Night School

Not sure I want to finish this (currently a quarter or so in). The idea sounded promising, but the execution fell terribly flat for me.

There are so many factual errors or things that plainly feel off in the description of mid-nineties Hamburg and Germany in general, I don't even know where to begin. Granted, I haven't been to Hamburg in the mid-nineties, just lived in the German south, so there may be regional differences.

Still, the anti-American sentiment was worse around the Iraq-war in the early nineties, the German police force does not work as described, the European Parliament is not located in Brussels, German ID + driver's license in the nineties were not as described etc.

On top of this “alternate reality” setting, Reacher comes across as an arrogant jerk I simply do not want to read about. Is he portrayed differently in other books of the series?

I'm disappointed because both the author and especially this series came highly recommended. But maybe this just isn't the best book start to the series (even if I heard that the books work as standalone stories)?

I want to give the series another go with one of the earlier books, but I sincerely hope that the characters are more interesting, and that the research isn't quite as obviously sloppy to continually distract from the actual story.