Title:

The Hard Way

Author:

Lee Child

Category:

Mystery / Thriller

Rating:

Date Reviewed:

October 6, 2025

he Jack Reacher stories are ideal for long plane rides. They are compulsive page turners, and they are usually close to 500 pages long in the paperback edition, so reading one can soak up a lot of hours in an airport or crammed into a tiny economy seat. My mistake was to pick up The Hard Way when I wasn't traveling. Next thing you know, I burned quite a few hours on a sunny October day racing through chapter after chapter. I don't know how Lee Child works his magic, but certainly knows how to catch my interest and not let go.

In The Hard Way, Jack Reacher is sitting at a sidewalk cafe in New York City sipping a cup of coffee. As always, he is alert and watching what is going on around him. He sees a man unlock the car door of a Mercedes and drive off. The next day, Reacher is back at the same spot, having another cup. This time a man approaches him and starts asking questions. About the car of the previous night and the man who drove it away. Reacher didn't get a good look at the guy, but his memory is excellent and he noted a few details. The man, who is obviously ex-military, persuades Reacher to come meet his rich boss. "It's a matter of life and death."

Reacher is escorted to the New York apartment of Edward Lane, who runs a lucrative mercenary-for-hire company. He's got six tough veterans working for him, but nevertheless, his beloved wife Kate was kidnapped on a shopping trip to Bloomingdales. One of his men drove her on a shopping expedtion, and she and her daughter never came back. The driver is almost certainly dead somewhere with a bullet in his back. A short while later, a phone call came in demanding a million dollars. Cash. That ransom money was sitting in the back of Mercedes that Reacher saw driven away. But Kate and her daughter, Jade, were not released. Lane is desperate to get his wife and child returned. But instead another phone call is received and another demand for a bigger ransom: five million. Cash. Same deal as before, leave the money in the back of the car parked on the side of a New York City street and walk away. "No cops!"

Lane shows Reacher a picture of his beautiful wife. And one of Jade. They are beautiful, happy people; clearly they don't deserve to be caught up in Lane's violent world. For their sake, Reacher agrees to get involved. He has a talent for finding missing people. Lane has a shady past - there are certain to be illegal actions in his history, but Reacher operates outside the law himself frequently enough and he understands Lane. Reacher gets on the case, but of course there are red herrings and mistaken assumptions and false trails. Child is good at springing a few surprises on his readers.

Reacher's memory serves him well. Something seems wrong about how this kidnapping is playing out, but he cannot put his finger on it. He thinks back on clues, on remarks made by Lane or his men, on what he observed about the cars with all the cash in the back seat. Naturally, Reacher eventually figures out what he missed previously, the clues fall into the place and everything races toward a climatic ending.

Oh, and of course there is a good looking woman who is enamored with Reacher. It is similar to the James Bond fantasy - beat up the bad guys by day, ultra competent in all skills, and beautiful, smart women want to be with you.

There are 24 novels in the Jack Reacher series, which can be read in any order. After Blue Moon, Lee Child's brother takes over the writing duties (though apparently Lee's still has input on the plot.) I think I will skip those Andrew Child books, rarely can another author write as well as the original. The Hard Way is my seventh Reacher novel, so I have another 17 to go. That's a lot of plane trips...