Set in South Dakota, Reacher’s involvement begins when the bus he is traveling on careens out of control on the icy bridge and Reacher extracts himself and then aids with the rescue of the trapped passengers.
In town he discovers that all is not well. With the town hosting the state’s largest prison, there is an outlaw biker who has been arrested over drug charges. The only witness to the transaction which would implicate him is Janet Salter and she is at risk from the outlaw’s friends who are determined to silence the witness. The task to defend her falls upon Reacher. The problems facing Reacher are that the law stipulates that if the prison facility alarm sounds then all forces of the law must abandon the town and immediately go the prison, thus leaving the witness vulnerable with just Reacher for protection.
As the plot thickens, the chief of police is discovered to be a traitor and his deputy Susan turner works in tandem with Reacher as they struggle to contain the escalating troubles. The story comes to a head when the alarm indeed sounds and Reacher is left alone to fend off the attacks – which result in his being trapped in a cellar which is then set ablaze. It is not revealed if Reacher survives the conflagration.
This was a decent read and if you are a Lee Child fan then you will enjoy the typical Child narrative, from the setting of the plot to the uber-confident way Reacher takes on sixteen men. The book leaves us uncertain whether Reacher survives the final showdown and perhaps it wouldn’t be such a bad thing if Reacher was retired, as he surely must have run his course, particularly as in this book he displayed a few signs of vulnerability. A thoroughly engrossing read.
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Other Lee Child Books: The Affair