Personal - By Lee Child

There are potboilers. And then there are potboilers. Personal is a potboiler.

Lee Child's leading alpha male (minus the toxicity) Jack Reacher has always been a source of intense, vicarious adventure. Stories starring Reacher are by habit, captivating from the first paragraph, down to the last page. There is rarely anything cerebral about him or his settings, but that is the allure of a Jack Reacher story. If you are a serious reader, this is your detox.

Personal starts with a suspicious summons of our man. He ends up in pursuit of a suspected deadly, unfailing sniper, who might just tip the world balance in favour of the worst. He has for company and assistance a smart, young Casey Nice (a very Bond Girl-ish surname, which is, more or less, a giveaway). The two sift through clues and dodgy elements to a fitting, action-packed climax.

Jack Reacher benefits from being a recurring character, which means, he comes with the baggage of an unapologetic aura. It is understood, that he will do amazing things and be cool, generally, which he does with panache in Personal. The thing I like best about his character is his taciturnity, because his mental workings are enough narration. So the thing to look out for in his stories is his companions or the people he ends up saving. In this case, I really liked Casey Nice. Thankfully, there doesn't seem to exist any dregs of feminity weighing down her character development. Whatever ambiguity may remain, can be adequately explained by her lack of experience (and its over-compensation by Reacher). She is a match for Reacher, only younger.

The story is set mostly in Europe, and there are pleasant descriptions of the continent, in stark comparison to the spartan atmosphere of the US, where Reacher is first found. There is also a minor, also recurring flashback into his past, which only makes me more curious about him as a person.

Personal is a wonderful weekend read or something to return to after a patchy day. It is best not read during bedtimes though, as it is quite the page-turner.

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