Echo Burning

Echo Burning

2001 Hardcover edition
Author	Lee Child
Language	English
Series	Jack Reacher
Genre	Thriller novel
Publisher	Putnam; Bantam
Publication date	April 2, 2001 June 25, 2001
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (Hardcover, Paperback)
Pages	384 pp
ISBN	0-399-14726-8
Preceded by	Running Blind
Followed by	Without Fail

Echo Burning is the fifth novel in the Jack Reacher series written by Lee Child. It was published in 2001 by Putnam in America and Bantam in the United Kingdom.

Plot summary

In a Texan bar, Jack Reacher breaks a local police officer's nose and finger after being provoked, so when the officer and three of his colleagues turn up the following day to arrest him, Reacher decides it's time to move on. He manages to hitch a lift with a Mexican woman called Carmen Greer, but she reveals to him that the only reason she picked him up is because she has a problem - her tax-evading husband Sloop is coming out of prison soon and he will beat her up. Carmen needs somebody to kill him, and she thinks Reacher's military background may help her get rid of him. Reacher initially refuses, and even gets out of the car into the 110 degree heat, but he eventually agrees to go back to the ranch where Carmen, her husband Sloop and the rest of Sloop's family live, to keep an eye on her. Reacher and Carmen then proceed to pick up the daughter of Carmen and Sloop: Ellie, who gets on well with Reacher.

During this time, we also see the introduction of two hired teams: the first team, named "The Watching Team" or "The Watchers", are comprised of two men and a boy and have been watching the ranch where the Greers live. This team is later killed by a second, called "The Killing Team", who have also killed Sloop's lawyer Al Eugene.

They arrive back at the ranch, but Reacher does not receive a warm welcome from Sloop's mother, brother or the two ranchers that work there. Nonetheless, he begins works there, and in the days leading up to Sloop's release, Reacher helps Carmen how to fire a gun and also beats up both ranchers in a bar fight. Sloop comes home and takes a dislike to Reacher, and Sloop eventually gets the State Police to take Reacher away.

The State Police do take Reacher away, but the troopers are called back to the Greer Ranch - or the "Red House" - whilst Reacher is still in the car. Sloop has been shot and killed, and the authorities think it was Carmen. Whilst she is incarcerated, she confesses to the murder and denies help from Alice Amanda Aaron, the attorney Reacher hires for her.

Reacher and Alice work on trying to prove Carmen's innocence, despite being thrown off the track by the claims of Hack Walker - Pecos County's district attorney and Sloop's oldest friend - that Carmen is a well-known liar, and the kidnapping of Ellie by "The Killing Team". Eventually, however, Reacher draws out and kills two members of "The Killing Team", before proving it was Walker who hired the team to kill Al Eugene and Sloop after Sloop threatened to make public information about what the threesome used to do in their youth - kill illegal immigrants attempting to cross the border between America and Mexico. After tracking down the third "Killing Team" member and finding Ellie, the kidnapper gives a confession, leaving Carmen to be set free.

Production

Child finished writing Echo Burning in March 2000. The book was released in the United Kingdom and its territories on April 2, 2001, and the American publication followed on June 25 of the same year.

The original idea for Echo Burning came from two sources. The first was an idea he had, in which he wondered what it would be like to a woman whose husband was returning home from jail, but she didn't want him to return. He also took inspiration from seeing the grave of the gunfighter Clay Allison who "never killed a man that did not need killing." He wondered what it would be like if Reacher was confronted by a man he had been told needed killing.

Child wanted Carmen Greer to appear as a character people did not know whether or not she was telling the truth or not and if she could be trusted. He has also said how we wanted Alice Amanda Aaron, the vegetarian, lesbian, attorney Reacher hires, to be a reflection of how diverse America is; he can be quoted as saying "she's totally normal in New York, but a freak in Texas."

Reception

Echo Burning was well received by critics. In a starred review, book review journal Kirkus called it "Smashingly suspenseful," and said "Child builds tension to unbearable extremes, then blows it out in sharply choreographed violence." The Denver Post called it "...a story you can sink your teeth into." Many critics considered this as one of the best books of the year, with the Boston Globe even calling it "The best mystery I [the reviewer] have read this year." In the United Kingdom the book was also well recieved, with the Daily Mail saying: "In the space of less than five years, Child has established himself as one of Britain's most successful commercial novelists. [Echo Burning is] Child's breakthrough book into the mega-sellers. He is that good."

External links

• Echo Burning information page on Lee Child's Official Website