High Heat

★ ★ ★ 1/2 (rounded up) This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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Ahhh, finally – an actually satisfying shorter Jack Reacher story. It's longer than the others I've tried – a novella, not just a short story. That's probably a lot of it, but there's something more to it – just don't ask me what.

Reacher's on summer vacation before his senior year – pretty much fully grown, has a good head on his shoulders, and is as arrogant and invincible feeling as most teenagers (he's just big and tough enough to back it up). He's visiting NYC for the day before going to visit his brother at West Point.

It's 1977, a summer in NYC known for two things: incredible heat and Son of Sam. Both have an impact on this story (no, Reacher doesn't stop the killer or anything – phew). Reacher flirts with some college girls, breaks up a fight with a mobster and an undercover FBI agent, survives a blackout, spends some quality time with one of the college girls and helps the FBI agent out – while engaging in a few solid fights.

The action takes place in one night – probably 14 hours or so, but Child manages to cram a lot into those hours. Is it realistic? No, not even by Reacher standards. Is it compelling – yup. Will it keep you interested? Oh, yeah.

Dick Hill sounded to me like he as having a lot of fun reading this one – which is fitting, it's probably the most “fun” Reacher story I've come across (well, maybe the Reacher/Nick Heller story in FaceOff is a little more so). He does his typical job, satisfying in his delivery, keeps you engaged, doesn't wow with technique.

It's a fun story, nothing to get excited about, but something that Reacher fans will enjoy, in a complete-feeling story. Good enough for me.

So, so ridiculous. Had to suspend my disbelief even more than normal for a Reacher book. Here, he is supposedly a young 17 yr old with little experience and lots of attitude and yet he talks, acts, and moves like the Jack Reacher of the present. While these short stories/novellas are not the author's strong point, it wasn't terrible and certainly could have been worse. At least it made me roll my eyes in an entertaining way.

An interesting little snippet into Reacher's life more than 30 years ago. There is absolutely no reason to write these stories about him as a teenager, except, I think to insert such events as the terror that David Berkowitz caused in the 70's. I say this because there is no difference between him as a 16 year old and him as a 46 year old. You would never think that you were in the mind of a 16 year old because he think exactly like he does as an adult. He's basically the same size as he is now so even that isn't different.

Of course, that's not to say that this isn't a fun Reacher read. He's coming to the rescue and the results are....surprising. I was a little disappointed in the ending, but it is what it is. Reacher's not really known for his happy endings, right?

Easily the worst Reacher in the series, this novella puts a 16/17 year old Reacher in Manhattan, behaving EXACTLY as if he were the 35 year old Reacher we all know and love as the cape-less Superman. He is more knowledgeable, level-headed, mature and street savvy than any action hero you've read about, but he's a teenager looking for girls in NYC while enroute to visit his big brother. Utterly lacking credibility, it's best redeeming feature is its brevity.

16 year old Reacher is in New York during a heatwave when he witnesses a man slap a woman in the street. He intervenes. The woman is FBI, the man is Mafia. The next few hours are action packed. City-wide power-cut, a date with a college girl and an up-close sighting of Son of Sam. All in a nights work for Jack Reacher.