This is pure escapism. Lots of action. Good guys. Bad guys. No deep philosophical meaning. No moralistic implication. The bodies are piling up, and our hero emerges wounded but triumphant. (Normally one little band-aid covers the injuries from a serious pummeling.) If this is your bag (and I confess it's occasionally mine), then you'll want to become acquainted with Lee Child's character, Jack Reacher.

First introduced in Child's Killing Floor, Jack is a recently discharged military officer. He's big, he's lethal, and he loves blues music. With no family or other obligations, Jack's roaming around the U.S. wherever the mood takes him. While temporarily in Chicago, he happens to be outside a dry-cleaning store when an attractive women walking with a pronounced limp and a cane appears in the doorway carrying several clothing bags. Jack sees she's having difficulty balancing all the bags and negotiating the store threshold. He lends her a hand.

Suddenly three guys carrying guns appear. They grab the woman as well as Jack and shove them in a car and speed off. Later transferred to a van, the two begin a journey that will last several days. Jack is impressed with his companion – this is no wailing, whining babe. She identifies herself as Holly Johnson, an FBI agent.

Holly's FBI co-workers realize almost immediately that she's been abducted. The dry-cleaner's security video has recorded the confrontation. From the camera viewpoint, however, it appears that Jack is involved with the abductors.

Meanwhile, Holly's concerned that this guy off the street is going to prove a liability; she is responsible for his safety as well as extricating herself from their abductors.

But Holly's lucked out. The bad guys have grabbed a one-man commando team. Don't bother wondering why the bad guys simply don't blow Jack away early in the story – bad guys are never that smart and the good old US of A is teetering on the brink of disaster that only Jack can avert. He's not going to sit back and let events take their course.

Together Holly and Jack will take on a separatist private militia unit and its psychologically twisted leader. While Jack and Holly are trying to save themselves, the FBI and the U.S. Army are riding to the rescue.

Like I said: lots of action.

The story's well-paced. There's lots of jumping back and forth from Jack and Holly to the bad guys to the FBI/government types. Nevertheless, the story really moves. Sure, I knew there's no way that Jack could be defeated, but it's not the whether but the how that keeps a reader riveted. Jack's more than just a highly skilled killing machine – he's got a strong moral sense as well as a down-to-earth practical outlook. America can breathe easy: democracy is safe in this guy's hands.

A warning to readers who like their thrillers cerebral and all the characters still standing at the end: you may want to skip this one. There are lots of ways to kill off characters, and this book features many of them (as well as the technical details of how they work).

One additional observation: don't expect a hot romance to develop between Jack and Holly. In this sub-genre, the lone hero stays lone. Any feminine love-interest is going to wind up either with another character or dead. Holly's that rare character – a competent female who's the equal of any and all male characters (and superior to most) – she's too cool to kill off.

I'm hoping that there'll be a third (and fourth and fifth etc.) Jack Reacher book. I'm hooked.

--Lesley Dunlap