One morning in 1996 "they gave Reacher a medal, and in the afternoon they sent him back to school." Night school, that is, the title of Lee Child's 21st Jack Reacher thriller. Turns out, it isn't a class but a top-secret mission involving the CIA, the FBI, the National Security Council and Reacher, representing the army's MP division.
The NSC has been keeping tabs on an apartment in Hamburg, Germany, that houses a jihadist sleeper cell consisting of three Saudis and one Iranian. The Iranian is a CIA-run double agent who gets wind of an unnamed American's plan to sell something to a Middle Eastern buyer. The bad news: the asking price of $100 million. The worse news: the buyer readily agrees. What could be worth that much to a potential enemy? Reacher and his colleagues must find out who the players are, what the product is, and block the sale before the mystery item is used against the U.S. and possibly the world.
Reacher Creatures will find the series' staples here: their hero using his analytical skills to dissect situations, annihilating opponents in fights and coupling with a female colleague (though happily not with his sergeant Frances Neagley, who remains a sharp and formidable ally). The familiar aspects make for reliable entertainment, and the 20-years-younger Reacher is little different from his present-day self. No matter what age he is, though, he'll remain head of the class to his legions of fans. --Elyse Dinh-McCrillis, blogger at Pop Culture Nerd