Reviews for Make Me

by Lee Child

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

*Starred Review* Just when you think the newer fellas, like Patrick Lee, are gaining on Child in the adrenaline-driven-thriller sweepstakes, the reigning champ ups the ante. It starts with an idle question: Why would a nothing town, in the middle of endless Oklahoma wheat fields, be named Mother's Rest? Being a curious guy, Jack Reacher gets off a Chicago-bound train to find out. No one seems to know the answer, but the locals, an odd sort who appear to have walked off the set of Bad Day at Black Rock, get a little twitchy when Reacher approaches them. Then he encounters an intriguing woman named Chang, a former FBI agent turned PI, who is trying to find her partner. Reacher joins forces with her, and so begins another Childean rampage across the country the partner's trail takes them to Phoenix, Chicago, San Francisco, and back to wheat country with the pair pursued by all manner of roughnecks, some cornpone, some polished, but all potentially lethal. Yes, there's breakneck action, but what gives this one its zing is the multilayered plot, which probes the nefarious digital doings on the Deep Web to uncover, well, something very, very bad indeed. (It starts online, but it ends up with backhoes and feral hogs.) The beguiling Chang offers a new treat for series fans as well, and a surprise at the end will keep readers short of breath until the next installment begins, which will at least give the pretenders to Child's throne a little time to regroup. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The Reacher novels typically debut number one on the The New York Times best-seller list. End of story.--Ott, Bill Copyright 2015 Booklist


Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Bestseller Child's superb 20th Jack Reacher novel (after 2014's Personal) begins with the disposal of the body of someone named Keever, with a backhoe in a hog pen near an almost-forgotten town in the Midwest called Mother's Rest, which Reacher decides to visit (as he points out, he has "no place to go, and all the time in the world to get there"). The mystery deepens dramatically after he meets Michelle Chang, who's looking for her PI colleague: Keever. Reacher and Chang make a formidable team faced with a formidable challenge: finding out what happened to Keever, the only clue a cryptic note that reads "200 deaths." The investigation takes the two from Mother's Rest to Chicago, Arizona, Los Angeles, Silicon Valley-and to the Internet's netherworld, the "Deep Web." What they discover is beyond gruesome and almost beyond belief-it's decidedly not for the faint of heart-but Child's complete command of the story makes this thriller work brilliantly. Agent: Darley Anderson, Darley Anderson Literary. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.


Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

In this 20th installment of Child's action series (Personal, 2014, etc.), Jack Reacher ends up in the wrong place at the wrong timeperfectly positioning him to unravel a missing person mystery and save the day. Living on the road with his toothbrush in his pocket, ex-military policeman/all-around-hero Reacher is wending his way across the country by train when he alights at Mother's Rest on a whim, curious about the origin of the name. Instead of the expected historical marker, he finds a bunch of unfriendly townspeople and ex-FBI agent/PI Michelle Chang, who's searching for a missing colleague. Drawn irrevocably to both Chang and the mystery, Reacher fights to uncover the truth behind Mother's Resta truth that involves the so-called "Deep Web," the dark undercover space of the Internet. Reacher and Chang traverse the country from Oklahoma to Chicago, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and San Francisco in their quest for answers. The final showdown reveals that the crimes of Mother's Rest are more sinister and terrible than they ever imagined. Despite (or maybe because of) the expected Reacher-novel formula, this series remains as compulsively readable as ever. Child is a master of pacing, stretching out the mystery through short chapters that give rise to bursts of well-choreographed violence. Sentences are choppy, dialogue is fast, yet there is authenticity to Reacher's world, too. While the mystery is rather shallowly sketched in between the fight sequences, the setting is effectively bland, and the ending makes one feel true horror at the ways of men. Of course, the biggest strength is Reacher himself: impassive, analytical, secretly romantic, and relentlessly honorable. It's impossible not to root for him and his lady friend of the momentand Chang, to be fair, is tough, if not multidimensional. Jack Reacher is still going strong. Will satisfy fansand newcomers, too. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.


Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Near midnight, with nothing but the clothes on his back and a toothbrush in his shirt pocket, Jack Reacher steps off the train in Mother's Rest, OK, looking to discover the origin of the town's name. Private investigator and former FBI agent Michelle Chang emerges from the shadows at the small depot, mistaking Reacher for her partner Keever, for whom she has been searching. After meeting over breakfast at the town's diner, Reacher and Chang partner up to find Keever, but they soon discover there is something truly nasty going on in Mother's Rest. The multilayered plot, involving an investigation of the Deep Web with the help of an LA Times science editor, ultimately places the intrepid duo on a hog farm fighting the bad guys with only a backhoe for transportation. Is there real romance in Reacher's future? Only the next installment in the series will tell. Verdict Superbly plotted with a jolt a minute and a touch of Carl Hiaasen-style weirdness, this thriller will delight longtime fans. It also serves as a great introduction for readers new to the series. [A September 2015 LibraryReads pick; Entertainment Weekly reports that Paramount will release the sequel to Jack Reacher, the first film adaptation of Child's books and starring Tom Cruise, on October 21, 2016.-Ed.]-Vicki Gregory, Sch. of Information, Univ. of South Florida, Tampa © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.