High Heat by Lee Child

Published exclusively as an ebook, a long short story from thriller master Lee Child about the teenage Reacher, now also available in No Middle Name: the Collected Jack Reacher Stories. July 1977. Jack Reacher is almost seventeen, and he stops in New York on his way from South Korea to visit his brother at West Point. The summer heat is suffocating, fires are raging in the Bronx, the city is bankrupt, and the mad gunman known as Son of Sam is still on the loose. Reacher meets a woman with a problem, and agrees to help her . . . and then the power grid fails and the lights go out, plunging the lawless city that never sleeps into chaos. What does a visiting teenager do in the dark? If that visiting teenager is Jack Reacher, the answer is: plenty. Don’t miss the exciting preview of Lee Child’s latest Jack Reacher novel, Never Go Back!

Easily the worst Reacher in the series, this novella puts a 16/17 year old Reacher in Manhattan, behaving EXACTLY as if he were the 35 year old Reacher we all know and love as the cape-less Superman. He is more knowledgeable, level-headed, mature and street savvy than any action hero you've read about, but he's a teenager looking for girls in NYC while enroute to visit his big brother. Utterly lacking credibility, it's best redeeming feature is its brevity.

★ ★ ★ 1/2 (rounded up) This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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Ahhh, finally – an actually satisfying shorter Jack Reacher story. It's longer than the others I've tried – a novella, not just a short story. That's probably a lot of it, but there's something more to it – just don't ask me what.

Reacher's on summer vacation before his senior year – pretty much fully grown, has a good head on his shoulders, and is as arrogant and invincible feeling as most teenagers (he's just big and tough enough to back it up). He's visiting NYC for the day before going to visit his brother at West Point.

It's 1977, a summer in NYC known for two things: incredible heat and Son of Sam. Both have an impact on this story (no, Reacher doesn't stop the killer or anything – phew). Reacher flirts with some college girls, breaks up a fight with a mobster and an undercover FBI agent, survives a blackout, spends some quality time with one of the college girls and helps the FBI agent out – while engaging in a few solid fights.

The action takes place in one night – probably 14 hours or so, but Child manages to cram a lot into those hours. Is it realistic? No, not even by Reacher standards. Is it compelling – yup. Will it keep you interested? Oh, yeah.

Dick Hill sounded to me like he as having a lot of fun reading this one – which is fitting, it's probably the most “fun” Reacher story I've come across (well, maybe the Reacher/Nick Heller story in FaceOff is a little more so). He does his typical job, satisfying in his delivery, keeps you engaged, doesn't wow with technique.

It's a fun story, nothing to get excited about, but something that Reacher fans will enjoy, in a complete-feeling story. Good enough for me.