Web London is the only survivor of the Charlie group of FBIs Hostage Rescue Team which was all wiped out in a drug raid. The story revolves around what happens in Web’s life after that incident. Determined to find the culprit, Web was struggling with personal psychological problems and also suspicions from his own FBI, he decided to take professional help from a psychiatrist. In the process lot of interesting events unfolded including Web’s previous visits to another psychiatrist and his undergoing hypnosis.

The climax was somewhat unexpected and the actual culprit came as a surprise to me. However, I feel that it may have been presented in a better way to gain some interest from the user. Lots of different scenarios keep on switching very fast and often the traction from the main plot was lost sometime. Some of the characters perhaps were not necessary as I was not able to understand the role they played and significant number of pages were wasted on them.

This book the author has focused on gun crimes in the USA along with the usual banking theme. Two plots simultaneously runs and then they merge with each other towards the end. The author has also mentioned the problem of stashing black money in swiss banks by Indians and the role Indian investment bankers played in that.

Overall a good read, but not the very best by the author.

In addition to his standard folding toothbrush, Jack Reacher started carrying his passport as his identity document and an ATM card to withdraw cash from his account. This is a good progress into the “civilized world” for a guy like Reacher.

One fine day while withdrawing cash, he saw a deposit with a very strange looking number, something which triggered an alarm in his sub-conscious. After validation the source of deposit from his bank, he realized its a call from a fellow officer seeking help, and he proceeded immediately to LA. Upon his arrival he found that 4 out of his old team of 8 special investigators from Army days is missing and perhaps dead. And Reacher got involved in the investigations along with the remaining members of his team. It turns out a mix of arms/defense technology and terrorism related stuff.

It was a pleasure seeing Reacher working in a team, rather than the usual “alone”. He seems to also realize that they are getting out dated in terms of modern methods of investigation and are being out-smarted by other folks. In this case, Reacher manages to secure some finances for himself so that he can continue for some more time without having  to work somewhere in order to replenish his depleting bank reserves.

Let us see what happens in the next book in the series.

Jack Reacher is back in the New York City having his favorite coffee shots in a shop and observing the street. He saw and ignore a man getting in a wrongly parked car and driving in it until the next evening when he visited the same coffee shop (quite unusual for Reacher to be at same place twice) again. He found a man inquiring about any customers present last evening.

This changed his next few days when he was involved in investigating the kidnapping of a wife, a daughter and missing driver cum bodyguard. He found himself in the midst of mercenaries and got involved with an ex FBI investigator, visited London, found the truth, tried to correct some wrong doing and so on and so forth.

The Hard Way is another classic Reacher thriller.