Fun Friday A Wanted Man by Lee Child

 

A Wanted Man by Lee Child

Jack Reacher is the type of guy who now, after leaving his job as an army cop, lives on his wits. He hitchhikes around the country with just the clothes on his back and any money he has collected/worked for along the way. When his clothes become too dirty to wear he simply buys new clothes and dumps the unclean set.

This book, Jack is standing on the side of the road trying to catch a lift out of Nebraska. The problem is he doesn’t always lead a quiet life and Jack has a broken nose. This is not something that will make people want to stop to give you lift. However, a car stops and offers him a lift and to top it all they want him to do some of the driving. This makes this book an intriguing read as how many hitch hikers get to drive the car that is supposed to give them a lift? Answer none that I know off.

Jack is a very observant character and he is thrown by this development so starts to stealthily check out the other occupants of the car, 2 men and a 1 woman. This is so well written and points out all is not what it seems. It turns out the police are looking for 3 people in a car and now with their newly acquired driver the total in the car becomes 4. This is such a clever idea and using a hitch hiker as a cover is genius.

The reason the police are looking for the 3 is because the 2 men have kidnapped the woman who is Karen Delfuenso, after they murdered someone near where Karen works as a cocktail waitress. The car is actually Karen’s car. Jack does notice that all the men have driven the car and not Karen and he also notices she is nervous and blinking to try and get a message to Jack. Whether or not blinking would work or wouldn’t go un-noticed by the other 2 men depends on the situation, but this story is so well put together that it may work and also if you had just been kidnapped and there was someone else in the car who you could get a message to and to maybe help you, you would try anything.

Jack and Karen get away after stopping to rent rooms for the night. Jack has alerted the police to the kidnapping situation he is involved in and after checking the cameras at a gas station the police are also again on the trail. Although duping the police worked at the road blocks unfortunately for the 2 men the cameras at the gas station don’t lie. So as good a plan as this was it doesn’t take long for them realize what has happened. Jack is caught despite calls for his arrest he wants to help the police. They go to a barn where they find a burnt out car and a female body in it all unrecognisable. Jack and me as the reader jump to the conclusion that it is Karen. We find out Karen is actually an undercover FBI agent and when she turns up again in the book we find out it wasn’t her in the car.

This book is a good read and with all the twists and turns and all the travelling Jack does. At the end of this book it goes full circle and he actually ends up on the same piece of road hitch hiking again wanting to get out of Nebraska. With a few days passed his nose maybe a bit less broken so it may be easier for him to get a decent ride this time. I hope so.

Thank you for reading

Sandra