Tripwire

Another nice entry, full of women with long legs and men with pecks strong enough to stop a bullet. What's not to like?
Out of the 3 books in the series I've read so far, this one had the most disgusting villain. Made my skin crawl and I kinda wish he had died more violently and suffered longer before that.
This book also ended quite differently than the other two. Which makes me slightly nervous about the next book.
Love this series though. Makes me feel like I'm 14 again and watching ridiculous action movies full of stereotypes. Good times!

I've read 3 of these novels in the last 3 days with Tripwire completing my holiday weekend. This one in particular is tons of fun! I feel like the author is really getting into the groove and building out Reacher's web of relationships. I'm really interested to find out how these hold up 10 books from now. :) If you like Saturday afternoon Action Movie matinees and roller coasters then I'm willing to bet you will enjoy this book (and likely the series in general).

Thrilling

Always worth a read

I do enjoy the Jack Reacher series and as we learn more and more about him and grow more and more attached as his personal story develops, i will continue to like him.

However, as with the other two, I've felt there's been a lot of padding out with the story. Unnecessary scenes where it's literally just someone getting undressed or another character excessively self depricating that doesn't advance the story or even their character personality that much.

I also found this particular one in the series not to have a lot of action. I think there were two major action scenes in the whole book which is a shame. But I must say the rest of the story kept me intrigued!

Tripwire is the third book in the Jack Reacher series written by Lee Child.

The prologue describes Victor Truman "Hook" Hobie's carefully planned escape route in the event of somebody discovering his really big, well-guarded secret. His "early-warning system" consists of geographically-located "tripwires". The first tripwire is eleven thousand miles from home and the second tripwire is six thousand miles out. His response to their activation would be to tie up loose ends, cash in, transfer assets and flee the country. Over 30 years of quiet success have made him feel somewhat secure. But then the two tripwire alerts arrive on the same day.The main story begins with Jack Reacher working two jobs in Key West and bumping into a private detective who happens to be searching for Jack. Costello is working for a client named Mrs. Jacob, a name Reacher does not recognise. Later on, whilst Reacher is working his night job as a bouncer in a strip club, two very suspicious-looking men also make inquiries about his location. Reacher attempts to follow them but instead finds Costello murdered on the sidewalk. Jack then flies to New York to find out why Costello was looking for Reacher and why he was killed for it.Reacher arrives in New York searching for information on Costello and Mrs. Jacob and discovers that the dead detective's office has already been searched. Reacher gets the contact information for Mrs. Jacob and arrives in the midst of a funeral for his old mentor and friend, Leon Garber. His daughter, Jodie Garber-Jacob is revealed to be the mysterious, divorced Mrs. Jacob.Reacher and Jodie follow Costello's trail, uncovering information on her father's last project, an investigation for the elderly Hobie parents on their missing-in-action (MIA) military son, Victor Truman Hobie. The poor and elderly parents had given their life savings to a con man and gun runner named Rutter, who poses as a fake military liaison to families of MIA soldiers. All this mucking around instigates a response from Hobie. Reacher realises he has to protect Jodie from Costello's killers as well as other unknown hostiles. Reacher forces Rutter to refund the Hobies' money. The investigation takes them to the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, MO and to the military Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii, a special facility that handles forensic remains of soldiers. They discover Hobie volunteered for the Vietnam War and was a skilled pilot of a helicopter that went down. However, the truth that Hook Hobie is not who he says he is comes out, and it turns out that Hobie was actually a soldier named Carl Allen who stole Victor Hobie's identity after he died in the crash. The helicopter had been sent with a crew to arrest Allen for fragging his commanding officer. Allen swapped dogtags with Hobie's body to sow confusion during his escape of the burning helicopter wreckage. The crash and escape leave him with horrible burns on half his face and an arm sliced in half below the elbow. His prosthesis, a metal hook, is the basis for his new nickname.During and after the war, Allen gathered a fortune arranging illegal deals and moneylending, first as a street lender then as a corporate "last-resort" lender for companies financially rejected by banks, a "high-end loan shark". His business method is the same, however, whether in a dark alley or a corporate boardroom, terrorising clients with torture and killing of family members if they default. The reason Allen didn't liquidate and run when his tripwires were triggered is because he has been plotting a takeover of a multimillion-dollar company owned by Chester and Marilyn Stone. Hobie kidnaps and tortures them to speed up the process, blackmailing them to sign over all the shares.Jodie is the financial attorney assigned to handle the Stone company transaction and ends up captured with Chester and Marilyn. Allen forces Jodie to call Reacher and summon him to Allen's offices. In the ensuing bloody mayhem Reacher sustains a bullet wound to the chest that should have killed him. A doctor explains that, due to the arduous physical labour he has done digging pools along with a high-protein diet, his pectoral muscle was so thick the bullet did not make it past his rib cage. Reacher is then visited (while convalescing) by the real Victor Hobie's parents to thank him for restoring their son's good name.

While I managed to get to the end of the book its nasty and brutish. Despite this, Child grabs hold with the first page and won't let go until the finish. A tightly-drawn and stylish thriller. But overtly violent. Leaves an unpleasant taste in the mouth.

This was a very slow book. Some of the previous reviewers said that it was just a little too long, with everything always falling in to place for Reacher. It ended quickly, with a lot of time wasted in the beginning. I love the twist at the end though, was pretty well done! But no time explaining in detail how he came to this realisation, where in the beginning EVERYTHING was getting an explanation.

Not sure why I keep reading these.

This third Jack Reacher story is also the third I've read. It's a fast read but a little too verbose for a thriller. I had the sense that it was packed a little too full of filler. The climax wasn't that great either. But it won't be the last Jack Reacher story I read. I think I'll have better luck with some of the later ones. Plenty to choose from.

Trappola mortale, in originale “Tripwire” è un romanzo di Lee Child del 1999, pubblicato in Italia nel 2002 per Longanesi. Il libro costituisce il terzo episodio della serie Jack Reacher.

Jack Reacher è ovviamente un personaggio immaginario dell'autore: è un ex Maggiore nel Corpo di Polizia dell'esercito militare degli Stati Uniti, che decide di lasciare all'età di 36 anni per poi cominciare a viaggiare senza una meta fissa in tutti gli Stati Uniti prendendo lavoretti saltuari e per indagare nelle varie situazioni sospette e spesso pericolose che si troverà ad affrontare tra capo e collo.

Da questo personaggio e dai libri -per adesso solo due- che sono già stati tutti opzionati dalla Paramount Pictures, è già uscito il primo film con protagonista Tom Cruise.
Il personaggio di Lee Child è menzionato più volte anche nel romanzo di Stephen King “Under the Dome”.

Jack Reacher, chiamato semplicemente Reacher anche dalla madre, nasce in una base militare a Berlino in quanto il padre è un militare in carriera il 29 ottobre 1960 e verrà poi costretto a viaggiare per tutta la sua infanzia e adolescenza in tutto il mondo dovendo seguire il padre che in base alle varie missioni viene assegnato in molteplici basi militare americane. Anche lui entrerà nella Accademia Militare di West Point e grazie alle sue straordinarie doti investigative raggiungerà il grado di maggiore risolvendo casi eccezionalmente difficili. Guadagnerà la “Bronze Star”, “Superior Service Medal”, la “Legion of Merit”, una “Silver Star” e la “Purple Heart” per le ferite e le azioni nel bombardamento a Beirut nel 1983. Successivamente lascerà l'esercito e diventerà un vagabondo errante per l'America; le sue peregrinazioni sono anche spinti dal desiderio di sperimentare il paese ha servito per così tanto tempo, senza mai aver vissuto in esso. Vivrà sempre pagando in contanti, vivendo in motel economici, portando nessun bagaglio se non i vestiti che indossa e che abitualmente cambia adattandosi al clima e alle varie località.

Reacher è alto 1,96 m di altezza e pesa sui 110 Kg. (e qui non si capisce molto come venga scelto Tom Cruise per interpretarlo sul grande schermo), è abile in varie forme di arti marziali, abile tiratore e usa la sua notevole intelligenza con la conoscenza tecnica e militare avanzata. Ha una capacità innata di contare il tempo senza fare riferimento a un orologio, che gli consentono di riposare o svegliarsi in qualsiasi momento che sceglie. Ha anche una predisposizione naturale con i numeri, che solleva la possibilità di essere affetto di una forma lieve della sindrome di Savant. Ama il blues, il caffè che prende nero e forte in grandi quantità.

La maggior parte dei romanzi sono ambientati negli Stati Uniti, da grandi aree metropolitane come New York e Los Angeles a piccoli centri della Midwest e del Sud degli Stati Uniti e i romanzi sono scritti sia in prima persona che in terza persona.

La trama di questo libro è la seguente: Reacher è a Key West e come lavoro scava piscine a mano e fa il buttafuori di un topless bar. Si imbatterà nel corpo di un investigatore di New York ingaggiato per trovarlo dall'avvocato Jodie Garber, figlia del generale Leon Garber, il suo mentore e padre surrogato nell'esercito. Lei vuole l'aiuto di Reacher per aiutarla a capire su cosa suo padre stava lavorando. Ben presto si ritrovano braccati da un uomo d'affari psicopatico ed ex militare, paralizzato nella guerra del Vietnam.

Ora se siete appassionati del genere action-thriller e non avete mai letto un libro di Lee Child, cominciate pure a nascondervi che vi mando Reacher a stanarvi e saranno cazzi acidi per voi. Questo è la commistione di James Bond, John Mclane e Rambo, vi basta? Sa fare tutto: usa il cervello, l'istinto, spara, corre, salva il mondo e nel frattempo si tromba il trombabile.

A parte gli scherzi, se amate i ritmi incalzanti, descrizioni minuziose di armi e tecniche di combattimento, rocamboleschi colpi di scena e tanta tanta azione, correte in libreria e cominciate a leggere i libri di Lee Child.

Vi suggerisco di cominciare dai primi e di andare avanti, perché purtroppo dopo il sesto le trame cominciano a calare un po' e anche il personaggio perde un po' di smalto.