by Lee Child
Part of Jack Reacher, book 1
First published 2006
Jack Reacher steps off a Greyhound bus and decides to walk into Margrave, Georgia. He covers fourteen miles on foot just because the town's name caught his attention. Bad choice. Within hours of his arrival, the cops arrest him for the town's first murder in three decades. The police chief claims he witnessed Reacher at the crime scene. The ex-military policeman finds himself trapped in a web of corruption that runs deeper than anyone imagined. Bodies start piling up as the town's dark secrets surface. Reacher has no home, no ties, and no backup. But the locals made one fatal error. They chose the wrong drifter to pin their crimes on. Now this trained soldier turned wanderer must clear his name and expose the truth before more people die.
Genres: mystery, crime, thriller, action
Vibes: fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, wrongly-accused
Setting: Margrave, Georgia
Period: 20th-century
474 pages · Mass Market Paperback · Jove