CHAIN REACTION (A Jack Reacher Novel) by Lee Child and Andrew Child

5 stars

In this latest Reacher outing, Andrew Child, who is taking over the series from his Dad Lee, fully comes into capturing the Reacher persona- in a non-stop thrill read that leaves both on the edge of your seat, and guessing all the way to the end as to what is actually going on.

General Susan Turner, who’s a former lover of Reacher, has been tasked with heading up a new military intelligence investigation division paralleling for the spy community what the FBI does for law enforcement. She’s dealing with a serious internal leak within her newly formed agency, and she’s not sure who to trust. With much effort, she tracks Reacher down on the road due to his bank card expiring. Reacher agrees to help her help- with a constant tug of war internally between his desire to be on his own and him alternatively craving human love and friendship.

First task for Reacher: figure out how Turner’s investigator got killed when checking out a remote Colorado data center installation for irregularities, and secondly to figure out if Turner can trust her second in command, Elwood, so that she can bring him into the fold.

This launches a cascading series of events- in which many lives are endangered, bodies hit the pavement, a crooked law firm enters the mix, and brilliant tech bros seeking their billion-dollar IPO take center stage. Even immersed in a rapidly changing new world of AI, cyber data, and technology, Reacher holds onto his old-fashioned sense of morality.

Turner keeps their activities off the books as she can’t identify the source of the internal agency leak that has compromised their entire computer system, data and phones. Turner, Ellwood and Reacher draw on their many decades of seasoned investigatory experience to sort out the quagmire.

A fantastic, suspenseful outing capturing the full Reacher legacy!

Thanks to Ballentine | Bantam and NetGalley for an advance reader’s copy.

Stacy DeBroff

Stacy DeBroff, founder and CEO of Mom Central.com and social and digital consultancy, Influence Central, is a social media strategist, attorney, and best-selling parenting author. A sought-after expert for national media, she trend-spots regularly with national brands and speaks frequently to national and international audiences on a wide range of subjects, including influencer marketing, social media, entrepreneurship, and consumer trends. A passionate cook, gardener, reader, and tennis player, she adores this new chapter of post-college-age parenting.