Zusatztext The ever-resourceful and vengeful Reacher takes on nearly a score of the bad guys in an exciting climax to an enthralling book . . . complete with cover-ups and numerous intriguing twists. Library Journal (starred review) A superb New York novel . . . Child grounds his hero's hard body and hard-drive brain in believable detail, and he sets the action against a precisely described landscape. Booklist (starred review) All good thriller writers know how to build suspense and keep the pages turning, but only better ones deliver tight plots as well, and only the best allow the reader to match wits with both the hero and the author. Bestseller Child does all of that in spades. . . . [He] sets things up subtly and ingeniously, then lets Reacher use both strength and guile to find his way to the exciting climax. Publishers Weekly (starred review) Praise for the Jack Reacher series The truth about Reacher gets better and better. . . . This series [is] utterly addictive. Janet Maslin, The New York Times Jack Reacher is today's James Bond, a thriller hero we can't get enough of. I read every one as soon as it appears. Ken Follett Reacher is the stuff of myth. . . . One of this century's most original, tantalizing pop-fiction heroes. The Washington Post I'm a fan. James Patterson The Reacher novels are easily the best thriller series going. NPR Reacher is a man for whom the phrase moral compass was invented: His code determines his direction. . . . You need Jack Reacher. The Atlantic I pick up Jack Reacher when I'm in the mood for someone big to solve my problems. Patricia Cornwell [A] feverishly thrilling series . . . You can always count on furious action. Miami Herald Informationen zum Autor Lee Child is the author of more than two dozen New York Times bestselling Jack Reacher thrillers, with most having reached the #1 position, and the #1 bestselling complete Jack Reacher story collection, No Middle Name . Foreign rights in the Reacher series have sold in one hundred territories. A native of England and a former television director, Lee Child lives in New York City and Wyoming. Klappentext #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The inspiration for season four of the hit streaming series Reacher ! High-powered, intricately wrought suspense.Janet Maslin, The New York Times New York City. Two in the morning. A subway car heading uptown. Jack Reacher, plus five other passengers. Four are okay. The fifth isn't. And if you think Reacher isn't going to get involved . . . then you don't know Jack. Susan Mark, the fifth passenger, had a big secret, and her plain little life was being watched in Washington, and California, and Afghanistanby dozens of people with one thing in common: They're all lying to Reacher. A little. A lot. Or just enough to get him killed. A race has begun through the streets of Manhattan, a maze crowded with violent, skilled soldiers on all sides of a shadow war. For Jack Reacher, a man who trusts no one and likes it that way, the finish line comes when you finally get face-to-face and look your worst enemy in the eye. Propulsive . . . [Child is] an expert at ratcheting up tension. Los Angeles Times Hold on tight. . . . This novel will give you whiplash as you rabidly turn pages. . . . May be [Lee Child's] best. USA Today Chapter One Suicide bombers are easy to spot. They give out all kinds of tell-tale signs. Mostly because they're nervous. By definition they're all first-timers. Israeli counterintelligence wrote the defensive playbook. They told us what to lo...

Autorentext

Lee Child is the author of more than two dozen New York Times bestselling Jack Reacher thrillers, with most having reached the #1 position, and the #1 bestselling complete Jack Reacher story collection, No Middle Name. Foreign rights in the Reacher series have sold in one hundred territories. A native of England and a former television director, Lee Child lives in New York City and Wyoming.

Klappentext

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The inspiration for season four of the hit streaming series Reacher!

“High-powered, intricately wrought suspense.”—Janet Maslin, The New York Times

New York City. Two in the morning. A subway car heading uptown. Jack Reacher, plus five other passengers. Four are okay. The fifth isn’t. And if you think Reacher isn’t going to get involved . . . then you don’t know Jack.

Susan Mark, the fifth passenger, had a big secret, and her plain little life was being watched in Washington, and California, and Afghanistan—by dozens of people with one thing in common: They’re all lying to Reacher. A little. A lot. Or just enough to get him killed. A race has begun through the streets of Manhattan, a maze crowded with violent, skilled soldiers on all sides of a shadow war. For Jack Reacher, a man who trusts no one and likes it that way, the finish line comes when you finally get face-to-face and look your worst enemy in the eye.

“Propulsive . . . [Child is] an expert at ratcheting up tension.”—Los Angeles Times

“Hold on tight. . . . This novel will give you whiplash as you rabidly turn pages. . . . May be [Lee Child’s] best.”—USA Today

Leseprobe
*Chapter One
*

Suicide bombers are easy to spot. They give out all kinds of tell-tale signs. Mostly because they're nervous. By definition they're all first-timers.

Israeli counterintelligence wrote the defensive playbook. They told us what to look for. They used pragmatic observation and psychological insight and came up with a list of behavioral indicators. I learned the list from an Israeli amy captain twenty years ago. He swore by it. Therefore I swore by it too, because at the time I was on three weeks' detached duty mostly about a yard from his shoulder, in Israel itself, in Jerusalem, on the West Bank, in Leb anon, sometimes in Syria, sometimes in Jordan, on buses, in stores, on crowded sidewalks. I kept my eyes moving and my mind running free down the bullet points.

Twenty years later I still know the list. And my eyes still move. Pure habit. From another bunch of guys I learned another mantra: Look, don't see, listen, don't hear. The more you engage, the longer you survive.

The list is twelve points long if you're looking at a male suspect. Eleven, if you're looking at a woman. The difference is a fresh shave. Male bombers take off their beards. It helps them blend in. Makes them less suspicious. The result is paler skin on the lower half of the face. No recent exposure to the sun.

But I wasn't interested in shaves.

I was working on the eleven-point list.

I was looking at a woman.

I was riding the subway, in New York City. The 6 train, the Lexington Avenue local, heading uptown, two o'clock in the morning. I had gotten on at Bleecker Street from the south end of the platform into a car that was empty except for five people. Subway cars feel small and intimate when they're full. When they're empty they feel vast and cavernous and lonely. At night their lights feel hotter and brighter, even though they're the same lights they use in the day. They're all the lights there are. I was sprawled on a two-person bench north of the end doors on the track side of the car. The other five passengers were all south of me on the long bench seats, in profile, side on, far from each other, staring blankly across the width of the car, three on the left and two on the right.

The car's number was 7622. I once rode eight stops on the 6 train next to a crazy person who talked about the car we were in with the same kind of enthusiasm that most men reserve for sports or women. Therefore I knew that car number 7622 was an R142A model, the newest on the New York system, built by Kawasaki in Kobe, Japan, shipped over, trucked to the 207th Street yards, craned onto the tracks,…