Orphan X

If you love Lee Child's Jack Reacher, and I do, then you will love Orphan X.  Orphan X is sort of like the scary child of Jack Reacher and Jason Bourne.  And it is "The most exciting thriller since the Bourne Identity." says Robert Crais, another fabulous writer.

The premise is that some deep, dark U.S. agency has been scooping up orphans that were growing up under awful circumstances and training them to be killers.  They are given lessons in multiple forms of combat and spy craft.   The story of how they train them to ignore pain is hard to read.  Each Orphan is given a letter for a code name. They are raised and trained by a handler and then given tasks, generally assassinations, to handle when they are deemed ready.

At one point Orphan X, known as Evan Smoak, balks at an assignment and then HE is targeted for assassination.  Thanks to the training he has received, he is able to avoid being killed and sets out to use the skills he has learned to protect those unable to protect themselves. Unlike Jack Reacher, who finds trouble by accident when traveling the country, Evan actively seeks it out.   After rescuing total strangers, Evan gives them a number to call and they are asked to give it out to ONE other person that may need his services.  That is how they repay Orphan X.

He may go months between his self-appointed tasks and he uses this time to keep up his skills.  He has many safe houses, cars and weapons, one of which is using computers to verify that he is truly needed and that it is a job that he feels is worth doing.

But the agency (whatever that is) has still targeted him and they are closing in on his assassination.

This is a fast paced story and really good.  It has already been optioned for a movie and Hurwitz has written the screenplay.  This is one movie I want to watch.

Unless they cast Tom Cruise, like they did for the Jack Reacher character.  Then I will pass.

But I WILL read the next book.  Because there  is another one called The Nowhere Man, but it won't be released until next year.

I can't wait!

Personal by Lee Child

 


I just finished the book, Personal by Lee Child.  It is his 19th Jack Reacher novel.  I liked it because it did not follow the usual Jack Reacher formula.  This is where he hitches rides or takes a bus from town to town in the US.  On his travels he finds injustice and by stealth, cunning and brute force he solves the problem and moves on. 

Sort like a modern day Lone Ranger.  Who was that not-masked man?  Or maybe like the old Equalizer TV show starring Edward Woodward.   Only you can't contact him and ask for help.  Reacher is a former Army MP and can't just walk past problems he feels compelled to solve.  At times he tries to walk away and the bad guys drag him in to the middle.  Boy, I bet they wish they hadn't done that.

The nice thing about Lee Child is that he changes things up from time to time, so you don't have the same book, just with different problems.

In Personal, Jack Reacher is contacted via an ad in the Stars and Stripes.  He finds it on a bus seat and there is an ad for him to contact a former Army associate that he owes a favor.  This turns into some international intrigue with an attempted assassination of the French president and the possibility of carnage during an upcoming G8 meeting in England. 

It is fast paced and although there is a high level of violence, there is also a lot of thought used in the intricate plot lines and it kept me guessing.  I like that in a novel.  Don't want to know who did it and why until the author tells me.  As far as the violence, he TRIES to do it the easy way, but they won't LET him.

Two things I really liked.  One, there are two women he encounters on this journey.  One is age appropriate and one 20 years younger. At no time does he make the attempt to be James Bond and have intimate knowledge of these women.  Not that he is a saint.  He meets plenty of women in the course of his travels.  But in this book there was no point in the plot where it made sense, so he didn't. 

The second one is kind of fun.  Are you aware that a  lot of the future technology we saw in Star Trek is now coming to be a reality?  People are making a Phaser like device that can send lethal and non-lethal laser pulses.  There are hands free, voice activated communicators available.  There is even a small tri-corder type device that you can wave over food to detect harmful bacteria.  I'm impatient for the medical tri-corder.

Do you remember the Star Trek IV movie?  It is the one directed by Leonard Nimoy (Spock!) and the best of that generation of the Star Trek movies.    That is the one where they go back in time to get some whales to take back to the future.  In it they have to get a manufacturer to build tanks for transporting them and Scotty gets a local company to make transparent aluminum because it is so strong and lightweight.

In Personal they are using Aluminum Oxynitride as see-through armor for when political figures are speaking in public to protect them.  I looked it up.  It's real!!  There really IS transparent aluminum!  Did the writers know of the research or did they make it up and then someone tried to replicate it???  I don't know, but I would love to.

(The Air Force's transparent armor
Air Force Research Laboratory Engineers are testing a new kind of transparent armor - stronger and lighter than traditional materials - that could stop armor-piercing weapons from penetrating vehicle windows. The group is testing aluminum oxynitride - ALON a ceramic compound with a high compressive strength and durability. When polished, it is the premier transparent armor for use in armored vehicles. )

Even those who don't love Star Trek ( I'm sure there are a FEW people) will like this book.  I generally stay away from political intrigue, except for the early Tom Clancy books with Jack Ryan.  This would make a great movie thriller and in fact all of Lee Child's Reacher novels would work great on the big screen.  Child is a former TV director and has a good eye for what will work on camera.  But until they cast someone other than Tom Cruise as the six foot four inch tall Reacher, I will be sitting them out.

Jack Reacher

I love to read a good mystery or police procedural.  When I like an author it makes it even more fun to revisit characters in a series.  You can even picture the protagonist in your mind.  I am sure this makes it difficult for casting directors when the books become movies.

 

   

I just finished Lee Child's latest book in the Jack Reacher series.  Now, Jack Reacher is a former Army MP.  He is 6 foot 5 inches tall with a 50 inch chest and is 210 pounds.  He tends to get into situations where it is up to him to use his brain and his brawn to save the day.  There are lots of times he subdues bad guys that vastly out number him, by sheer force. 

In the back of the book they mentioned that they are turning one of the books into a movie.  Great!  Can't wait!  I wonder who they will get to play Reacher?

TOM CRUISE.

Are you kidding me???  That short, skinny weirdo?  No way.  Did the casting director even read the book?  Why is name recognition more important than character recognition?  I haven't gone to see one of his movies in ages and I heard his last one flopped.  So what is their rationale?

Didn't we quit using Italians as Native Americans and letting people use eye prostheses to play Asians?  Should we look for movie actors that meet the minimum criteria of the description?  I'm not talking hair color, here.  Jack Reacher could pick his teeth with Tom Cruise.

When they put Morgan Freeman in a movie as Alex Cross, it ruined even the books for me.  Sure, he is a good actor, even a great actor, but no way can he play 30 years younger, taller and built.  No one is that good.  Now they have Tyler Perry in the role and HIM I can see as Alex Cross. 

Surely there is SOMEONE out there other than Tom Cruise.  I'm from Southern California.  The place is crawling with out of work actors.  How about an audition or two before you settle on a skinny little guy that can no way play the part effectively.  No matter what special effects they use.  Unless they hire everyone else from Shortywood Productions.

Chet and Bernie Mysteries

   

I'm really enjoying the Chet and Bernie Mysteries.  Dogs and Private Investigators.  What's not to love?

I like the way Spencer Quinn tells the story from the dog's point of view.  The dog is looking for clues to help Bernie and then finds a Cheetos under a couch and gets distracted.  He listens to the conversation and then falls asleep and misses what's going on.  He finds a rotten piece of hot dog and eats it.  He starts to feel sick, barfs it up and is happy as a clam.  Funny and so real all at the same time.

The mysteries are not the cozies you might think,  based on the dog gimmick.  They are darker and more dangerous than the usual pet mysteries. 

I learned my lesson about reading a whole series, one after another.  When I used to find an author I loved I would sit down and request all the books from the first to the most recent and then read them as fast as I could.  I did this with Lee Child.  He has a series about a retired MP named Jack Reacher.  Well, Reacher, even his Mom called him that. I read them one after the other.  Even though the books were all well written, I got a little exasperated with Reacher.  Grow up, already.  Get an apartment and quit wandering like Kerouac seemed to do.  And maybe you should quit breaking people's faces when they upset you.  Even though that is a bit satisfying for all the readers.

So rather than reading them all at once, I am limiting my journey to the present with Chet and Bernie to one book each time I go to the library.  This way I will still love them and anticipate each new adventure with love, rather than exasperation.