{"id":7666,"date":"2019-04-20T07:06:42","date_gmt":"2019-04-20T11:06:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/?p=7666"},"modified":"2019-12-21T12:47:50","modified_gmt":"2019-12-21T17:47:50","slug":"running-blind-by-lee-child","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/2019\/04\/20\/running-blind-by-lee-child\/","title":{"rendered":"“Running Blind” by Lee Child"},"content":{"rendered":"

Copyright 2000 by Lee Child. Published by Berkley, New York.<\/a><\/p>\n

Yes, another Jack Reacher book.\u00a0 I always expect to be entertained and I am never disappointed.<\/p>\n

Some of the Reacher books are set during the time when he is in the army, but most are set post-Army when he is an aimless drifter.\u00a0 This one is in between: he is out of the army, but he has inherited a house and, at least temporarily, has a permanent address.\u00a0 He doesn’t know how to deal with that situation and it won’t last, but for the duration of this book he has both a house and an SUV.\u00a0 His internal conflict with this (to him) unnatural situation is a subplot in this book, but it is pretty obvious that it will be resolved shortly and he will, once again, be shiftless.<\/p>\n

He also has a girlfriend and this might be a little more permanent.\u00a0 Jodie appears to be the love of his life.\u00a0 But her life goals conflict deeply with his and, though he clearly cares for her, the attachment will not be sufficient to root him.\u00a0 This subplot resolves itself rather neatly by Jodie becoming a partner in her law firm and being sent to London for 2 years.\u00a0 Problem solved.<\/p>\n

So much for the subplots.\u00a0 The main plot centers on a serial killer.\u00a0 Someone is killing women who, while in the army, accused men of sexual harassment or worse.\u00a0 The FBI is on the case and their top profiler has identified the characteristics of the man they are looking for and, wouldn’t you know, his profile looks a lot like Jack Reacher.\u00a0 The first two women, in fact, knew Reacher because he was the investigator assigned to their cases when he as still an MP.\u00a0 The FBI haul Reacher in for questioning.\u00a0 But his status as “prime suspect” is short-lived as a third woman is killed while he is in custody.\u00a0 Rather than just letting him go, however, the FBI decides that he might be a useful addition to the investigative team.\u00a0 Reacher is not interested but is coerced into participating.<\/p>\n

The murders themselves are bizarre.\u00a0 The women are all found in bathtubs filled with army-issue green paint.\u00a0 There is no obvious cause of death and no sign of a struggle, no sign of forced entry.\u00a0 The women apparently let the murderer in and then, quietly and without complaint, strip naked, sit in the bathtub filled with paint and just die.\u00a0 Figuring out the “how” and “why” is what makes this story interesting.<\/p>\n

Reacher figures it out, of course.\u00a0 And so did I, mostly.\u00a0 I was pretty sure I knew who the killer was halfway through the book, but Child fooled me with some deft misdirection and convinced me that I was wrong.\u00a0 But I wasn’t.\u00a0 But I can’t claim that I figured out the “how” though in retrospect I should have.<\/p>\n

This book, more than most of the Reacher books, is a classic whodunit.\u00a0 Like all Reacher books, it is a quick read.\u00a0 I had a hard time putting it down.<\/p>\n

8 out of 10.\u00a0 I would have given it a 9 if I hadn’t figured out whodunit halfway through the book.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Copyright 2000 by Lee Child. Published by Berkley, New York. Yes, another Jack Reacher book.\u00a0 I always expect to be entertained and I am never disappointed. Some of the Reacher books are set during the time when he is in the army, but most are set post-Army when he is an aimless drifter.\u00a0 This one … Continue reading »<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1VniU-1ZE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7666"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8185,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7666\/revisions\/8185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}