If you’re fan of the Mystery-Thriller-Suspense genre … then you’ve heard of Jack Reacher, the legendary progeny from the pen of Lee Child.

I’ve read every one of the 26 novels, which began with the Killing Floor in 1995, a book that’s the basis for the first TV season of REACHER, recently premiering on Amazon Prime. Although Alan Ritchson as the TV Reacher is far closer to the 6’5” Reacher than the 5’7” Tom Cruise who played the character in the 2012 film, “Jack Reacher” and the 2016 movie, “Jack Reacher: Never Go Back”, Ritchson looks too much like a body-builder and not the grizzled but tough Army veteran described in the novels. I enjoyed the TV series nonetheless.

From the beginning, Reacher has been a beloved but unusual, tough guy character. He retired from the Army as a Military Police Major and hit the road. This is his persona:

He has no car, no cell phone, no credit cards and no particular destination. He has no suitcase or briefcase, just the clothes on his back. When his clothes get dirty, he throws them away and replaces them at the nearest thrift shop or gas station, not easy given his 6’5”, 250 pound frame.

Lee Child teamed up with his brother Andrew to write the latest Reacher novel, Better Off Dead. When Reacher finds a woman slumped over the wheel of a crashed car by the side of the road, he discovers an army veteran turned FBI agent trying to find her twin brother, who might be mixed up with some dangerous people. Reacher offers to help, despite feeling that she is keeping secrets of her own, but failure is not an option, because in this kind of game, the loser is always better off dead.

“No Plan B” is the 27th Novel in the series due in October, 2022.