Persuader (novel)
 2003 Hardcover edition | |
| Author | Lee Child |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | Jack Reacher |
| Genre | Thriller novel |
| Publisher | Bantam Press (UK), Delacorte Press (US) |
Publication date | 13 May 2003 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover, Paperback) |
| Pages | 480 pp |
| ISBN | 0-385-33666-7 |
| OCLC | 50694787 |
| 813/.54 21 | |
| LC Class | PS3553.H4838 P4 2003 |
| Preceded by | Without Fail |
| Followed by | The Enemy |
Persuader is the seventh book in the Jack Reacher series written by Lee Child.[1] After a chance encounter with an old adversary, Reacher finds himself once again obsessed with revenge and in increasingly dire straits in an attempt to settle a decade-long score. Reacher infiltrates a criminal organization, quickly rising in the ranks to get revenge on his old enemy.
Plot
The book is written as a first person narrative, the second Jack Reacher novel to be treated in this fashion.
Jack Reacher is working unofficially with the DEA to bring down a boy's father, Zachary Beck, who is an arms smuggler. By pretending to save the boy from his supposed kidnappers, Reacher gains access to Beck and gradually gains his confidence by working as a hired gun/bodyguard. While working undercover he regrettably has to eliminate a few of Beck's minions to prevent them from exposing him. Reacher's primary motivation in getting involved at all in this off-the-books operation is to have another go at Francis Xavier Quinn, a former Military Intelligence agent who brutally mutilated and murdered a female military colleague of Reacher's ten years before. Reacher had originally presumed Quinn to be deceased after their last little encounter but eventually found that assumption to be incorrect after running into Quinn in public. It's ten years later and Quinn somehow just happens to be Zachary Beck's boss in a supremely lucrative, international gun-running enterprise. As always, it is Reacher's all-consuming obsession with revenge, or at least with his personal interpretation of doling out justice, which pushes him far beyond the normal boundaries of physical endurance and acceptable risk.
Critical reception
Leslie Doran of The Denver Post said that the novel had a "gripping and suspenseful opening" and that "for returning Reacher fans...beginning scenes will cause extra suspense".[2] Patrick Anderson of The Washington Post described it as "a skillful blend of sex, violence, sadism, weaponry, spies, smuggling, revenge, deception, suspense and nonstop action", though he also notes that the novel has "several premises that are hard to swallow".[3] After a short description of how quickly he read through the earlier books in the series after reading Persuader, Dale Jones of The Gazette simply stated "You might say I liked it".[4]
References
- ↑ "Jack Reacher trips another bloody two-step". Chicago Sun-Times. 25 May 2003. Retrieved 20 October 2010.
- ↑ Doran, Leslie (11 May 2003). "Lee Child's latest a persuasive effort". The Denver Post. Retrieved 20 October 2010.
- ↑ Anderson, Patrick (5 May 2003). "Meat and Potatoes". The Washington Post. Retrieved 20 October 2010.
- ↑ Jones, Dale (31 August 2003). "'Persuader' proves to be persuasive, full of suspense". The Gazette. Retrieved 20 October 2010.