I can not travel without so, this week, I ended up with a book emergency – A train journey without a book is just not something I can handle. So, with this choices limited to what was available at Manchester Piccadilly Station, I ended up with ‘Night School’ by Lee Child.
Now, I will be honest, despite the fact that Lee Child hails from Coventry, I have never read one of his books. I simply thought they would not be something I would enjoy or really have any interest in (I have never seen a Jack Reacher film either). However, I was a little surprised about how much I actually enjoyed this novel. Lee Child certainly knows how to write a page turner. Once the scene is set and I got my head around the character names and their roles, the pace was quick and I was keen to see how Jack Reacher would catch his man (or several men or maybe, even a completely different man to the one you think he wants). Set in Berlin, it also takes a little look at the relationship between the US and Germany after the Cold War.
Despite the fact that there are so many Jack Reacher novels, this book could be read as a standalone story. I suspect if you were a dedicated fan you may know a little more about Reacher as a character, but even from one book he is not a complete stranger.
So, I feel I need to put an apology out there for being a little judgmental about these books before I tried them. I won’t in future be too worried if Jack Reacher has to be my travelling companion.