by LEE CHILD

A WANTED MAN

(The Jack Reacher Series)

 

 
Read by: Dick Hill
Series: The Jack Reacher Series
Running Time: 14 hours 25 mins
Categories: Thriller; Action
Released: June 2012
Media: on 2 mp3 CDs; Unabridged
ISBN: 9780307749628


The Author

James Dover Grant CBE (born 29 October 1954), primarily known by his pen name Lee Child, is a British author who writes thriller novels, and is best known for his Jack Reacher novel series. The books follow the adventures of a former American military policeman, Jack Reacher, who wanders the United States. His first novel, Killing Floor (1997), won both the Anthony Award and the Barry Award for Best First Novel.

Grant joined Granada Television, part of the UK's ITV Network, in Manchester as a presentation director. There he was involved with shows including Brideshead Revisited, The Jewel in the Crown, Prime Suspect, and Cracker. Grant was involved in the transmission of more than 40,000 hours of programming for Granada, writing thousands of commercials and news stories. He worked at Granada from 1977 to 1995.

After being made redundant from his job because of corporate restructuring, Grant decided to start writing novels, stating they are "the purest form of entertainment." In 1997, his first novel, Killing Floor, was published, and he moved to the United States in the summer of 1998. He starts each new book of the series on an anniversary of his starting the first book after losing his job.

His pen name "Lee" comes from a family joke about a heard mispronunciation of the name of Renault's Le Car, as "Lee Car". Calling anything "Lee" became a family gag. His daughter, Ruth, was "lee child".

"Child" places his books alphabetically on bookstore and library shelves between crime fiction greats Raymond Chandler and Agatha Christie. Grant has said that he chose the name Reacher for the central character in his novels because he himself is tall and when they were grocery shopping his wife Jane remarked: "'Hey, if this writing thing doesn't pan out, you could always be a reacher in a supermarket.' ... 'I thought, Reacher – good name.'"

He has written seventeen Jack Reacher novels which have won various awards, including the Anthony Award, the Barry Award, and the National Book Award. Some books in the Jack Reacher series are written in the first person, while others are written in the third person. Grant has characterised the books as revenge stories – "Somebody does a very bad thing, and Reacher takes revenge" – driven by his anger at the downsizing at Granada. Although English, he deliberately chose to write American-style thrillers. In 2007, Grant collaborated with 14 other writers to create the 17-part serial thriller The Chopin Manuscript, narrated by Alfred Molina. This was broadcast weekly on Audible.com between 25 September 2007 and 13 November 2007.

Grant was elected president of the Mystery Writers of America in 2009. Grant was the Programming Chair for the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in 2018, part of the Harrogate International Festivals portfolio.

In 2019, it was announced that Child would be curating a new TV show called Lee Child: True Crime. The show will dramatise real-life crime stories from around the world and focus on average people who go to extraordinary lengths to fight crime or seek justice.

In January 2020, Child announced that he would be retiring from writing the Jack Reacher book series, and hand it to his brother Andrew Grant, who would write further books of the series under the surname Child. He intended to write the next few books together with Grant before passing the series entirely over to him. As it now stands, there are 26 completed novels in the Jack Reacher Series.

Synopsis

A masterpiece of suspense from #1 New York Times bestselling author Lee Child  

Four people in a car, hoping to make Chicago by morning. One man driving, eyes on the road. Another man next to him, telling stories that don’t add up. A woman in the back, silent and worried. And next to her, a huge man with a broken nose, hitching a ride east to Virginia.  

An hour behind them, a man lies stabbed to death in an old pumping station. He was seen going in with two others, but he never came out. He has been executed, the knife work professional, the killers vanished. Within minutes, the police are notified. Within hours, the FBI descends, laying claim to the victim without ever saying who he was or why he was there.  

All Reacher wanted was a ride to Virginia. All he did was stick out his thumb. But he soon discovers he has hitched more than a ride. He has tied himself to a massive conspiracy that makes him a threat—to both sides at once.  

In Lee Child’s white-hot thriller, nothing is what it seems, and nobody is telling the truth. As the tension rises, the twists come fast and furious, keeping readers guessing and gasping until the explosive finale.


Reviews

“Child is a superb craftsman of suspense.”—Entertainment Weekly  

“The truth about Reacher gets better and better.”—Janet Maslin, The New York Times  

“Implausible, irresistible Reacher remains just about the best butt-kicker in thriller-lit.”—Kirkus Reviews  

“Like his hero Jack Reacher, Lee Child seems to make no wrong steps.”—Associated Press  

“Lee Child [is] the current poster-boy of American crime fiction.”—Los Angeles Times  

“Indisputably the best escape artist in this escapist genre.”—Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times  

“Jack Reacher is much more like the heir to the Op and Marlowe than Spenser ever was.”—Esquire


“Smart, breathless…[with] one of the best female characters in the whole Reacher series.” - New York Times

“Furious action…Child keeps the pacing swift and the surprises rolling…[A] feverishly thrilling series.” - Miami Herald

“Child’s surprise-filled seventeenth Jack Reacher novel takes the ex-military policeman on a wild road ride that builds to a terrific slam-bang climax…While the erratic trip through America’s heartland doesn’t always follow a logical path, Reacher displays his acuity, patience, endurance, and military skills in the exhilarating fashion series fans have come to expect.” - Publishers Weekly

“To survive, Jack must use his wits more than ever. His statistical knowledge, analytical thinking, and insight into human behavior help him dig deep into a multilayered puzzle well before the need for an all-out physical confrontation builds to a heart-racing climax. VERDICT Fans will devour this volume quickly and long for the next Reacher novel.” - Library Journal

On Media

Audiobook on 2 CD-ROMs, complete with art on CDs. Supplied in windowed CD sleeves, no case provided.

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