Running Blind

Jack Reacher is back, dragged into what looks like a series of grisly serial murders by a team of FBI profilers who aren't totally sure he's not the killer they're looking for, but believe that even if he isn't, he's smart enough to help them find the real killer. And what they've got on the ex-MP, who's starred in three previous Lee Child thrillers ( Tripwire , Die Trying , Killing Floor ), is enough to ensure his grudging cooperation: phony charges stemming from Reacher's inadvertent involvement in a protection shakedown and the threat of harm to the woman he loves. The killer's victims have only one thing in common--all of them brought sexual harassment charges against their military superiors and all resigned from the army after winning their cases. The manner, if not the cause, of their deaths is gruesomely the same: they died in their own bathtubs, covered in gallons of camouflage paint, but they didn't drown and they weren't shot, strangled, poisoned, or attacked. Even the FBI forensic specialists can't figure out why they seem to have gone willingly to their mysterious deaths. Reacher isn't sure whether the killings are an elaborate cover-up for corruption involving stolen military hardware or the work of a maniac who's smart enough to leave absolutely no clues behind. This compelling, iconic antihero dead-ends in a lot of alleys before he finally figures it out, but every one is worth exploring and the suspense doesn't let up for a second. The ending will come as a complete surprise to even the most careful reader, and as Reacher strides off into the sunset, you'll wonder what's in store for him in his next adventure. --Jane Adams From Publishers Weekly Jack Reacher, the wandering folk hero of Child's superb line of thrillers (Tripwire, etc.), faces a baffling puzzle in his latest adventure: who is the exceptionally crafty villain murdering women across the country, leaving the naked bodies in their bathtubs (which are filled with army camouflage green paint), escaping the scenes and leaving no trace of evidence? The corpses show no cause of death and Reacher's sole clue is that all the victims thus far were sexually harassed while serving in the military. There's got to be some sort of grand scheme behind the killings, but with no physical evidence, FBI agents bumble around until they finally question Reacher, a former military cop who handled each of the dead women's harassment cases. After Reacher convinces investigators he's innocent, theyAcuriouslyAask him to stay on as a case consultant. Reacher doesn't like the ideaAhe's too much of a lone wolfAbut he has little choice. The feds threaten him and his girlfriend, high-powered Manhattan attorney Jodie Jacob, with all sorts of legal entanglements if he doesn't help. So Reacher joins the FBI team and immediately attacks the feds' approach, which is based solely on profiling. Then he breaks out on his own, pursuing enigmatic theories and hunches that lead him to a showdown with a truly surprising killer in a tiny village outside Portland, Ore. Some of the concluding elements to Child's fourth Reacher outingAhow the killer gains access to the victims' homes, as well as the revelation of the elaborate MOAfall into place with disappointing convenience. Yet the book harbors two elements that separate it from the pack: a brain-teasing puzzle that gets put together piece by fascinating piece, and a central character with Robin Hood-like integrity and an engagingly eccentric approach to life. Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal Child's Jack Reacher series has improved with each successive book, of which this is the fourth (following Tripwire). A serial murderer is on the loose, killing women across the country in the same bizarre fashion: there are no fatal wounds on the corpse and no evidence or clues. Other than the killer's unknown method, the only thread tying the victims together is that they have all served in the militaryDand they all knew Reacher. What is the motive? What is the murder weapon and manner of death? How does the killer gain entrance to the heavily secured homes of these fearful and suspicious women? Why is each corpse immersed in a tub full of paint? Reacher, the archetypal loner/wanderer, seems more domesticated here, although he fights powerfully against it. With numerous plot twists and turns, Child puts Reacher through his paces brilliantly, arriving at an unusual solution. Highly recommended for all public libraries. -.DFred M. Gervat, Concordia Coll. Lib., Bronxville, NY Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Booklist Jack Reacher fits the profile of a serial killer being tracked by the FBI. Plus, he's connected to the victims, all of whom filed sexual harassment cases against the military. (Jack was the military policeman who investigated the women's cases.) The Feds don't think Jack did it, but they force him to help them find out who did. The crime scenes are elaborately bizarre yet bereft of clues. Reacher, skeptical of the official profile portraying the killer as a resentful antifeminist, looks for other possible motives. One of them hits pay dirt, sending Jack on a deadly cross-country race with the killer. This fourth Reacher thriller is easily the best. The plot is a masterpiece of misdirection, red herrings, and veiled motives. Reacher himself is an evolving, ever more likable moralist who sometimes gives in to his inner thug. He belongs at the same table with the genre's leading tough-tender sleuths: Parker's Spenser and Burke's Robicheaux among them. Wes Lukowsky Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved From Kirkus Reviews Soldier-turned-soldier-of-fortune Jack Reacher goes after a serial killer in a conventionally but nonetheless deeply satisfying whodunit. In today's armed services, you lose even when you win--at least if you're a woman who files a sexual harassment complaint. Amy Callan and Caroline Cooke were both successful in their suits, which ended the careers of their alleged harassers. But Callan and Cooke ended up leaving the service themselves, and now they're both dead, murdered by a diabolical perp who keeps leaving behind the same crime scene--the victim's body submerged in a bathtub filled with camouflage paint--and not a single clue to the killer's identity or the cause of death. The FBI hauls in Reacher, who handled both women's complaints as an Army MP, as a prime suspect, then offers to upgrade him to a consulting investigator when their own surveillance gives him an alibi for a third killing. No thanks, says our hero, who's taken an instant dislike to FBI profiler Julia Lamarr, until the Feds' threats against his lawyer girlfriend Jodie Jacob ( Tripwire , 1999) bring him into the fold. While Reacher is pretending to study lists of potential victims and suspects and fending off the government-sponsored advances of Quantico's comely Lisa Harper, the murderer is getting ready to pounce on a fourth victim: Lamarr's stepsister Alison. This latest coup does nothing to improve relations between Reacher and the Feebees, all of them determined to prove they're the toughest hombres in the parking lot, but it does set the stage for some honest sleuthing, some treacherous red herrings, and some convincing evidence for Reacher's assertion that all that profiling stuff is just plain common sense. Even readers who identify the criminal, motive, and modus operandi early on (and many readers will) can plan to stay up long past bedtime and do some serious hyperventilating toward the end. -- Copyright © 2000 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. Running Blind is Lee Child's fourth novel. Killing Floor , his debut, won two awards for "best first mystery," and was nominated for two more. Child is a native of England and a former television writer. Read more