My summary: A senseless sniper attack occurs in a small heartland town in Indiana. An ex-military sniper open fires on a crowd near a DMV office and a TV station office that leaves five dead. Detective Emerson arrives on the scene immediately and the evidence is perfect to prove James Barr committed the atrocious crime. It’s a slam dunk case with all the textbook evidence a case needs to prove guilt. James Barr won’t talk to the police or his attorney, until he finally says to find Jack Reacher. Jack Reacher is a former military police investigator that had a run in with Barr years ago in Kuwait City. Unknown to Reacher that Barr asked for him by name, Reacher hops on a bus to Indiana after seeing the news on CNN. After arriving, Reacher soon determines that the evidence is just a little too perfect and there is more going on in the case than what meets the eye. 

My thoughts: Jack Reacher is my palate cleanser when I’ve binged too many romance books, and I have definitely binged too much romance lately. This is one of my favorite Jack Reacher books yet and I can see why this is one of the books that was turned into a movie. That being said, I haven’t seen the movie yet but the fact that it stars Tom Cruise makes me never want to see it. Literally the entire premise around Jack Reacher is that he’s a huge guy—tall, big, strong, imposing—not at all the stature of Tom Cruise. But, I digress, back to the book. It’s action packed from the first page to the last. The plot is fairly easy to follow and it’s easy enough to keep track of who the bad guys are, but it still took some plot twists that I didn’t quite see coming. I enjoy Jack Reacher’s no-nonsense badass-ery and the action sequences. It kept me interested and turning pages the entire book. I’ll definitely be continuing the series over time, and perhaps one day I’ll watch the movies or series—but nothing can ever justify Tom Cruise or anyone under 6’2” (at least) being cast to play Jack Reacher. Sorry, folks, that’s just the facts.