Echo Burning
I felt a bit guilty flipping Jack Reacher the one-star bird with the last book, but boy did it deserve it! Even Reacher knew his story sucked, and he became a grouchy douche in Running Blind. It made me realize, though, that Jack Reacher isn't very good at polite conversation. He's not the type of guy you'd want to hang out with, really, unless you were going to the shooting range or something. I've always had trouble jiving that stolid aspect of his personality with the fact that he was supposedly this brilliant lead investigator for the MPs for so many years, which means carefully and subtly working a lot of interrogations.Ok - one last Reacher complaint. Why does there always have to be a hopelessly clueless female tagging along with him on his exploits? I know we're not reading these books for any sort of feminist epiphany, but it makes me grind my teeth to keep hearing Alice squeal her stupid complaints as they drive along to save the day. Favorite moment: when Reacher absolutely refuses (because he's cool like that) to tell Alice when to shoot the rifles, then panics five minutes later when she doesn't shoot them at the right moment. Oh, Jack - you silly boy.
These books are the equivalent of male Jackie Collins novels. We know they're inane and fluffy and make no sense and have plot holes you could drive a truck through, but we desire them on some sort of uncontrollable hormonal level.
