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

kingi

So bad

Reviewed in Australia on 31 October 2021

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Wow. This is so incredibly bad. The plot is poor. The writing style is worse. I couldn’t finish it. I tried.
Better off dead? Yes I agree. Jack Reacher as a character would be.

11 people found this helpful

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Creggan

😩

Reviewed in Australia on 27 November 2021

Verified Purchase

What a let down! I have read all of the Jack Reacher books, and I am a big fan. When I saw the latest book was available for pre-order, I did just that, and was pleased to see it pop up in my kindle.
Some Jack Reacher books are better than others, but they all range from quite good to very good. That was before this one. Lee Child, it is not clear the extent you were involved in the creation of this book, but you should be embarrassed to be associated with it. Poor plot, child-like writing style, rambling, unnecessary descriptions, and an almost total departure from the Jack Reacher character.
If you have decided to cut back on your writing, you should allow Jack Reacher a dignified departure, and leave behind a proud legacy of great books, instead of having your loyal readers spend their money on sub-standard books like this. Thanks for years of entertainment Lee, but RIP Jack Reacher.

One person found this helpful

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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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Dane Morrell

Dissapointing

Reviewed in Australia on 13 January 2022

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Significant differences in writing style and character traits in this one, probably more of the son than the father in the writing. Not sure if I will persevere with the series from here on.

One person found this helpful

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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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From other countries

grey nomad

disappointing, a different style to previous Jack Reachr too much gratuitous unnecessary violence

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 November 2021

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i have read all the Jack Reacher novels and always enjoyed them. but this latest one is a huge disappointment. The style of writing is awkward and "Jack Reacher" narrates the story in the first person all the time which doesnt flow well at all. It was only when i had finished the book that i learnt his brother had "co wrote" this novel so that perhaps explains some of the character shift. I found this novel uncomfortable reading with far more gratuitous violence in full graphic detail than before, perhaps that appeals to a wider more bloothirsty readership who lust after such things? such a shame!. Jack Reacher seems to have departed from his role in previous novels of being the solitary wandering good guy "righting wrongs" and has now degenerated into a violent vindictive avenging murdering individual who has clearly" lost his way" and is debateably no longer that "good guy" we can all associate with and admire, not the Jack Reacher I knew from before , not sure if i will buy the next novel in the series as and when it is published if this is how the character is going in the future. not a book that i would describe as "couldn't put it down" but more of a case "should i keep reading it" !. Forget the hype and give this one a miss .

6 people found this helpful

J. C. Bailey

BETTER OFF READ (but only just)

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 31 December 2021

Verified Purchase

There seems to be a consensus among some Reacher fetishists that the co-authorship arrangement with Child the Younger has somehow changed the lead character, the writing style, and/or the quality such as to render them unrecognisable to long-term fans.

In fact, anyone who has read the whole series with even a hint of mindfulness will known that Child the Elder has constantly played games with Reacher's methods and motivations, with his relationship with the military and law establishments, with his skillset, his style of explaining things and the narrative technique. It's a myth that there is any single, standardised persona from which the series has now departed. And along the line, the original author has produced (without any help from his younger sibling) some (in my humble opinion) pretty mediocre instalments.

So, no, Andrew's involvement has not radically changed the dynamics. However, taken entirely on its own terms, "Better of Dead" seems to me a pretty mediocre effort, with sketchy characters, too many unlikely coincidences, and too many manufactured misunderstandings. It also seemed pretty short subjectively, and the constant references to how much danger the damsel-in-distress is in are conjecturally necessary to keep up what I felt was recurring lack of tension. Also, the laborious "idiots' guides" to fairly basic bits of technology (shoehorned into the dialogue, as if the characters themselves might not necessarily understand them) seemed to me to mark a lack of confidence on the authors' part in the mental faculties of their readers.

But the worst thing for me (as an author who has sat up late at night so many times trying to bring a complicated but necessary bit of the action to plausible life) was the way the narrative suddenly seemed to jump forward here and there, leaving me to imagine for myself how something was achieved. For example, how does one big, heavy man get another big, heavy and semi-comatose man out of a cellar? When the only way out is via a steep, rickety old wooden ladder whose ability to take the weight of even the first big, heavy man has previously been questioned? It's not a particularly difficult literary challenge, but one moment they're underground and the next moment they're not.

Finally. The syntax. It has lots of them. Words. Quite short words. In very short sentences. It's nothing new. Not for Reacher books. But for me it's irritating. Very irritating. Not all the time. But quite often. Often enough to be irritating.

Some have unkindly suggested that the title is rather apt. I disagree. It is worth the cover price. But the Childs (should this be Children???) can and have done better - individually and in partnership.

2 people found this helpful

Mightyquin69

Please don’t Kill Reacher through bad writing

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 December 2021

Verified Purchase

I love the Reacher books, I’ve read every one at least once. This is the first time I’ve struggled to finish one of them. I usually can’t wait for the end out of excitement, this time I couldn’t wait for the end so I can start a different book.

The writing style of Andrew Child is not to my taste, the story and characters were weak and uninteresting. If Lee Child wants to kill Reacher off then please do so, and have him go out in a blaze of glory, or retire somewhere, hang up his toothbrush and settle down. Please don’t let Andrew make him suffer a slow and painful death through mundane books. Reacher deserves better than this.

I feel gutted that this may be the last Reacher book I’ll read in the series. But if Lee isn’t writing them then they’re not Reacher books. Thank you Lee for all the wonderful thrillers. But someone’s now turned your rollercoaster into a teacup ride.

One person found this helpful

A. F. Prestwich

Reacher has either lost his way or gone past his sell by date.....

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 December 2021

Verified Purchase

Having read all the Reacher books, I thought they were getting too formulaic/bland but would always be looking forward to the next as they still were an easy read. However, since Andrew Child has been involved I do not recognise Reacher any more and this recent one was the poorest by far with a complete change to the writing style and its annoying short sentences. I finished it but twice considered calling it a day. As they started becoming formulaic I always felt a move back to stories when Reacher was in the military would take us back to the days of interesting stories. If this is the future of Reacher, it may well be my last.

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Better Off Dead: (Jack Reacher 26)

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