Reacher's sympathetic, but he's not crazy. Nonetheless, he allows himself to be drawn into beautiful Carmen Greer's orbit, which ought to teach a guy not to hitchhike. Agreeing to protect her from the husband who's about to be released from jail and, according to Carmen, who's about to pay her back for tipping off the authorities to the tax fraud that landed him in prison, Reacher moves into the bunkhouse of the Echo, Texas, ranch that's owned by the bigoted, bitter, but powerful Greer family, which despises Carmen because she's Mexican and tolerates her only because she's Sloop Greer's wife and the mother of his child. The expected bloodshed ensues, but it's Sloop, not Carmen, who ends up with a bullet in his head. Reacher's convinced that Carmen acted in self-defense, even after other evidence comes to light that suggests there's more--and less--to her unhappy tale than even her own lawyer believes. This is the best Jack Reacher yet, smart, stylish, and convincing. If it's your first encounter with Child's work, be sure to check out his backlist--Running Blind, Tripwire, etc. --Jane Adams

Product Description
Jack Reacher, hailed as "a wonderfully epic hero" by People, confronts Texan hatred and hidden crimes in this superb new thriller.

Ex-military cop Jack Reacher returns in this latest in the award-winning series critics call "spectacular" (The Seattle Times), "relentless" (Denver Post), and "perfect" (The New York Times Book Review).

Reacher is hitching through the heat of West Texas and getting desperate for a ride. The last thing he's worried about is exactly who picks him up.

She's called Carmen. She's a good-looking young woman, she has a beautiful little girl . . .and she has married into the wrong family. They're called the Greers. They're a bitter and miserly clan, and they've made her life a living hell. Worse, her monster of a husband is soon due out of prison. So she needs protection, and she needs it now.

Lawyers can't help. Cops can't be trusted. So Reacher goes home with her to the lonely ranch where nothing is as it seems, and where evil swirls around them like dust in a storm. Within days, Carmen's husband is dead - and simmering secrets send Echo, Texas, up in flames.

Jack's a loner, and it is fitting that he's back on the road again after trying unsuccessfully to settle down. He's in hot, dry, west Texas (and Child really makes you feel as though you are there - you're thirsty throughout the story!) where he's enlisted himself to help an abused (?) wife, Carmen Greer, and her daughter, Ellie. Greer's tale is fraught with lies, and, if I were Jack, I would have given up on her. She's not able to escape her husband, Sloop, and his secretive pack of friends that
have a past that leads to bloodshed.

The pace bogs down from time to time, and it is difficult to root for Carmen. The ending is a lot more transparent than anything Child has given us previously. Worst of all, Child gets bogged down in his own descriptiveness, a problem encountered in his earlier works, where it was more forgiveable and did less to hurt his characterization and his pace.

Not giving up on Jack, because he is the most refreshing hero of the past few years, but one more average work by Lee Child will send me scurrying for some new authors!


Hopelessly PC   May 15, 2002
 10 out of 13 found this review helpful

This book has it all for the PC fan: redneck "gringas" that hunt mexican "wetbacks" like dogs; a beautiful lesbian lawyer who helps the oppressed poor - she's from New York City of course, and works for free to "give back"; the latino heroine whose family owns 1000 acres in Napa Valley but is tragically married to a West Texas rancher/oil man who beats her constantly; his matriarchal mother who still wears jeans and fringed blouses fit for a 20 year old and lacquers her hair into a beehive; poor Mexican immigrants living as row croppers that quote Balzac; gum popping white waitresses who won't talk to their "beaner" mexican customers; and of course a hero who was mysteriously discharged from the Army after being somehow psychologically ruined by the military. The local sheriff is a fat drunken anglo, but law enforcement is saved by the sharp looking, well built hispanic ranger. And all this is just the tip of the sterotypical iceberg. After a few chapters the read is funny just to see what kind of a world view is held by this New York City writer. Seriously flawed book by someone who obviously hasn't researched his material.


Yuck.   June 15, 2002
 9 out of 11 found this review helpful

Lee Child started out with some pretty fine novels in his series featuring the ex-military cop, now drifter Jack Reacher. Reacher seems to have a penchant for landing in some rather outlandish and bizarre situations. Unfortunately, Child lost his touch in this one. ECHO BURNING is a slow, drawn out, and rather boring novel. While RUNNING BLIND, his last novel, was a terribly unbelievable and contrived plot - at least there was plenty of swift, moving action that kept the pages turning. Here we get long, unnecessarily detailed descriptions of Reacher sleeping, Reacher driving in a car, the melodrama of a six year old trying to figure out how to open a locked door. This reader kept saying "let's get on with it already!!"

This was a rather slow and disappointing story.


Went a little too far   October 13, 2001
 8 out of 8 found this review helpful

Lee Child is a wonderful writer, but frequently he tries too hard to create the "perfect character" or the "perfect twist" to his plots. "ECHO BURNING" is a good example of a book that over-reaches itself. The characters are too heavily drawn, the plot is convoluted, and the details just don't quite ring true. Jack Reacher is a good, solid character, but he can't possibly be the "super-hero" that he is written as. Lee Child's grasp of the military as a way of life and as a career leaves something to be desired. There are gaps and false notes from time to time. The plot is way too far-fetched to be believable but it does hold the reader's interest.

Child's treatment of the story and the characters in "ECHO BURNING" makes for a good read and I can honestly say that I enjoyed this book and will defitely read the next one.


Echo Burning, Time Wasting   June 2, 2006
 8 out of 8 found this review helpful

Lee Child may be one of the most inconsistent writers in popular fiction. Some of his books are very good, some are readable but not outstanding, and some, like Echo Burning, are just plain awful.

The book starts out with one of the most tired, worn-out cliches in the mystery genre; a lovely wife in distress asks hero Jack Reacher to help her out by killing her abusive husband. Savvy readers are then thinking, "Aha! There must be more to the story than this! Some unusual twist or surprise sub-plot." The answer? Nope. There's not.

The book takes place in the Texas desert and if you chopped out every sentence describing how hot it is, the book would be about 20 pages long. Those remaining 20 pages would be descriptions of how long it takes to drive from one place to another out there in all that emptiness, which is what Reacher spends most of his time doing since the places he needs to go are so far apart.

This book took me forever to finish because I couldn't get through more than 5 pages in one sitting without falling asleep. Lee Child may have written some exciting, fast-paced books in his career, but this is definitely not one of them.