Format:Paperback The review title may seem a contradiction but the sheer charisma of Lee Child's writing and characterisation allows the reader to wallow in the faintly absurd and come out the other side wishing that the book was twice the length. Let me explain.Firstly, Jack Reacher is, was rather, a military policeman. At the risk of offending military police out there, who do a difficult and often dangerous job, theirs is not the world of CSI or Law and Order Special Homicide squads. 90% of their weeks work involves petty theft, drunk squaddies and mindless violence. Jack Reacher, whilst being the hardest man in the U.S. and the best shot, also manages to have the sort of investigative techinique that can only mean he was the illegitimate love-child of Hercule Poirot and Angela Lansbury.Let me promise you, he didnt learn that in the M.P.'s.The thing is though, and this is where Child is on an absolute winner....it doesnt matter. We WANT Reacher to be that ridiculously good, we need him to be that good, because in this day and age, if ever, we need our heroes to be bigger and better than anything that life can throw at them.These books roll along at an incredible pace leaving the reader desperate to see what happens on the next page but reluctant to turn it as that brings us one step closer to the end.A trimuphant return for Child and Reacher.