The Bitter Season

Author: Tami Hoag
Publisher: Brilliance Audio; Abridged edition
ISBN: 1480598992
Language: English
Formats: Kindle,Hardcover,Paperback,Audible, Unabridged,Audio CD, Audiobook, CD, Unabridged,
Category: Books,Mystery, Thriller & Suspense,Thrillers & Suspense, FREE Shipping,

#1 New York Times Bestselling author Tami Hoag returns to the bestselling series of her career with a Kovac and Liska case that will delight fans and new listeners alike.

A murder from the past. A murder from the present. And a life that was never meant to be.…

As the dreary, bitter weather of late fall descends on Minneapolis, Detective Nikki Liska is restless. After moving to the cold case squad in order to spend more time with her sons, she misses the rush of pulling an all-nighter, the sense of urgency of hunting a murderer on the loose. Most of all she misses her old partner, Sam Kovac. Sam is having an even harder time adjusting to Nikki's absence, saddled with a green new partner younger than pieces of Sam's wardrobe. Sam is distracted from his troubles by an especially brutal double homicide: a middle-aged husband and wife bludgeoned and hacked to death in their home with a ceremonial Japanese samurai sword. Nikki's case, the unsolved murder of a family man, community leader, and decorated sex crimes detective for the Minneapolis PD, is less of a distraction: twenty years later, there is little hope for finding the killer who got away.

On the other end of the spectrum, Minneapolis resident Evi Burke has a life she only dreamed of as a kid in and out of foster homes: a beautiful home, a family, people who love her, a fulfilling job. Little does she know that a danger from her past is stalking her perfect present. A danger powerful enough to pull in both Kovac and Liska and destroy the perfect life she was never meant to have.

#1 New York Times Bestselling author Tami Hoag returns to the bestselling series of her career with a Kovac and Liska case that will delight fans and new listeners alike.

A murder from the past. A murder from the present. And a life that was never meant to be.…

As the dreary, bitter weather of late fall descends on Minneapolis, Detective Nikki Liska is restless. After moving to the cold case squad in order to spend more time with her sons, she misses the rush of pulling an all-nighter, the sense of urgency of hunting a murderer on the loose. Most of all she misses her old partner, Sam Kovac. Sam is having an even harder time adjusting to Nikki's absence, saddled with a green new partner younger than pieces of Sam's wardrobe. Sam is distracted from his troubles by an especially brutal double homicide: a middle-aged husband and wife bludgeoned and hacked to death in their home with a ceremonial Japanese samurai sword. Nikki's case, the unsolved murder of a family man, community leader, and decorated sex crimes detective for the Minneapolis PD, is less of a distraction: twenty years later, there is little hope for finding the killer who got away.

On the other end of the spectrum, Minneapolis resident Evi Burke has a life she only dreamed of as a kid in and out of foster homes: a beautiful home, a family, people who love her, a fulfilling job. Little does she know that a danger from her past is stalking her perfect present. A danger powerful enough to pull in both Kovac and Liska and destroy the perfect life she was never meant to have.

The Bitter Season

After a decade in homicide, Minnesota Detective Nikki Leska transfers to the newly formed Cold Case unit. Her first assignment is to take another look at the death of Detective Ted Duffy, who was off-duty when he was shot twenty-five years earlier. Nikki interrogates Duffy’s widow, who subsequently married Thomas, the victim’s twin brother. Meanwhile, Sergeant Liska’s former partner, Sam Kovac, has his own homicide to solve. Someone entered the home of a married couple late at night, brutally beat and slashed them, and absconded with jewelry and other valuables. Sam’s team of wisecracking detectives conduct interviews, do background checks, and look for evidence that will lead to an arrest. As the days pass, they have little to show for their efforts.

In Tami Hoag’s “The Bitter Season,” we observe the misery of people who have been abused and/or have inflicted abuse on others. Among Hoag’s troubled characters are the vindictive Diana Chamberlain, a promising graduate student who loathes her spiteful father; Evi Burke, a social worker with a gorgeous and saintly spouse and appalling memories of her torturous past; Ted’s daughter, Jennifer, a sensitive and fragile woman; and Donald Nilson, a bigoted loudmouth who was Ted Duffy's nasty neighbor. Nikki slowly makes headway on her case, but is stymied by the stubborn refusal of key witnesses to reveal their secrets.

The gruff, hard-nosed, and blunt Kovac is a veteran cop who is knowledgeable, dedicated, and persistent. Nikki, ably assisted by Candra Seley, is tough and determined. Although she adores her kids, she does not allow the demands of motherhood to keep her from putting in long hours to track down Duffy’s executioner.

Nikki Liska is very good at what she does as a detective in the sex crimes unit in Minneapolis. It gives her better working hours and therefore more free time with her teenage sons. She clearly has her priorities straight, a fact that her peer Sam Kovac clearly respects, although Nikki’s tough verbal stance prevents him or anyone else from uttering that respect. Now she and Sam aren’t working together. Instead Nikki has been put to the task of solving a 20 year-old cold case in which one of their peers, Ted Duffy, was shot to death and the killer was never found. No one except a very nasty neighbor even knew the victim well. So it’s quite a large task Nikki has to complete in just a few short weeks. Add to the fact that there’s another detective who never managed to solve the mystery of this murder but is extremely angry that the investigation of it has now been given to Nikki when he’s put in 20 years trying to find the killer.

There are plenty of suspects: a wife who married Duffy’s brother, a daughter who took years to recover some type of sanity after her father’s death, and two foster children who were returned to the system after Duffy’s death.

Sam, on the other hand, has been given the task of investigating the brutally horrific murder of a professor at the University of Minnesota and his wife. The professor and his daughter are not on good terms, as he is vying for a promotion in the East Asian Studies Department, and his daughter has compromised his eligibility by submitting a complaint against him with that same department in which she also works. The two children of these parents have little love apparent and are suspect as well.

In The Bitter Season — the biting cold days in the run-up to Thanksgiving in Minneapolis — the news is dominated by the gruesome home invasion murder of a university professor and his wealthy wife. The homicide detective assigned to the case, Sam Kovac, is a veteran of the police force for whom “the big five-oh was looming large on the horizon.”

Liska and Kovac are a mismatched pair who have worked together successfully as partners on the Minneapolis police force for a number of years. Liska’s ex-husband, also a cop, appears to have the emotional maturity of a seventeen-year-old himself, leaving Liska to raise the boys with little support.

To replace Liska, Kovac has acquired a promising young rookie as his partner, a former MP. “He didn’t want a new partner. He was too old and cranky to break one in.” And as the story unfolds, Kovac proves himself right.

Meanwhile, the force is abuzz with the creation of a new cold case unit, and Liska has opted to join it in hopes she can avoid round-the-clock investigations and spend more time with her two teenage sons. However, against her will she is assigned to a quarter-century-old case that she believes to be unsolvable. And, as luck would have it, the investigation requires far longer hours than she’d hoped.

“It’s cold in Minneapolis”

This being fiction, and genre fiction at that, you won’t be surprised to learn that eventually the two cases prove to be related. But the path from here to there is full of surprises.

• 
  The Bitter Season
  Kovac and Liska take on multiple twisted cases as #1 New York Times bestselling author Tami Hoag explores a murder from the past, a murder from the present, and a life that was never meant to be.

  
  

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  The Bitter Season
  ... Sato could never trump, but still, he wanted his sleep. He wanted to look as confident as he felt. Maybe if he closed all the doors between the stairs and the study, the sound would be muffled enough not to bother him. The Bitter Season 43.

  
  

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  A Bittersweet Season
  In telling the story of her own struggle to learn how to care for her aging and ailing mother, a journalist offers helpful insights and advice to other caregivers who feel overwhelmed. Reprint.

  
  

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  Dust to Dust
  A killer who will stop at absolutely nothing to keep a dark and shattering secret . . . From the Paperback edition.

  
  

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  Every Bitter Thing Is Sweet
  Every Bitter Thing Is Sweet by Sara Hagerty is the story of a woman whose life expectations went unmet while her heart became re-acquainted with her first Love.

  
  

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  Find Her
  When Flora herself disappears, D.D. realizes a far more sinister predator is out there. One who’s determined that this time, Flora Dane will never escape. And now it is all up to D. D. Warren to find her.

  
  

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  Bitter Blood
  For years, the human and vampire residents of Morganville, Texas, have managed to co-exist in peace.

  
  

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  Down the Darkest Road
  Once upon a time I had the perfect family.

  
  

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  Bee Season
  The work of a lyrical and gifted storyteller, Bee Season marks the arrival of an extraordinarily talented new writer. From the Trade Paperback edition.

  
  

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  Guilty as Sin
  Praise for Tami Hoag and Guilty as Sin “Without a doubt . . . one of the most intense suspense writers around.” Chicago Tribune “A chilling study of evil that holds the reader until the shocking surprise ending.” New York Times ...

  
  

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  The Men of Bitter Creek
  From New York Times bestselling author and romance legend Joan Johnston come two favourite stories about true love and family, available together for the first time.

  
  

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  Dragonfly in Amber
  From the Trade Paperback edition.

  
  

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  Alert
  "This is not a test"--every New Yorker's worst nightmare is about to become a reality.

  
  

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  Wildest Heart
  Rosemary Rogers. Part V: The Bitter Season a Thirty T he storm died, hissing and grumbling into Part V:The Bitter Season.

  
  

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  Punch, Volumes 54-55
  But thrust the hard and heaped-up stones and stinging growths aside, And made way for those parted rills henceforth in one to glide : So letting warm attemper cold, and bitter season sweet, That the waters mixed were cordial, whereof each  ...

  
  

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  Hand-book of American literature, historical, biographical, and critical [by J. Gostwick. The title-leaf is a cancel].
  the act of the Lord Jesus, sounding forth in mo the blast which shall in his own holy season cast down the strength and ... tost in a bitter season, not knowing what bread or bed did mean,' and sometimes hiding at night in some hollow tree.

  
  

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  Eclectic Magazine: Foreign Literature, Volume 55; Volume 118
  In that early time the jovial season was one of unstinted eating and drinking, of enormous extravagance redeemed in some measure by the fact that the poor were made glad by ... the bitter season “ Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrate.

  
  

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  The Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, Volume 55
  In that early time the jovial season was one of unstinted eating and drinking, of enormous extravagance redeemed in some measure by the fact that the poor were made glad ... the bitter season " Wherein onr Saviour's birth is celebrate.

  
  

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  Episodes of Insect Life
  In so doing, it forms a capacious cavity, which, after lining with a silken web, it appropriates as its dormitory through the bitter season. And a secure asylum does the little slumberer possess ! The burr of his occupation may be shaken ...

  
  

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  The Eclectic Review, Volume 3; Volume 111
  I am forced now, however, „ to seek other pleasures in the bitter season ; and, sooth to say, old December wears a jolly heart enough beneath his icy coat. Pluck up a single ivy leaf from the old wall, see what a jeweller he is. How the dark ...

  
  

The Martian

Author: Andy Weir
Publisher: Podium Publishing on Brilliance Audio; Unabridged edition
ISBN: 1491523220
Language: English
Formats: Kindle,Hardcover,Paperback,Audible, Unabridged,MP3 CD, Audiobook, MP3 Audio, Unabridged,
Category: Books,Mystery, Thriller & Suspense,Thrillers & Suspense, FREE Shipping,

Twentieth Century Fox’s motion picture based on The Martian won 2 Golden Globe awards-- Best Director (Ridley Scott) and Best Actor (Matt Damon).

Winner of the 2015 Audie Award for Best Science Fiction

Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars.

Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there.

After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive―and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive.

Chances are, though, he won't have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old "human error" are much more likely to kill him first.

But Mark isn't ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills―and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit―he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?

Twentieth Century Fox’s motion picture based on The Martian won 2 Golden Globe awards-- Best Director (Ridley Scott) and Best Actor (Matt Damon).

Winner of the 2015 Audie Award for Best Science Fiction

Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars.

Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there.

After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive―and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive.

Chances are, though, he won't have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old "human error" are much more likely to kill him first.

But Mark isn't ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills―and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit―he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?

The Martian

I'm a hard-science science fiction fan and would rather read hard sc-fi than almost anything. I love stories and movies about Mars, and I'm a fan of survival, castaway, and man-against-the elements stories. I loved Robinson Crusoe, so it should not surprise you that I loved the movie, Robinson Crusoe on Mars. I realize it's not Academy Award material, but to me, it's everything I want it to be, as was this book, The Martian.

The main character, Watney, presumed dead, is accidentally left by his crew mates when an intense Martian dust storm forces them to abort their mission. What follows for part of the book is a logbook style narrative that describes in great technical detail Watney's efforts to extend his life until the next scheduled mission arrives in 4 years. After reading just the first 20% of the book (my Kindle has no page numbers) one can't help but be impressed by the author's depth of knowledge in this regard. In fact, the entire book is an astronaut's primer on extraterrestrial and deep space survival and rescue.

The Martian isn't without its typos and editorial glitches, and I'm not sure if this was a result of a bad Kindle conversion or just a shortsighted editor. For me, though, typos and editing issues paled in comparison to the snowballing storyline, which I gladly admit is not for everyone.

This is not a touchy-feely book about love, romance or relationships. There is no overpowering angle between characters. No good guys in white hats and bad guys in black hats. There's no room for cliches. It's all very business like and scientific. So, if you're looking for Twilight in Space. Or Fifty Shades of Mars. Or Tom Hanks making himself a friend by drawing a face on a soccer ball, you'll probably want to skip this one.

"I'm stranded on Mars. I have no way to communicate with Hermes or Earth. Everyone thinks I'm dead. I'm in a Hab designed to last 31 days. If the Oxygenator breaks down, I'll suffocate. If the Water Reclaimer breaks down, I'll die of thirst. If the Hab breaches, I'll just kind of explode. If none of those things happen, I'll eventually run out of food and starve to death. So yeah. I'm f----d." - Mark Watney

As the two-hundred thirty-fourth reader to review THE MARTIAN by Andy Weir, I have no illusion that I can add anything substantive to the plaudits already heaped on this intelligent work of space sci-fi. Simply put, it's a nail-biter that'll trim your finger nail plates down even with the nail beds.

My reading tastes usually don't encompass space fiction because the vast majority of it seems to fall within the realm of extreme fantasy with worlds and ETs of the most fantastical sorts. I prefer my off-Earth stories to have some plausible connection with realistic, albeit extrapolated, technology and situations, and the one book that remains embedded in my memory as simply terrific is from all the way back in 1975 when I was much younger and perhaps more impressionable - Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama. With films, I'm the same way; Outland and Silent Running come to mind. THE MARTIAN is my kind of SF.

A futuristic Robinson Crusoe! Due to a dust storm, Mark Watney is left for dead in the Acidalia region of Mars when the Ares 3 mission is aborted 6 days into the scheduled two months. What follows is largely a logbook of living in a large tent or a small rover for about 550 days on what was supposed to be two month's rations for 6 people. Fortunately there were some potatoes for thanksgiving that were alive, so Mark starts dividing them and growing them. But first he has to make soil, and then water, and so on. Generally speaking, a logbook is a poor technique, but here it is brilliant. You cannot have conversation, and you cannot develop other characters, but did I mention he was abandoned? Alone? You might still think that 550 days stuck in a tent or rover could get boring, but no, this book is absolutely gripping.

Watney was resourceful, and the book is very good at showing the scientific approach to problems, putting numbers to them, and showing what happens if you do what, so in a sense it is also a book of puzzles: this has gone wrong, how can it be fixed? Tension is maintained well because Watney has an unseen companion: Murphy. If it can go wrong, it does, sometimes because of Watney's own lack of knowledge. To make water, first he makes hydrogen. This is not a good idea, and Watney finds out why. Because I have also written a book centred on Mars, I know the author has really spent a lot of time understanding the nature of Mars, and this book shows quite well what being on the surface of Mars would be like. There is the odd error, probably intentional for effect, for example the effects of the dust storm are too great.

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  The Martian
  Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars.

  
  

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  The Martian Chronicles
  The tranquility of Mars is disrupted by humans who want to conquer space, colonize the planet, and escape a doomed Earth.

  
  

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  After the Martian Apocalypse
  Part exo-archaeological treatise and part cultural commentary, After The Martian Apocalypse is an uncompromising and groundbreaking perspective on a cosmic controversy that has perplexed scientists and astronomers for years.

  
  

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  The Martian Climate Revisited
  This is based not only upon direct observations, but also on the newer techniques of modelling: numerical simulation and data assimilation.

  
  

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  The Martian Codex
  No Marketing Blurb

  
  

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  The Martian's Daughter
  Whitman’s memoir is the story of how the cosmopolitan environment in which she was immersed, the demanding expectations of her parents, and her own struggles to emerge from the shadow of a larger-than-life parent shaped her life and work.

  
  

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  the martian
  

  
  

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  Zarlah the Martian
  

  
  

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  The Martian War
  This speculative novel is based on the premise that H. G. Wells's classic science fiction novel, "The War of the Worlds," describes actual historical events that Wells himself witnessed during a fierce struggle for control of Earth.

  
  

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  Judy Moody, Mood Martian (Book #12)
  Will the real Judy Moody please stand up?

  
  

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  The Martian Principles for Successful Enterprise Systems
  For the first time ever, the senior architect and lead developer for a key enterprise system on NASA's ongoing Mars Exploration Rover mission shares the secrets to one of the most difficult technology tasks of all-successful software ...

  
  

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  The Martian Tales Trilogy
  Each installment of the Martian trilogy ends with the tantalizing suggestion that John Carter is not finished with Mars. Burroughs wrote eleven Mars novels. The first three are essentially one long narrative, best enjoyed when they are gathered ...

  
  

• 
  The War of the Worlds
  The novel stands as a major milestone in science-fiction literature, inspiring legions of subsequent writers and an endless array of hostile-alien scenarios.

  
  

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  The Martian Child
  He was on talin for ADHD and he was classified as emotionally disturbed, le caseworkers said he was "hard to place" a euphemism for (adaptable. And then there was that Martian business. it for David and Dennis it was love at first sight.

  
  

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  Amongst the Martian Ruins
  The first manned expedition to Mars starts out as a routine study of the barren planet's deserts, and at first the team finds no trace of organic life.

  
  

• 
  The Martian General's Daughter
  Set over two hundred years from now, in a world very much like Imperial Rome, this is the story of General Peter Black, the last decent man, as told through the eyes of his devoted (and illegitimate) daughter, Justa.

  
  

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  Martian Divides
  Martian Divides picks up the Martian Symbiont story two years after the end of Martian Blues.

  
  

• 
  The Martian Chronicles (Study Guide)
  The perfect companion to Ray Bradbury’s "The Martian Chronicles," this study guide contains a chapter by chapter analysis of the book, a summary of the plot, and a guide to major characters and themes.

  
  

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  Honest, the Martian Ate Your Dog
  

  
  

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  Martian Blues
  After thousands of years away from Earth, an advanced group of men have returned, forever changed for the better. In this continuation of the Martian Symbiont series, the men rediscover family and find friendship.

  
  

Make Me

Author: Lee Child
Publisher: Random House Audio; Abridged edition
ISBN: 0804192898
Language: English
Formats: Kindle,Hardcover,Paperback,Audible, Unabridged,Audio CD, Audiobook, CD, Unabridged,
Category: Books,Mystery, Thriller & Suspense,Thrillers & Suspense, FREE Shipping,

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE GUARDIAN, AND SUSPENSE MAGAZINE • Stephen King calls Jack Reacher “the coolest continuing series character”—and now he’s back in this masterly new thriller from Lee Child.

“Why is this town called Mother’s Rest?” That’s all Reacher wants to know. But no one will tell him. It’s a tiny place hidden in a thousand square miles of wheat fields, with a railroad stop, and sullen and watchful people, and a worried woman named Michelle Chang, who mistakes him for someone else: her missing partner in a private investigation she thinks must have started small and then turned lethal.

Reacher has no particular place to go, and all the time in the world to get there, and there’s something about Chang . . . so he teams up with her and starts to ask around. He thinks: How bad can this thing be? But before long he’s plunged into a desperate race through LA, Chicago, Phoenix, and San Francisco, and through the hidden parts of the internet, up against thugs and assassins every step of the way—right back to where he started, in Mother’s Rest, where he must confront the worst nightmare he could imagine.

Walking away would have been easier. But as always, Reacher’s rule is: If you want me to stop, you’re going to have to make me.

Praise for Make Me

“Child’s Reacher series has hit Book No. 20 with a resounding peal of wisecracking glee. Everything about it, starting with Reacher’s nose for bad news, is as strong as ever. . . . The big guy’s definitely on the upswing. The guy who writes about him is too.”—Janet Maslin, The New York Times

“Another winner . . . There’s a reason why Child is considered the best of the best in the thriller genre: He can take all these strange elements and clichés and make them compelling and original.”—Associated Press

“A superb thriller.”—New York Daily News

“Child’s complete command of the story makes this thriller work brilliantly.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“I’ve read all twenty of Lee Child’s novels. Maybe there’s something wrong with me. But I can’t wait for the twenty-first.”—Malcolm Gladwell, The New Yorker

“[The Reacher series] is the current gold standard in the genre. . . . In Make Me Lee Child delivers another Jack Reacher specialty; the total knockout.”—Dayton Daily News

“Child serves up wingding plots, pithy dialogue, extraordinary background on intriguing topics, and cunningly constructed suspense. But what keeps us coming back—by the millions—is the chance to walk around in the skin of that big guy in the middle of everything.”—The Oregonian

“A dark thriller . . . Lee Child’s Make Me, the twentieth in his wildly popular Jack Reacher series, delivers exactly what readers have come to expect from the perennial bestselling author: interesting characters, tight plots and page-turning action. . . . Readers won’t be disappointed.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune

“Jack Reacher is back. . . . Readers new to this series will find this book a good starting point, and fans will be pleased to see Jack again.”—LibraryReads (Top Ten Pick)

“The reigning champ ups the ante.”—Booklist (starred review)


From the Hardcover edition.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE GUARDIAN, AND SUSPENSE MAGAZINE • Stephen King calls Jack Reacher “the coolest continuing series character”—and now he’s back in this masterly new thriller from Lee Child.

“Why is this town called Mother’s Rest?” That’s all Reacher wants to know. But no one will tell him. It’s a tiny place hidden in a thousand square miles of wheat fields, with a railroad stop, and sullen and watchful people, and a worried woman named Michelle Chang, who mistakes him for someone else: her missing partner in a private investigation she thinks must have started small and then turned lethal.

Reacher has no particular place to go, and all the time in the world to get there, and there’s something about Chang . . . so he teams up with her and starts to ask around. He thinks: How bad can this thing be? But before long he’s plunged into a desperate race through LA, Chicago, Phoenix, and San Francisco, and through the hidden parts of the internet, up against thugs and assassins every step of the way—right back to where he started, in Mother’s Rest, where he must confront the worst nightmare he could imagine.

Walking away would have been easier. But as always, Reacher’s rule is: If you want me to stop, you’re going to have to make me.

Praise for Make Me

“Child’s Reacher series has hit Book No. 20 with a resounding peal of wisecracking glee. Everything about it, starting with Reacher’s nose for bad news, is as strong as ever. . . . The big guy’s definitely on the upswing. The guy who writes about him is too.”—Janet Maslin, The New York Times

“Another winner . . . There’s a reason why Child is considered the best of the best in the thriller genre: He can take all these strange elements and clichés and make them compelling and original.”—Associated Press

“A superb thriller.”—New York Daily News

“Child’s complete command of the story makes this thriller work brilliantly.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“I’ve read all twenty of Lee Child’s novels. Maybe there’s something wrong with me. But I can’t wait for the twenty-first.”—Malcolm Gladwell, The New Yorker

“[The Reacher series] is the current gold standard in the genre. . . . In Make Me Lee Child delivers another Jack Reacher specialty; the total knockout.”—Dayton Daily News

“Child serves up wingding plots, pithy dialogue, extraordinary background on intriguing topics, and cunningly constructed suspense. But what keeps us coming back—by the millions—is the chance to walk around in the skin of that big guy in the middle of everything.”—The Oregonian

“A dark thriller . . . Lee Child’s Make Me, the twentieth in his wildly popular Jack Reacher series, delivers exactly what readers have come to expect from the perennial bestselling author: interesting characters, tight plots and page-turning action. . . . Readers won’t be disappointed.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune

“Jack Reacher is back. . . . Readers new to this series will find this book a good starting point, and fans will be pleased to see Jack again.”—LibraryReads (Top Ten Pick)

“The reigning champ ups the ante.”—Booklist (starred review)


From the Hardcover edition.

My life is pretty much like this: I spend 11 months and 28 days of every year looking forward to the new Lee Child book and then 2-3 days devouring it. He is the master of the opening paragraph. Immediate hooks. Short sentences. You don't even notice his writing style after the first page or two but it's effortless to read. And there are many things about this book which make it a strong addition to the series. I read it in two days and it definitely gave me the "Reacher fix" I wanted.

It starts in the usual way with Reacher turning up in a small town and immediately running into a woman in need of assistance (in this case Michelle Chang, a former FBI agent turned private investigator who is looking for her missing colleague), but it turns into a cross-country investigation that touches on issues that are current and very nasty.

And that is one of the issues that I had with the book: it's dark. It goes places that are unpleasant and disturbing. The majority of the book is like a regular Jack Reacher novel, but it changes tone towards the end when it becomes evident what it is that Reacher and Chang are investigating. The villains in this instance aren't just bad guys - they are evil. And I can honestly say that this is one Lee Child book I will never re-read. I didn't like putting those images in my head.

Another thing. It struck me halfway through this book that every woman that Reacher teams up with is exactly the same. Even as I write that it occurs to me that Lee Child would probably protest that it's not true because Chang is in her 40s and Chinese American, but that kind of proves my point: only the superficialities change.

Over the last several years the Reacher canon has been in a downward spiral and this latest entry in the series is plumbing new and disgusting lows, not only in the antagonists, but in protagonist Jack Reacher, too. After reading it, I felt completely disgusted, and felt as if I needed a scalding hot shower to wash off the filth.

When the series started, Reacher was the knight in slightly tarnished armor who found himself helping out some poor soul who’d found themselves embroiled in some kind of sticky situation they couldn’t handle themselves, and Reacher would step in, like the Lone Ranger, and save the day.

But as time has gone on, and particularly of late, author Child seems to have tired of the formula that made his success, and instead has created these utterly unbelievable situations that border on the surreal, if not outright insane, and the result has been to turn a formerly entertaining and enjoyable series into something beyond dark, almost absurdly gothic.

In this case, a very small town in the middle of nowhere – literally, a place surrounded by flat wheat fields to the visible horizon, so far out that it’s hours to the nearest area with cell phone service – named Mother’s Rest is the locus of events, starting with the disappearance and murder of a former FBI agent cum private investigator.

Reacher gets off the daily train out of curiosity about the town’s name and meets Michelle Chang, a colleague of the missing PI who’s trying to locate him. Without revealing details that would contain spoilers, I can say that their investigation leads them to a deadly conspiracy based in the Dark Web – that underbelly of the internet that most of us never even access – that’s located in Mother’s Rest, leading to a final and very deadly confrontation.

This is #20 in the Jack Reacher series and this time Lee Child has gone back to basics and used the very successful formula where Jack Reacher (ex military) roams the US aimlessly and finds trouble most places he goes. Diehard Reacher fans may be delighted but more discerning readers, especially those who have read many books in the series, will find much of the action a bit repetitious. IMHO it certainly isn't one of the best in the series.

Reacher is fascinated to find out why a very small town in remote prairie region of Oklahoma is named "Mother's Rest". Maybe it tells a tale of pioneer times when the wagon trains travelled this part of the prairie. The small town is basically centred around some huge wheat silos that cater for thousands of acres of wheat for miles around the town. The other main feature is a rail line with a train at 7am and 7pm each day.

When Reacher steps off the evening train he spots a trim Asian woman, Michelle Chan, apparently waiting for someone who might have been on the train. He soon learns that Michelle is ex FBI working with a security company and her colleague from Oklahoma City appears to have disappeared during an investigation involving Mother's Rest. They soon gain a rapport with one another and as he has nothing else to do before heading for Chicago before it gets too cold Reacher teams up with Chan to help her find her friend.

Walking away would have been easier as Mother's Rest is a strange place which doesn't make either of them very welcome. Reacher knows something is wrong when the General Store refuses to sell him a change of clothing and the Motel tells him they don't have a room for the next night as they are full - but they are not.

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  Make Me
  . . . Readers new to this series will find this book a good starting point, and fans will be pleased to see Jack again."--LibraryReads (Top Ten Pick) "The reigning champ ups the ante."--Booklist (starred review) From the Hardcover edition.

  
  

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  Make Me (with bonus short story Small Wars)
  #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE GUARDIAN, AND SUSPENSE MAGAZINE • Stephen King calls Jack Reacher “the coolest continuing series character” and now he’s back in ...

  
  

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  Make Me
  Praised by Stephen King in Entertainment Weekly as “the coolest continuing series character now on offer,” Jack Reacher is back in a gripping new thriller from #1New York Times bestselling author Lee Child.

  
  

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  Don't Make Me Think, Revisited
  Since Don’t Make Me Think was first published in 2000, hundreds of thousands of Web designers and developers have relied on usability guru Steve Krug’s guide to help them understand the principles of intuitive navigation and information ...

  
  

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  Make Me
  "As the new guardian of the Encyclopedia Magicka, Val expected the books to give her powers to replace those that disappeared after she lost her "V card" to Shade.

  
  

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  Make Me a Man!
  Looks at the ideals of masculine Hinduism and the corresponding feminine ideals that have built the Indian nation, and explores their consequences.

  
  

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  Does This Cape Make Me Look Fat?
  Furnishes helpful self-help guidance for the harried modern-day superhero, with practical advice on such topics as costume choice and self-esteem, x-ray vision and guilt, getting along with a sidekick, how to thrive in a team environment, ...

  
  

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  You Make Me Wanna...
  "You Make Me Wanna.," the conclusion to its cliffhanger prequel, "Double Pleasure Double Pain," answers the question you've been hungry for: what happened to Kyla?

  
  

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  Make Me a Star
  Some pitfalls are necessary for an artist's development, but not all. The stories and advice within these pages are not merely rhetoric or theory - they are hard-fought and hard-won experiences from those who've been in the trenches.

  
  

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  Make Me a Match
  Make Me A Matcha comedyby Lawrence Roman

  
  

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  Don't Make Me Smile
  He makes nasty remarks about his father's shabby new apartment. But no matter what he does, his parents just don't seem to get the picture. Isn't it obvious they're ruining his life? From the Trade Paperback edition.

  
  

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  Does this Book Make Me Look Fat?
  Eight short stories and six personal essays sound off on body image, self-esteem, diets, eating disorders, and fashion magazines, in a volume that includes contributions by Carolyn Mackler, Daniel Pinkwater, and Megan McCafferty.

  
  

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  Don't Make Me Think, Revisited
  Offers observations and solutions to fundamental Web design problems, as well as a new chapter about mobile Web design.

  
  

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  You Can't Make Me (But I Can Be Persuaded)
  From the Hardcover edition.

  
  

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  Bathrooms Make Me Nervous
  "Bathrooms make me nervous is the first book to explore the shy bladder condition (paruresis) from a woman's point of view.

  
  

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  Make Me Yours
  Because of that snafu you're going to owe me an uninterrupted weekend with you and that baseball bat you call a penis. You'd better be ready to give me overtime, too!” “That can be arranged,” Michael drawled. “Where are you?” “Ijust landed ...

  
  

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  You Can't Make Me (But I Can Be Persuaded)
  “I love the practical strategies and valuable insights from the hearts and lives of strong-willed kids.… You'll defi nitely want to make this book part of your parenting library.” Dr.

  
  

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  A taste of... Make Me I'm Yours... Party
  Three sample projects from Make Me I'm Yours .

  
  

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  Don't Make Me Turn This Van Around!
  If you have ever felt like your family was the only one that seemed a little odd, take heart! After reading Don't Make Me Turn This Van Around!, you'll think your loved ones are utter bores!

  
  

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  Counting Sheep Doesn't Make Me Sleep
  "Counting Sheep Doesn't Make Me Sleep" is a clever narrative of one young boy's great night's sleep and sweet dreams as he attempts to count sheep.