No Plan B: The unputdownable new 2022 Jack Reacher thriller from the No.1 bestselling authors (Jack Reacher, 27)

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I wouldn’t call it ironic.” Riverdale scowled. “And there weren’t nine. There were only five. The others had family. That ruled them out.” This just isn't a Reacher book. It's an Andrew Grant book with Reacher in it--or maybe the shadow of Reacher. The safety aspect was welcome but the reason the hub had been chosen for this meeting was its seclusion. The opportunity it offered for complete secrecy. Because the rest of Unit S2 was vacant. There were no guards. No admin staff. And none of its 120 isolation cells were in use. They weren’t needed. Not with the way the prison was run under its current management. The progressive approach was a cause of great pride. And great PR.

Reacher was wired to move toward danger. To confront it. To defeat it, or die trying. It was baked into his DNA. That would solve Friday’s problem. If there is one. But then we’d have no way out of the bigger jam we’re in. Carpenter’s situation.” From vastly different parts of the country there are forces at work, drawing a bunch of seemingly unrelated people together. Not surprisingly, Reacher is one of the key components of the inevitable meeting.But Reacher is unaware that these crimes are part of something much larger and more far-reaching: an arsonist out for revenge, a foster kid ontherun,a cabal of powerful people involved in a secret conspiracy with many moving parts. There is no room for error, but they make a grave one. They don’t consider Reacher a threat. “There’s too much at stake to start running from shadows.” But Reacher isn’t a shadow.He is flesh and blood.And relentless when it comes to making things right. There is obviously something sinister behind the machinations of those running the Minerva Correctional Facility …. How is it related to the release of an innocent man? How will Jed and Lev eventually find themselves in Winson, Mississippi? I certainly enjoyed the ingenuity how the many moving parts of this narrative explosively collided to form an enjoyable denouement.

Reacher may be an exceptional soldier, but sweeping other people’s secrets under the carpet isn’t part of his skill set. As he races to discover the link between these victims, and who killed them, he must navigate around the ulterior motives of his new ‘partners’. And all while moving into the sight line of some of the most dangerous people he has ever encountered. Since there wasn't enough intrigue to pull me into the plot, I had plenty of time to be irked by the writing style. Although, so far, the co-written novels in this long-running series haven’t matched up to many of the earlier ones, in No Plan B there are signs that there could be life left in the series yet.The tragic tale of a wrongly convicted man. He wondered what it had to do with Angela. Which made him think of another tragic tale. One that was just beginning. For the little girl in the wallet photo. Angela's daughter. Who would now have to grow up without a mother. Lev Emerson, who specializes in making accidents happen, to solve other people’s problems. Learns his twenty-two year old son has died, while in rehab ….. his liver and other body organs have failed. His next mission is that of revenge… for those he holds responsible. Then, just as we are beginning to link up these three threads, another is introduced: crooked Chicago businessman, Lev Emerson, who seems to specialise in arson is determined to exact revenge on those who killed his son. Exactly how he fits into the total picture we have yet to find out. Having been dissatisfied after listening to the first 'official' collaboration between Lee (Grant) Child and his brother, Andrew (Grant) Child, "#25, The Sentinel" (3-Stars, but on re-reading my review, I think I was being generous), I decided to skip "#26, Better Off Dead" and see what delights awaited me in "#27, No Plan B".

We should find out for sure,” Moseley said. “Make an informed decision. The key is, did the guy look in the envelope? That’s what we need to know.” Lee has three homes—an apartment in Manhattan, a country house in the south of France, and whatever airplane cabin he happens to be in while traveling between the two. In the US he drives a supercharged Jaguar, which was built in Jaguar's Browns Lane plant, thirty yards from the hospital in which he was born. There is No Plan B when the threat is Reacher. He is 6'5", 250 lbs. and scruffy. You can't miss him. So why must the bad guys constantly try him? Underestimate him? Square up against him? Maybe the better question is why the author(s) continue putting Reacher in unnecessary situations where he has to fight his way out and drop countless bodies. For why?! The evil corporate conspiracy trope has become cliche--variations of it have become too common in the series.Painted as a target who might know too much, Reacher could find himself in a great deal of danger, but he refuses to stand down from trying to get to the root of the murder. Little does he know, but the killing is part of a larger conspiracy by a group who have even more nefarious plans that span across the country. Reacher knew what he saw. So he quite naturally chased the person who had pushed Angela and who had also stolen her purse. And then the local police disregarded Reacher's witness statement in favor of another "highly respected" person who saw Angela's "suicide." As Reacher followed the clues, he became enmeshed in something much more complex than a single murder.

But the photograph was in there.” Riverdale jabbed the air with his finger in time with each syllable. “Eight by ten. Impossible to miss.” No.” Riverdale shook his head. “If there might be a problem that means there is a problem, the way I see things. Safety first. We should—­” I do want the sibling-authors arrangement to work, but I don't think it is. It's a lot to ask of Andrew to keep the print franchise going at the expense of his own career.

In subplots, two other people are heading to that prison as well for their own purposes--one, a young boy running away from foster care, wanting to find his birth father; and the other, a man looking for revenge. This is the 27th book in the Reacher series and if you’ve read any of the previous outings you’ll be aware of how things are going to go here. Faced with difficult to impossible odds, outnumbered and outgunned, Reacher wades into the fray full of the confidence of an overly large man who is capable of causing maximum damage with his fists, elbows, knees and feet. Not to mention any gun that he manages to get hold of. The Child team proves to be master storytellers as they weave into the narrative two other sub-plots that move parallel to the main plot until they all collide and coalesce into an unexpected and explosive denouement. We learn about fifteen year old Jed, while living with foster parents, learns that his birth mother is dying of stage four pancreatic cancer and on her death bed finally tells him the truth about his father. Suddenly he departs from Los Angeles, intent on making a long journey that will necessitate many Greyhound buses. At the same time And the guy didn’t mention anything about it to the police,” Moseley said. “I’ve talked to the lieutenant over there a couple times. That has to mean something.”