Jack Reacher was alone, the way he liked it, soaking up the hot, electric New York City night, watching a man cross the street to a parked Mercedes and drive it away. The car contained one million dollars in ransom money. And Edward Lane, the man who paid it, will pay even more to get his family back. Lane runs a highly illegal soldiers-for-hire operation. He will use any amount of money and any tool to find his beautiful wife and child. And then he’ll turn Jack Reacher loose with a vengeance - because Reacher is the best man hunter in the world. On the trail of a vicious kidnapper, Reacher is learning the chilling secrets of his employer’s past…and of a horrific drama in the heart of a nasty little war. He’s beginning to realize that Edward Lane is hiding something. Something dirty. Something big. But Reacher also knows this: he’s already in way too deep to stop now.

Having read or listened to all but one of Lee Child’s “Jack Reacher” thrillers, I was chomping at the bit to get a hold of the latest audio book in this series, The Hard Way. While there are threads of predictability to all of Lee Child’s books, I find that I actually enjoy knowing ahead of time that there will be a really wicked adversary, that a beautiful woman will align herself with Reacher for the cause, and that justice will be served, in brutal Reacher fashion. The book opens with Reacher sipping an espresso, minding his own business, on a summer evening in New York City. Sitting quietly alone and yet taking everything in. This is his nature; he has no choice. His observation of an everyday occurrence, a man getting into a car across the street, is the springboard for Reacher’s involvement in this bizarre tale. Reacher is taken on as a consultant to help resolve a kidnapping. But things just don’t feel right from the very beginning. Slowly Reacher starts to piece together a picture of incredible greed and brutality. To get to the truth, Reacher, ex Army MP/Investigator, works the clues the only way he knows how, The Hard Way. From the streets of Manhattan to the farmlands of Northeast England, Reacher follows his instincts and his heart in the pursuit of “making things right”. There is a strange, and sometimes uncomfortable, sense of satisfaction I experience when I race to the conclusion of these Lee Child books. I think my reaction has partially to do with Reacher as an “anti-hero’s hero”. He shuns material trappings, long term relationships, and staying in one place for too long. Imagine James Bond but dressed by J C Penny instead of Seville Row. But the real essence of satisfaction is that Reacher is bound by a code of honor, based on finding the truth, seeking retribution for those who have been wronged, and imparting immediate justice to the bad guys. Jack Reacher: dangerous, willing and capable.