61 Hours, by Lee Child

So, after finishing How to Teach Filthy Rich Girls, by Zoey Dean, I started the next book in the Jack Reacher series by Lee Child, 61 Hours, on January 8.  I finished it on January 24.  What can I say about the Reacher books - they are highly entertaining.  They follow a certain recipe.  They are action packed.  They usually have a twist or 2.  He usually gets the girl.  Then he rides off into the sunset in search of the next small town where he can save the day in some way, shape, or form.  I still don't get the casting decision of Tom Cruise in this role - he is decidedly NOT Jack Reacher.

So, 61 Hours begins with Jack Reacher on a tour bus filled with old people making its way to Mount Rushmore in the dead of winter.  He isn't dressed appropriately (i.e. he does not have a warm coat or anything that a normal person would wear in a snowstorm).  He's asleep in the back of the bus, trying to not stand out, to not blend in, to be invisible.  He never stays that way for long.  The bus crashes in the middle of nowhere in the middle of a gigantic blizzard, and he is fearful that the passengers, and he along with them, will freeze to death if they don't get help.  Some law enforcement people from a nearby small South Dakota town come and help them - they send a bus (a prison bus to be exact) to move the passengers to the town, and the townsfolk volunteer to host the old people until the weather clears, they get a new tour bus, and are able to continue with their tour.

Reacher is immediately eyed suspiciously by the chief of police and his second in command.  He eventually learns that there is an older lady in town who is the main witness in a trial of suspected drug dealers, and the local police is on protective duty to keep her alive until she can testify.  There are "sinister forces" at work threatening the life of this lady, and the police will stop at nothing to protect her.  To a point.  There is a new federal prison in town, and one of the agreements the local police had to make in order to get a ton of funding for the force is that if there is a riot at the prison, EVERY cop has to drop everything and high tail it to the prison until the riot has subsided.  This includes leaving the witness.

Well, you guessed it - a riot happens.  The police head to the prison.  The witness is left alone.  Reacher protects her - she comes out unscathed, this time.  The police "hire" Reacher as a consultant to protect the witness and help them figure out what is going on and who the "bad guys" are.  Reacher uses some of his old army contacts to help figure out what an old government compound is (that is currently being used by suspected drug dealers).  He regularly talks to a woman, Susan Turner, who holds Reacher's old post - there is an immediate chemistry between Reacher and this woman.  I suspected that Susan would be the girl that Reacher gets.

I obviously don't want to spoil the various twists and turns of this book - but this is one book where Reacher doesn't get the girl.  I really thought he would get the girl - but he doesn't.  Things don't get completely wrapped up with a big red bow like they do in some of the other Reacher novels.  But, by the end of the book, most things get figured out, most things resolve, and Reacher moves on - just like clock work.  

This book is an easy read, highly entertaining, and I really enjoyed it.  As always, I look forward to the next adventures of Jack Reacher.