Jack Reacher

Jack Reacher
First appearance	Killing Floor (March 1997)
Last appearance	Worth Dying For (September 2010)
Created by	Lee Child
In-universe information
Alias	Jack always uses an alias when checking into a hotel. In earlier stories, this was usually the name of a lesser known ex-president. Later he more often used baseball players names.
Nickname	Reacher
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Occupation	U S Army Military Police (retired), pension income
Family	Father; Former United States Marine, Died 1988 Mother; Josephine Moutier Reacher died in Paris of cancer 1990 Brother; Joe Reacher murdered in Georgia 1997 working for the Treasury Department.
Spouse	Never Married
Children	None
Relatives	None surviving

Jack Reacher is a fictional character created by British author Jim Grant who writes under the pen name of Lee Child.

Biographical information

Jack (None) Reacher is a former United States Army Military Police Major. He was born on a military base in Berlin on October 29, 1960. At age 24, he graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. After graduation, he served 13 years as a Military Policeman, during which time he became part of a fictional military police unit, the 110th Special Investigations Unit, formed to handle exceptionally tough cases, especially those involving members of the United States Army Special Forces.

Though he was demoted from Major to Captain in the prequel novel The Enemy, he regained the rank of Major by the time he mustered out in 1997. He was the recipient of many military awards during his career: the Silver Star, the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Soldier's Medal, the Bronze Star, and a Purple Heart for wounds sustained in the bombing of the US Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983.

Since leaving the Army, Reacher has been a drifter. He wanders throughout the United States because he felt he never got to know his own country, having spent his youth living overseas on military bases. He usually only travels by hitchhiking, by bus or on foot as to not leave a paper trail. As a drifter, the only possessions he carries are money, a foldable toothbrush and, after 9/11, an expired passport. He wears his clothing for 2–3 days before discarding it, usually purchasing new clothing cheaply from chain outlets. He has no steady income and lives on savings in his bank account and part time jobs. At various points during the series, his bank account is supplemented by taking money from his enemies (this occurs most notably in Bad Luck and Trouble). Reacher knows how to drive although he is admittedly not a very good driver. He has never possessed a driver's license.

Reacher's demeanor is stoic and he does not talk much. He has a propensity for saying "that's for damn sure". Reacher frequently does not answer when people make statements or ask questions, nodding or shrugging preferring the other party to fill the silence. A recurring line in the novels is "Reacher said nothing". He is cool-headed and rarely becomes visibly angry, one of the few exceptions to this occurs in Nothing to Lose when he erupts in rage at an apathetic hospital employee for not ensuring that comatose Iraq War veteran received the proper care. Reacher has the uncanny ability to know what time it is, at any time of the day, without referring to a clock using "his clock in his head". He often uses his internal clock as an alarm, enabling him to wake up at any time he chooses night or day. It is revealed in Bad Luck and Trouble that Reacher has a fascination with mathematics. Reacher drinks coffee constantly. With this he quotes in The Enemy: "The Reacher brothers' need for caffeine makes heroin addiction look like an amusing little take-it-or-leave-it sideline". He is also fond of breakfast foods, especially eggs, pancakes and bacon. Reacher only occasionally uses profanity.

Reacher is skilled at fighting, although he is not an expert in any particular martial art. In 61 Hours his military record describes his combat skills as being expert on all small arms, outstanding on all man-portable weaponry, and beyond outstanding at hand-to-hand combat. Reacher's favorite techniques include elbow strikes, uppercuts, and headbutts. His tremendous strength aids him in fighting, as he is significantly stronger than most of his opponents. As revealed in Gone Tomorrow, Reacher hates confronting an opponent armed with a knife.

In addition to his fighting prowess, a common element of the Reacher novels is his overall propensity for brutality when necessary. Reacher's capacity for violence is enormous, although those he harms are nearly always villains worthy of what they receive. One notable exception to this was a bartender Reacher encounters during an Army investigation in the prequel novel The Enemy. Reacher badly maims the man in a fight but later learns he was not involved with the story's antagonists. He was officially reprimanded for this by the Army. In his efforts to protect innocents and stop villains, he has done such things as snap necks, bludgeon skulls, and break knees. Sometimes during the course of a novel (usually toward the end) Reacher calmly kills his foe(s) even after they are no longer a threat, but only if they have committed terrible acts (usually multiple murders) which he feels merit their deaths as justice. Such killings by Reacher are featured in Persuader and Bad Luck and Trouble, among others. In The Hard Way, Reacher is described as completely lacking, "The remorse gene. It just wasn't there." Reacher does not relish violence, but his ability to employ violence in a rational and just manner allows him to stop the novels' tremendously evil antagonists. He has a very strong moral code.

In Killing Floor it is revealed that he has a love for music, especially blues music. It was this affinity for the blues that inspired Reacher to get off the bus at the start of Killing Floor and catapulted him into the resulting story. It is also in this novel that Reacher's internal monologue reveals that he has a music collection in his head which he listens to.

Reacher is always aware of his surroundings; he always sits with his back to the wall, so that he can see those entering a room so he cannot be attacked from behind. He generally likes to be alone, especially in the dark. In 61 Hours it is stated that an army psychological study of reactions to fear in children showed him as having abnormally fast reflexes and aggression levels at the age of six.

As revealed in Nothing to Lose, Reacher holds no religious beliefs and is openly scornful of the fundamentalist Christianity espoused by the novel's antagonist. Reacher also shows his disdain for religion when in Bad Luck and Trouble he is traveling to Los Angeles via airline and he states that he does not "like Alaskan Airline because they put scripture cards on the meal trays."

Reacher is a skilled marksman. In addition being the only non-Marine to win the Marine Corps Wimbledon Cup rifle competition, he also won the US Army Pistol Championship and served as a pistol instructor. Throughout the novels, Reacher has shown great skill in the use of handguns, rifles, sub-machine guns and shotguns.

Physical appearance

Reacher is a giant, standing at 6' 5" tall (1.96m) with a 50-inch chest, and weighing between 220 and 250 pounds (100–115 kg). He has ice-blue eyes and dirty blond hair. He has very little body fat and his muscular physique is completely natural (he reveals in Persuader, he has never been an exercise enthusiast.) He is exceptionally strong but is not a good runner. Reacher is strong enough to break a man's neck with one hand (Bad Luck and Trouble) and kill a villain with a single punch to the head (61 Hours) or chest (Worth Dying For). In a fight against a 7 foot, 400 lb steroid using thug, Reacher was able to lift his opponent into the air and drop him on his head.

Reacher has multiple scars, most notably a scar on his abdomen caused by a bombing in Lebanon. He also has a 3-4 inch thin white scar that intersects his shrapnel scar that he received during a knife fight with Al-Qaeda operative Lila Hoth. Reacher mentions how the rough stitch work from his existing scar helped decrease the severity of his most recent attack. However, the cut did produce a deep, serious gash that led to Reacher passing out from blood loss. He also has a scar on his chest from a .38 bullet, a tear drop burn scar from close range gun shot that crossed his chest at point blank range, and one on his arm where his brother struck him with a chisel in his youth.

Family

Reacher's mother Josephine Moutier Reacher, born in France, was 30 years old when Reacher was born. She met Reacher's father in Korea and married him in Holland (The Enemy). She was widowed in 1988, and died in 1990 at the age of 60 of cancer. When she was only 13, she joined the French Resistance and under the alias "Beatrice" worked with Le Chemin de Fer Humain (the Human Railroad), saving 80 men. She garroted a schoolmate, a boy who threatened to give her up to the Nazis. Josephine Moutier was awarded the Médaille de la Résistance (the Resistance Medal) for her heroism.

Reacher's father (name unknown) was a Marine captain, who served in Korea and Vietnam. His service in the United States Marine Corps kept his family continually moving all around the world to various military bases. He died in 1988. When describing his father, Jack is quoted as saying, "(He was) a stone-cold killer. Next to him I look like Liberace." After military service, "there was no place left for people like him."

Jack had only one sibling, brother Joe Reacher. Two years older than Jack, Joe was born on a military base in the Philippines. Jack used to help Joe beat up the kids who gave him trouble in school, and vice versa. Joe was also a West Point graduate, and spent five years in Military Intelligence before joining the Treasury Department. He never won any of the "good medals", only the "junk awards." Joe died at the age of 38, having arranged a meeting with a potential investigation subject (see Killing Floor). Because he was killed in the line of duty, he can be found on the Treasury's Roll of Honor.

Acquaintances

• Officer Roscoe, (30), is a police officer, appearing in Killing Floor.
• Holly Johnson, (27), is a newly inducted FBI Special Agent and former Wall Street stock analyst. She is dark, attractive, self-assured and a knee ligament injury sustained whilst playing soccer requires her to use a cane. She appeared in Die Trying. She is the daughter of General Johnson, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and is the goddaughter of the President.
• Jodie Garber-Jacob, (30), is the daughter of General Leon Garber, his former commanding officer (The Enemy). She met and fell in love with Reacher when she was 15 and was totally off-limits to him. In Tripwire, she is divorced, using her maiden name and working as a corporate attorney. She is mentioned in Echo Burning as having moved to Europe. She appeared in Tripwire, and Running Blind.
• General Leon Garber, (retired), is the father of Jodie, a General who knew Reacher, helped him in Die Trying, and willed him his house. He appeared in Die Trying and The Enemy. His funeral is in Tripwire.
• Lisa Harper, (29), is an FBI Agent, stationed at Quantico. She appeared in Running Blind (The Visitor in the United Kingdom and Australia).
• Alice Amanda Aaron, (25), graduated from Harvard Law School, practicing law at a legal mission in Pecos, Texas, as penance for coming from a wealthy family. She appeared in Echo Burning.
• Carmen Greer, (30), is a housewife, short, slim, dark-skinned, fine-boned, "maybe 100 pounds". She is married with one child and an abusive husband. She appeared in Echo Burning.
• Frances Neagley, (late thirties), is a Security consultant, and former Army Master Sergeant and Military Policeman. She is of medium height, is slim, and has dark hair and eyes. She spends large amounts of time in the gym and has a purely platonic relationship with Reacher, not liking to be touched. She appeared in Without Fail and Bad Luck & Trouble.
• Mary Ellen Froelich, (35), is a Secret Service Agent, charged with protecting the Vice President. She has short fair hair, and is quietly confident. She dated Joe Reacher. She appeared in Without Fail.
• Susan Duffy, (early thirties), is a rogue agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration. She is pale, slim and attractive, and appeared in Persuader.
• Lieutenant Summer, (25), is a Lieutenant in the Army Military Police. She is petite and slender, and appeared in The Enemy.
• Eileen Ann Hutton, (age unknown), is a Brigadier General in the Judge Advocate General's Corps of the US Army. She and Reacher had a relationship prior to, and featured in, One Shot.
• Vaughan, (exact age unknown), is a police officer in Hope, Colorado. She is "probably less than five feet six, probably less than a hundred and twenty pounds, probably less than thirty-five years old" according to Reacher's estimate. Married to a totally incapacitated casualty of the war in Iraq (husband's name is Robert David Vaughan, called David). She befriends Reacher in Nothing to Lose.
• Detective Theresa Lee - An NYPD detective who aids Reacher's take down of an Al-Qaeda team in "Gone Tomorrow." They had a brief romantic episode before Reacher left to complete his task.
• Lauren Pauling,(early fifties), is an ex-FBI agent who now acts as a private investigator. She often refers to herself as being old. She appears in The Hard Way.
• Susan Turner,(early thirties), is a Major in the US Army and is the current commander of the 110th MP. She is described as a little above average height (5'7"), slender, long dark hair tied back, tanned skin and deep brown eyes. Her face is described as conveying "intelligence and authority and youth and mischief at the same time". Her defining characteristic however is her voice ... "warm, a little husky, a little breathy, a little intimate". She appears in 61 Hours.

Travels

His travels around the United States of America, exploring the one country he never got to see in his childhood, are the subject of all the novels so far, with the exception of one prequel (The Enemy) which centers on a case he undertook as an investigator in the Military Police in 1990. The novels are set in locales ranging from New York City and Los Angeles to small towns in the American South and Midwest. To date, Reacher's travels outside of the United States have taken him to rural England ("The Hard Way") and Paris, France where Reacher visits his dying mother with his brother.

Style

The Reacher novels are written either in the first-person or third-person. Child says writing in the first person is more natural for him, but writing in the third person gives him more freedom when building up suspense.

So far in the series, Killing Floor, Persuader, The Enemy and Gone Tomorrow are in the first person narrative. Die Trying, Tripwire, Running Blind/The Visitor, Echo Burning, Without Fail, One Shot, The Hard Way, Bad Luck and Trouble, Nothing to Lose, 61 Hours and Worth Dying For are in the third person.

List of novels/ Appearances

Jack Reacher can be found in the following books by Lee Child:

1. Killing Floor (March 1997)
2. Die Trying (July 1998)
3. Tripwire (June 1999)
4. Running Blind (published as The Visitor in the UK and Australia) (April 2000)
5. Echo Burning (ISBN 0-515-13331-0) (April 2001)
6. Without Fail (April 2002)
7. Persuader (April 2003)
8. The Enemy (Prequel, time frame occurs before Killing Floor) (April 2004)
9. One Shot (ISBN 0-385-33668-3) (April 2005)
10. The Hard Way (ISBN 0-385-33669-1) (May 2006)
11. Bad Luck and Trouble (ISBN 0-385-34055-9) (April 2007)
12. Nothing to Lose (ISBN 978-0593057025) (March 2008)
13. Gone Tomorrow (April 2009)
14. 61 Hours (March 2010)
15. Worth Dying For (September 2010)

He can also be seen in the short story "James Penney's New Identity" from Fresh Blood 3 (Oct 1999, ISBN 978-1899344529), a compilation of short mystery stories edited by Mike Ripley and Maxim Jakubowski, although Reacher is not the protagonist in the story and appears only briefly. Reacher is also mentioned several times in the Stephen King novel "Under the Dome."

Killing Floor

Plot

After hopping off a Greyhound to pursue a whim (finding out what happened to Blind Blake the musician) Reacher is arrested and charged with murder. After an attempt on his life while being held over the weekend in a state prison, Reacher is determined to figure out what happened. Later he finds out that the person he was framed for murdering was Joe Reacher, his brother. Unknowingly, Jack Reacher had stumbled into one of the biggest counterfeiting schemes in the United States. And takes head on, a vicious and ruthless butchers of a well established town gang operating a massive counterfeit notes racket. This novel is set in Margrave, Georgia.

Die Trying

Plot

Whilst helping Holly Johnson, an attractive young woman struggling with her crutches on a Chicago street, they turn around only to discover two handguns pointing at them. Reacher and the woman are thrown into a dark van and taken 2000 miles across America, completely unaware why they were kidnapped and where they are going. Finding themselves trapped in a seemingly remote place, they must work together to find the answers.

Tripwire

Plot

Hanging around in Key West, digging pools by hand and moonlighting as a bouncer for a topless bar, Reacher finds himself wanted in New York by a Mrs. Jacob. She turns out to be the beautiful Jodie Garber, daughter of General Leon Garber, Reacher's mentor and surrogate father in the Army. Jack and Jodie soon find themselves hunted by a psychopath crippled from Vietnam who has a shadowy business and other secrets to protect. Reacher inherits a house and a steady girlfriend, and contemplates the joys of sedentary life.

Running Blind

Plot

It's tough being a high-flying woman in the Army. Very tough. When Sergeant Amy Callan and Lieutenant Caroline Cook are found dead in their own homes—in baths filled with Army-issue camouflage paint, their bodies completely unmarked—Jack Reacher is under suspicion. He knew them both—and he knows that they both left the Army under dubious circumstances, both victims of sexual harassment. A former U.S. military policeman, a loner and a drifter, he matches the psychological profile prepared by the FBI, and is arrested by ambitious Special Agent Julia Lamarr. But when the body of another woman, Sergeant Lorraine Stanley, is discovered, killed with similar precision, Reacher is released. Everyone fears there is a serial killer on the loose. But the FBI know something in Reacher's past and have strong persuasive powers. Before long Reacher finds himself heavily involved in the murder investigation. He has to find out what these women have in common and why someone is out to do them harm.

Echo Burning

Plot

Hitching rides is an unreliable mode of transport. In temperatures of over a hundred degrees, you're lucky if a driver will open the door of his air-conditioned car long enough to let you slide in. That's Jack Reacher's conclusion. He's adrift in the fearsome heat of a Texas summer, and he needs to keep moving through the wide open vastness, like a shark in the water. The last thing he's worried about is exactly who picks him up. He never expected it to be somebody like Carmen. She's alone, driving a Cadillac. She's beautiful, young and rich. She has a little girl who is being watched by unseen observers. And a husband who is in jail. Who will beat her senseless when he comes out. If he doesn't kill her first. Reacher is no stranger to trouble. And at Carmen's remote ranch in Echo County there is plenty of it: lies and prejudice, hatred and murder. Reacher can never resist a lady in distress. Her family is hostile, the cops can't be trusted and the lawyers won't help.

Without Fail

Plot

Reacher arrives in Atlantic City, New Jersey, after hitching a ride with a couple of ageing musicians. He is accosted there by Mary Ellen (M. E.) Froelich, a beautiful secret service agent who managed to track him down. She has a special request for him: to try to kill the Vice-President-elect, Brook Armstrong, whose protection she is in charge of. He accepts the challenge, and enlists old colleague Frances Neagley to help carry out the mission. They work to defeat the killers who are a pair of cops from Idaho who suffered ill treatment from Brook Armstrong's father many years previously.

Persuader

Plot

Walking along the street, Reacher sees Quinn, a man who should be dead. Reacher is a man who hates unfinished business. Ten years ago, a key investigation went sour and Francis Xavier Quinn got away with murder. Now a chance encounter outside Boston's Symphony Hall brings it all back. And Reacher sees his one last shot to finish what was started all those years ago.

The Enemy

Plot

On New Year's Day, 1990, in a North Carolina motel, a two-star general is found dead. Within minutes, Reacher is ordered to contain the situation. But things soon escalate when Reacher discovers the general's briefcase is missing and within hours, the general's wife is killed. Reacher soon finds himself embroiled in a complex game of tug of war between powerful men in the United States Army, and beyond.

One Shot

Plot

In an innocent heartland city, five are shot dead by an expert sniper for no apparent reason. One of the dead is intended to die but the others are killed to disguise and confuse. The police quickly identify and arrest the alleged culprit, and build a slam-dunk case with iron-clad evidence. But the accused man claims he's innocent and asks for the assistance of Jack Reacher. Reacher, who had previously investigated this man in the Army, is curious and decides to investigate the ostensibly open-and-shut case, and soon finds himself involved in a complex cover-up.

The Hard Way

Plot

After witnessing an exchange of $1,000,000. Jack Reacher is hired by the underhanded director of a private military firm to rescue his wife and stepchild, who appear to have been kidnapped although they have run away. While Reacher uncovers clues that might lead to a rescue, he learns about the director's dubious past which involves a murderous plot against two ex-associates.He meets a beautiful ex-FBI agent converted to private investigator who assists him in the investigation to unveil the shocking truth, and ultimately engages in a showdown on a farm in Norfolk,England. The novel is set primarily in New York City.

Bad Luck and Trouble

Plot

When one of his old army crew turns up dead outside Los Angeles, Reacher gets his old investigations unit back together to get to the bottom of what's going on.

Nothing to Lose

Plot

Based in Colorado, travelling from the town of Hope to the town of Despair, it soon becomes clear that Reacher is an unwelcome visitor in a town with a lot of secrets to hide. Reacher cannot resist the opportunity to explore the town's secrets further, especially the peculiar town owner who has employed the majority of the population to work within his recycling factory.

Gone Tomorrow

Plot

Taking the subway late at night, Reacher soon identifies a potential suicide bomber. He attempts to reason with her, but is shocked when she instead commits suicide with a gun and is revealed to have not been a bomber after all. Reacher is determined to discover why she was compelled to kill herself and soon uncovers a massive conspiracy stretching from California to New York City to even Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation of that country.

61 Hours

Plot

The 14th book of the Jack Reacher saga. In South Dakota a coach crashes during a savage snow storm with Jack Reacher in it. Jack gets caught up in a hunt for a murderer and the protection of a key witness. Meanwhile, a link to Reacher's past comes to his aid and a brings a path to redemption.

Worth Dying For

Plot

Jack Reacher arrives late one night in a rural Nebraska town. In the town's fading motel bar he overhears a drunk doctor's refusal to attend a domestic abuse. The victim of the abuse is married to the scion of the Duncan clan, which holds that part of Nebraska in its grip, keeping the population cowed and docile. Reacher talks the doctor into doing the right thing, and ends up embroiled in a smuggling ring and an unsolved disappearance from twenty-five years prior.

Worth Dying For was published on 30 September 2010 in the UK and on 19 October 2010 in the USA.

Miscellaneous

Paramount Pictures recently hired Academy Award nominated screenwriter Josh Olson to adapt One Shot, the ninth book in the series. Christopher McQuarrie, Oscar-winning screenwriter for The Usual Suspects, was then brought in to re-write Olson's draft.

Author Lee Child revealed the origin of Jack Reacher's name in a video clip : whilst unemployed and midway through writing the first novel with the character as yet unnamed, he visited his local supermarket with his wife. As usual, during their visit, an elderly lady approached him and asked him to reach an item off a high shelf for her. His wife commented : "Hey if this writing thing doesn't work out, you can be a reacher in a supermarket."

See also

• Lee Child
• Military brat

External links

• Author Lee Child's Official website
• Jack Reacher Official US website
• Official Publisher UK website
• Jack Reacher Fans website

References

• Lee Child (1999). Die Trying. New York: Jove. ISBN 0-515-12502-4.
• Lee Child (2004). The Enemy. New York: Delacorte Press. ISBN 0-385-33667-5.
• Lee Child (2002). Without Fail. New York: Putnam. ISBN 0-399-14861-2.