Lee Child is a man’s author. Now I don’t consider myself a particularly typical male reader, but there’s something about the Jack Reacher character that appeals hugely to my psyche.
He’s pretty much a modern-day superhero. He’s tall, strong and knows how to handle himself, has an innate knowledge of weapons and is righteous.
That doesn’t mean he won’t hurt people, but he only does it to those who he feels deserve to be wronged.
Plus he’s a true ladies man and is always happy to spend time admiring and getting close to a good-looking woman.
Lee Child’s novels are never going to win any literary awards, but the quality of the writing is good enough to keep his fans hooked and they romp along at such a pace, that there are rarely any complaints.
I’ve read pretty much every one and find I can even re-read them comfortably, which I rarely do with most books, no matter how good.
Fortunately, Reacher doesn’t seem to have become subject to any movie adaptations, about which I am supremely pleased. I don’t think there’s an actor around who could do Reacher justice on screen.
He’s a figment of the imagination – everyone who reads them will have their own personal image of the hero and for a film to try and put an actor into that role would kill off part of the mystique.
I hope Lee Child doesn’t get bored of writing the Reacher novels just yet – I’m happy to carry on reading, so let’s hope he’ll keep typing.
