Reacher Said Nothing

I have never read a Jack Reacher novel. I picked up Killing Floor about a year ago, but never made it far. The context just wasn't right for me at the time. Someday, I may pick it up and read it in a sitting. It was the same time the first time I tried to read Foundation. I was 11 or 12, and it was the first time I think I tried reading a book that had such dramatic jumps in timelines. The fact that the protagonist for both parts of the book had the initials H.S. made it hard for me to follow. I don't know why. But a few years later I picked it up again and proceeded to read the entire series over the course of a week.

So why did I pick up Reacher Said Nothing? Because even knowing so little about Reacher, I am always fascinated by the process authors take to create. Martin's book delivered that, though a bit unevenly. To be fair, the book was never sold as only being about the writing process. My three stars are only because I found it uneven in representing the narrative. It was good, but it wasn't the best example of this kind of book. It does have the distinction of being one of the only I've seen that was written by an observer rather than autobiographical. It does add a slightly objective angle that can be lost – most folks don't write about all of their bad habits while creating.

Probably more interesting to Reacher fans, but still a decent insight into yet another writers process. Or lack thereof.

An interesting perspective and some fascinating insights into Lee Child's writing process, but somewhat pretentious and unnecessarily abstract. Reacher fans will get something from it but not much more than you'd get from existing interviews with Child.

Interesting over-the-shoulder of Lee Child writing his 19th Reacher book.

I was anticipating a bit more in regards to Child's approach to novel writing but there just isn't much to his method. He just makes it up as he goes, which I find fascinating and frustrating all at the same time. Since he doesn't do any pre-planning or outlining, the author has to write more than “Lee Child sat at his desk and wrote” so he goes off on tangents and analyzes the style of writing. It's an interesting book and I'd like to read another following a different author.