series?

LibraryThing member norinrad10

Better Off Dead is the second book in the long-running Jack Reacher series co-written between lee Child and Andrew Child. Eventually, Lee plans to hand the series off to his sibling.

While better than its predecessor, BOD still suffers from a consistent grasp of the Reacher character. The book

ain't bad but I struggle to call it a jack Reacher book.

The plot isn't really important in these books, but for the record, this one takes place on the Mexican border of Arizona. Terrorists, secret government organizationss, special ops soldiers all play into the mix. Making for an interesting, if not authentic tale.

Will see what the future brings in regard to the series, but at this point, I'd suggest creating a new series with a Reacher like the protagonist and forget trying to stay true to a popular character who is well known by readers.

LibraryThing member Ronrose1

Jack Reacher is back in this latest book, “Better Off Dead”, by the brothers, Lee and Andrew Child. The book is a fast read, pulling the reader quickly into the action as Reacher tries to help an apparent victim of an auto accident on the side of a lonely stretch of road. When the lone woman in

the vehicle pulls a gun on him, Reacher figures there must be a lot more to this story. He calmly talks his way out of trouble only to be sucked back in when a jeep pulls up with two malcontents inside, who are apparently looking for the woman, who is unbeknownst to them, lying in wait for them. This is of course a mystery that Reacher cannot walk away from. Quickly choosing sides, he helps the woman and thus starts on a mission to find her missing brother who may be being held captive by the malcontents henchmen. Reacher’s character is the perfect hero for this job as he is a little larger than life, but not too inflated as to be unbelievable. Another excellent book from this great team of authors.This book was provided by Delacorte Press for review.

LibraryThing member Romonko

This is the second book in this series that was co-written bY Lee Child and his brother Andrew. I'm not sure why Lee Child has decided to take on a partner in this long-running, best-loved Jack Reacher series. I didn't really see a great deal of difference in The Sentinel which was the first book

in this partnership, but I did find this one quite different. The cadence was different. Jack Reacher was different. The timing was forced. In all the old books I've never thought that Jack did much soul searching and not much detailed analyzing. He did in this book. The plot moved fairly quickly, but there seemed to be something missing in the progression. The story was quite cerebral which is another thing I don't expect with Reacher. But the bad guys are really bad, and all are well outlined and described in the book. The ending was far-fetched and didn't seem to fit in the book. . I'm not sure but this may be the last Jack Reacher I'll read. I tried and tried to find the Jack Reacher that I have loved for many years, and couldn't really do it. I think I will just assume that "my Jack Reacher" finally reaches the West Coast and settles down to enjoy his life. I can see him climbing hills and walking along the beach with the sun setting into the ocean.

LibraryThing member ritaer

Reacher promises a fellow veteran that he will locate her brother, who has been working for a mysterious, murderous dealer of some sort. Plans go awry and Reacher is drawn deeper into the situation. Typical Reacher plot, walk into trouble while trying to travel; get involved; defeat many bad guys

and solve the problem. This episode seemed a little rushed at the end.

LibraryThing member crazybatcow

Another Reacher book is always a good thing. You can, however, tell that this book has a lot of Andrew's writing and not so much of Lee's. Though, not nearly as noticeable as the previous book in this series, so perhaps Andrew is getting better, or the editor was more aware.

Anyway, doesn't matter,

I already have the next book in the series.

LibraryThing member decaturmamaof2

I feel like this one really jumped the shark. And it was much less coherent/cohesive than the earlier Reacher stories. Bummer, because they were always such a fun treat to read.

LibraryThing member kwskultety

I was excited to read this, then I was ready to throw it away at page 75. I usually give a book 100 pages in unless it's so brutally awful that I can't take it. I struggled to read up to page 125 then I realized I was wasting my time. I have other books in the TBR pile that came from NetGalley and

I need to read and review them. I can't believe I'm saying this - but Reacher is SO BORING in this installment. Ugh. Do not waste your time with this tripe.

LibraryThing member lewilliams

Not the best Jack Reacher story and not nearly as good as the earlier books in the series. To much detail and the plot plods along as fast as a turtle walks.

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