Amazon.com.au:Customer reviews: Better Off Dead: (Jack Reacher 26)

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worthy Jack Reacher action thriller

Reviewed in Australia on 10 December 2021

Better Off Dead is the second Andrew Child’s Reacher book (with brother Lee) and the twenty sixth instalment of the ex-military police action hero. This time, Jack’s wanderings take him to a remote town adjacent the US-Mexico border, where he chooses to help an army veteran turned FBI agent find her twin brother. As usual with Reacher, troubles seem to find him and the action unfolds requiring him to take on a shadowy crime figure, Waad Dendoncker. Unusually for a Reacher book, the narrative is first person and his intonation is not quite that of other books. It feels a somewhat lessened or diminutive version of Jack Reacher’s earlier incarnations. Still a worthy enough formulaic action thriller in the Jack Reacher franchise, with a four-star read rating.

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Sorry Lee. I have everyone of your books, it this one is not in the same league. I don't know if you wrote this one or your brother did, but this is not the REACHER I know and love. Only you know what you have done in this book. I only know I don't like him.

Reviewed in Australia on 28 October 2021

This is like reading one of the copy cat versions that came out after you finished your first three or four books about REACHER. They were so good. I could not wait for the following books.
Maybe it is time REACHER retired. And you find a different direction to go in. Please don't leave him to die by himself, of old age. Leave him with some dignity. As we all remember how he was.

19 people found this helpful

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From Australia

worthy Jack Reacher action thriller

Reviewed in Australia on 10 December 2021

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MillaB

Reacher's new persona😖

Reviewed in Australia on 24 November 2021

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Where's Reacher?!!
This combined effort of Lee and Andrew is better than The Sentinal (which was abysmal), but the Reacher we knew and loved has been turned into an new and unrecognisable version … so sad. I find Andrew's style of writing often irritating - the short/sharp staccato sentences break continuity and are annoying to say the least, and Reacher has metamorphosed into a hesitant, chatty person who makes huge errors …unrecognisable from Lee's Reacher😔

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Saint Quentin

Another thrill-packed read of Jack Reacher’s “impossible” activities!

Reviewed in Australia on 7 November 2021

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Father and son Child have penned another hard-to-put-down Jack Reacher adventure. A little too much detail with some of the military and weapons’ descriptions, which tends to overdo the overall time line of the novel. Otherwise, a recommended read for all JR followers. Well done, Lee and Andrew.

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Kevin Casey

Worst, most boring Reacher book ever

Reviewed in Australia on 1 January 2022

80% of this book consists of endless, drawn out, unnecessarily detailed and excruciatingly boring descriptions of rooms that people enter. These overblown, ad nauseum descriptions seem to be nothing more than filler, to compensate for poorly drawn characters, a lackluster plot, limited action and a dearth of substance. I loved the majority of Lee Child's books (books 1 and 4 were masterpieces), but this latest offering (from his brother) is a sad imitation.

Really, we don't always need to know that a room has flourescent lights, or that the end table looks like an antique, or that the carpet is new and beige, or that the door has a lock from the 1970s, or that the windows are done in the Spanish style. Enough already - just tell the damn story, if you've got one.

I never, ever used to skip entire pages of Jack Reacher books in the past, but Im afraid to say I do now. The overabundance of fluff has become really irritating, and this book is the worst example yet. It's lazy, formulaic, bad writing, and it's incredibly disappointing. I doubt I'll be reaching for any more Reacher books if this is the new standard. Good heavens, what a shame.

This pathetic effort is 'Better off Not Read'. I love Reacher, but feel that after this dismal attempt, it may truly be time to kill this character off once and for all and be done with it. He's unrecognizable - his voice is gone, his laconic coolness has turned into irrelevant babble, and the Reacher of old has been ruined.

Time to retire, Lee and Andrew... and let Reacher retire with you. Please... your readers can't take another one of these lackluster disasters.

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Tony E

Don't Bother Reading

Reviewed in Australia on 10 February 2022

I have read all of the Jack Reacher books; some are average, most are good, a few are outstanding...but the latest book was very poor. As I was reading it, it just nagged at me, this is being told in a different voice, it doesn't feel like Reacher, it doesn't sound like Reacher. I am guessing that it was mostly written by Lee's brother, Andrew, but that is no excuse. If you are going to continue the legacy, at least be able to write at a similar level, in a similar style, and in a similar voice. Not good.

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Richard Clarke

It’s not the Reacher we know

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 October 2021

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I have been a huge fan of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher and have read all the books at least twice - they never grow old.
Unfortunately, this book and the previous, both by Andrew Child but with Lee’s input have been a disappointment. So much so in this, Better Off Dead, with the incredibly annoying change to first person (why dear god, why!) and Reacher not behaving the same, that at 30% through the book I’m king about giving up.
Mr Child, we the fans did not approve of the great Tom Cruise in the films for all the reasons that I know you understand. The same is happening to your awesome character now - he has lost a foot in height and a 100 lbs. Please bring him back as he should be!

129 people found this helpful

C. F. Garrett

You can't see the woods for the trees.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 November 2021

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Like most other reviewers, I have been a devoted fan of Lee Child's 'Jack Reacher' books. After the first few books, Reacher as a character was fully formed and the plots (most of them) were page-turners. This book, like the previous one co-authored by Child's brother Andrew, just feels as though the creators are going through the [increasingly preposterous] motions to make a buck and keep the franchise going. The book could have been two-thirds the length if the endless--very boring and only in part relevant--details
had been eliminated. Do we really need to know, much less care about, how many rivets are drilled into something to secure it? NOOO!!! The minute description of the 'baddie's' work complex was mind-numbing as were many of the other descriptions. Everything gets horrendously bogged down. And the Fenton character whom he is trying to save? She is so uni-dimensional it is hard to imagine why even a good guy like Reacher would bother. No matter how much you love 'our Jack', save your money!

11 people found this helpful

Stephen Williams

A bit shit really.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 November 2021

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I’ve read almost all the Reacher books including short and back stories. Lee clearly has laid too light an editorial hand here.
The bad guy-what actually is he. Smuggler is mentioned as a plot twist to introduce a character but not elaborated. Terrorist bomb maker? Drug supplier? All brought up and cast aside.
The heavy mob. Get one pasting from Jack and you’d up your game for further encounters surely. And why are these ex special force psycho types so scared of the boss they’d prefer suicide to letting him down. Why???
Oh and the bomb, detonated by another vehicle bringing a transponder in proximity. Why so complicated. Reminds me of the old Batman scenarios where the bad guys rig a ridiculously complicated means to kill him.
Not tempted to dip into Andrew’s back catalogue on this effort

8 people found this helpful

Chris Morse

Classic Reacher

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 29 October 2021

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Ok, first, my understanding of who wrote this book. This is the 2nd of 3 hand over books in the relay race between Lee and Andrew. After those 3 we will not see Lee's name on the book. Even though Lee gets top billing it's my understanding that Andrew is writing these 3 books and Lee gives his approval. Ok.
So with that in mind this is much more of what we are used to under Lee's penmanship. I thought The Sentinel was a 'Reacher light' book, and a great first try from Andrew. This book is what you would expect from any book in the series.
I read the first 40 chapters in 1 sitting and then finished it off before writing this the next day. It's a page turner.
I won't go into the story, but I cant help thinking if this is how Andrew has progressed in 2 books what on earth will he produce with number 3!

7 people found this helpful

Alan D.

Help Jack Reacher has gone missing

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 November 2021

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Lee Child's name is blazoned across the cover of this book, but I doubt he had any input to the actual writing. I have bought every Lee Child Book, and like millions of readers have fallen in love with Jack Reacher. Unfortunately Andrew Child has turned a three dimensional character, into a shadow of his former self. Is Jack Reacher seriously ill, he certainly is not thinking, acting, or speaking like himself. This book is classed as a crime thriller, and while the quality of the writing is criminal, the dialog is certainly not thrilling. The best thing Reacher can do now is walk off the pages of the book, search out Andrew Child, and make sure he never write any more of this rubbish. He certainly wont be seeing any more of my money. Unfortunately the truth is nobody writes like Lee Child

3 people found this helpful

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