Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Past Tense: A Jack Reacher Novel

Top positive review

Vintage Reacher Novel; The Best in Many Years!

Reviewed in the United States on July 31, 2018

I'd really grown tired of Lee Child's "Reacher novels over the past five years, as they seemed to feature ludicrous plots, and serious technical inaccuracies. I missed the simple, direct style of the early Jack Reacher books.
When "Past Tense" popped up in my Vine queue, I decided to see if this latest effort was worth reading...and I'm very glad that I did!

"Past Tense" is most definitely a return to the writing style that most of us early Reacher fans embraced. This book features a plausible plot, with interesting twists and turns, but most of all, it lets Reacher be Reacher! There's some interesting character development, local history, coupled with a bunch of epic action scenes we Reacher fans live for!

Kudos to Lee Child for re-connecting with his "Inner Reacher", and delivering the best novel in many years!

402 people found this helpful

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william e mclean

Very disappointed.

Reviewed in the United States on November 10, 2018

I never write reviews, but this debacle merits one. Just to be clear, I own every single Jack Reacher novel and I am a big fan. I waited all spring, summer and fall for this book to drop and had it on preorder. The teaser chapter was good.

This book had hints of the Reacher we know and love but this had all kinds of holes in it, the characters were all over the place and not a one was memorable. The plot was a trainwreck.. Nothing ever really stuck. I kept waiting for it to pull itself together because I know he must be in there somewhere, but it never got there. I want to forget I read it.
If you compare this to the Midnight Line you would swear this was not written by Lee Child.

265 people found this helpful

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From the United States

Vintage Reacher Novel; The Best in Many Years!

Reviewed in the United States on July 31, 2018

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

402 people found this helpful

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william e mclean

Very disappointed.

Reviewed in the United States on November 10, 2018

Verified Purchase

265 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Not normal

Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2018

Verified Purchase

I’ve read them all and this one seems to be written by someone else. By far the worst Reacher book.

161 people found this helpful

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Edward Karlson

Don't bring this one present

Reviewed in the United States on November 11, 2018

Verified Purchase

I feel like sending it back for a refund. I've never read a novel of this genre that is this bad. The plot went nowhere from the start, seemed contrived to be unreal, not a bit cogent, led me through endless page turning for a development, was characterized by multiple pages of inane banter for dialogue obviously meant for filler to take up space, was endlessly repetitive in character development, and made me want to give it up halfway through. Author Child obviously cranked this out as a quickie - what a lot of writers are criticized for doing now - taking advantage of Reacher fans to faithfully buy it. (Do these writers have deadlines to keep the novels coming? It seems like it.) I won't even donate this to the book room at the mobile home park where I live except with a warning in front how bad it is. I kept going huh? What? When does this turn into something? It never did, right to the end. It reads like a model how to write a grade 'D' novel. What kind of editing let this pass except for an assembly line crank-em-out policy? It was extremely unethical of Child to take such advantage of his prior reputation and to betray his spoiled and faithful following just for another quick publication and fast buck.

127 people found this helpful

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Reacher Searches for His Roots

Reviewed in the United States on July 17, 2018

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

PAST TENSE: A JACK REACHER NOVEL solves a mystery surrounding Jack’s parentage--who, exactly, was Jack’s father, a guy who could never remember his birthday? Reacher fans will want to read this novel to find out. But otherwise, except for the dramatic ending scenes, the novel is just plain boring.

In the novel, Jack starts to hitchhike from the East Coast to San Diego, but takes a side trip to Laconia. NH, his father’s birthplace. He visits various public records offices, and gets a lot of help from the locals when dad Stan Reacher doesn't show up right away in the town’s 80-year-old census records.

At the same time, a young Canadian couple has car trouble, and ends up at a remote motel near Laconia. They can’t leave, because the weird motel owners keep making excuses for not calling a mechanic or driving them to town to get a tow truck. Eventually the couple finds themselves imprisoned, because the motel owners have secret plans for them.

SPOILER ALERT: Naturally the two plotlines--Jack’s search for his roots, and the couple’s predicament--merge, but only in a superficial way. The couple’s plotline is basically “Psycho" meets “The Most Dangerous Game", and it isn’t even close to the quality of either one. The motel owners’ intentions are easily guessed, long before the reveal.

This novel is the latest in the long, popular Jack Reacher series, and it works fine as a standalone. It’s well-written, but, as previously mentioned, darned boring.

167 people found this helpful

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Back when the west was far away

Reviewed in the United States on July 23, 2018

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

On page one of this newest Jack Reacher, Child does two things so subtly you don't even realize their implications both within and outside of the series: First, he tells us, in no uncertain terms, that Reacher is "...more than six feet five...heavily built... not particularly good looking." Thus reminding us that he is NOT a very pretty dwarf despite what you may have seen in the cinema.

Second; he sets in motion what APPEARS will be the starting off point of the next several books by having Jack the lad start to hitchhike across America,starting from Maine and, eventually, ending in San Diego California

One guesses the hitch-hike premise will be used for a while based on the fact that, in this "first" episode he gets not much further than Laconia, NEW HAMPSHIRE!

But, since he also gets into one of the best Reachers EVER, one can forgive his lack of forward momentum.

Some of Child's best characters and a real sense of emotional truth and some truly hilarious (albeit, possibly for specialized knowledge and tastes) fun, make this a book that has REACHES new heights

Indeed, if you can accept the premise that, in this day and age ANYONE would stop for ANY hitch hiker (let alone one who looks nothing like a certain former Jerry McGuire) this is a very promising opening to later adventures

Gene Barry would be proud!

155 people found this helpful

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Jim Horn

A preposterous plot and boring narrative

Reviewed in the United States on November 13, 2018

Verified Purchase

I can't believe Lee Child fans liked this book. It is the stupidist plot and most boring narrative of any book I've read this year (lots). The search for the lost relative is so tedious and meaningless that I almost quit early on. It's like a movie where the only action appears in the last five minutes. If this were the first Reacher novel I read, I would never buy another, and I won't buy another until after I've read a review. He has clearly lost his talent, or he knows no editor would question him, and that people will buy whatever crap comes out because of his name. I am profoundly disappointed and fee cheated.

76 people found this helpful

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Terry A. Barnett

very dissappointed

Reviewed in the United States on November 8, 2018

Verified Purchase

very very disappointed. way too much like Midnight Line. the two stories have no relationship. the stan reacher story does not make any sense. I have no idea why the other story was there, other than to add words. Child always details calculations, how many steps to somewhere. how many seconds to do something. theres a lot of that in this book like his \other books, but in this book they serve no purpose other than to add volume. I have read every Jack Reacher book, and I am completely disappointed in this one. I want a refund ! ! !

54 people found this helpful

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Not the best Reacher novel, but it kept me interested, both in the story and the series

Reviewed in the United States on November 8, 2018

Verified Purchase

Midnight Line, Lee Child’s previous Jack Reacher novel, was a page-turner, but it left me wondering whether Reacher was getting a bit old for all the action Child put him through. I gave it a four-star review, but to be honest, I promised myself I would give Child only one more chance to keep my interest in Reacher. Past Tense kept my interest.

The novel has three storylines. One, Reacher finds himself in Laconia, New Hampshire, where his dad was born and raised. The only problem? There’s little trace of Stan Reacher there. Two, while searching for records of his dad, Reacher beats up a man bullying a woman. Unfortunately, the man is connected to bad actors who come to Laconia looking to settle a score. Three, a Canadian couple find themselves stranded at a remote motel where the owner and his business partners act more than a little strange. The owner’s last name? Reacher.

As always, Child brings these storylines together in an explosive conclusion that kept me turning pages, which is the primary way I evaluate suspense novels. (I read the novel in two long sittings.)

This isn’t the best of the Reacher novels. However, it’s good enough to keep me interested through next year when, come fall, I’m sure Child will publish Reacher’s next adventure. I hope it’s set in San Diego. That’s where Reacher is heading, and lots of interesting happens in San Diego, or could happen, if Reacher were there.

33 people found this helpful

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judyg

We waited 2 years for this?

Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2018

Verified Purchase

I guess every author has a dud book and this is Mr. Child’s. You only need to read the last 4% of the book to know the whole story and the ending. In parallel stories of Reacher and a young couple hundreds of pages are written that provide boring details, little action, and drab, shallow characters. Borrow the book from the library and read the last 25 pages then reshelve it.

42 people found this helpful

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