Echo Burning by Lee Child

This is the fifth book in the Jack Reacher series by Lee Child. I do like this author and this hero. As usual there is excellent detail that allows you to see the scene in your mind’s eye. You do feel that you are watching the story unfold. I enjoy that quality in writing and that I can use my imagination better as small details are filled in.

This time I felt that it is not immediately clear what the problem is. Yes, we do get to know right away that a young woman is trying to hire Reacher to kill her husband. She says, she has suffered regular domestic violence and is worried it will start again, when the husband comes out of prison. She is scared for herself and her daughter. But somehow there is this feeling created that this was not just the issue. There was something underlying and Reacher was not sure what it was.

However, he does agree to accompany her and do some causal labour to keep an eye on her and make sure she was ok. The family is strange, the mother in law and brother in law do not appear to like the woman and behave strangely. Indeed, the brother in law tries to get the ranch hands to chase Reacher away. But why is a group of people keeping a look out of the ranch and noting the comings and goings of everyone? There is a short scene fairly early on which describes a murder out on a lonely road. How does this link up with the main story? What or who are the assassins after?

Then the husband comes home and the same evening he is shot. The wife was found to be alone with him and it was of course her little gun that was the murder weapon. Reacher is not convinced that she has committed the murder, despite all evidence pointing towards her. He gets her a pro bono lawyer and tries to find the truth. Why does the woman suddenly change her story by admitting murder? The story gives a view into what life was like in these small places and about Mexican illegal immigrants. It is right towards the end that one gets an inkling of what is really happening. The end when it comes is pretty unexpected and fast.

I must say I dawdled over the book as the story was slow to develop or maybe it was my own lethargy but it is a good story. Maybe I had got used to having the main plot laid out early on and this influenced my slow read. But as usual this was a good novel and worth a read.