Listened to: "Tripwire" by Lee Child.

Listened to: Tripwire by Lee Child, downloaded from Overdrive.com.

There is nothing unusual here. Reacher is still a big dude, still wicked smart, still screwing hot chicks. What's also usual is that Child expertly sets everything up. Even though Reacher is always the star you still worry about the outcome and the bad guys are vicious and vile. No matter what, Reacher is tougher and meaner. Nice pacing and build-up with two storylines converging at the end.

Reacher is working under a false name in Key West when a private investigator comes looking for him. The PI is murdered at the same time two NY accented thugs show up. Reacher makes the connection and backtracks through what he knows about the PI to find out who is looking for him. At the same time the bad guys keep looking for Reacher because the PI's investigation tripped a wire somewhere.

Reacher finds out his former commanding officer's daughter, who Reacher lusted after for many years, is the one looking for him. The former CO wanted Reacher's help in an investigation when the CO was too sickened by cancer to continue. Reacher visits the elderly Hobies who want to find the fate of their Army son, Victor, who went missing in Vietnam.

Reacher finds out the Hobies were scammed and, using his Army experience, tracks down Hobies military records and visits the Army's body identification place in Hawaii. Meanwhile he is joined by the CO's daughter who the bad guys are trying to kill, is hunted by bad guys - led by sadistic Victor Hobie, bangs the CO's daughter a bunch of times, tracks down Hobie's true history, kills some guys, gets shot, drinks coffee, etc.

Problems: Not so good narration. Some good some bad but narrator makes the women characters mostly whiny and annoying. I'll have to check the narrator for the next in the series and just read the book if it is the same guy.

Neat stuff: Does Child have a hard-on for the Steyr GB? This is the second appearance in four or five of the Reacher books I have read.

Good stuff: Child succinctly draws a very minor character. It's a neat little description of a law firm driver who knows he was partly hired out of charity. He maintains a formal bearing and deals formally with the firm's riders "insist[ing] passengers take the rear seat" rather than ride in front. The driver always wears a dark suit and chaffeur's cap thinking that "to act very properly would raise his perceived status".