by Lee Child
Part of Jack Reacher, book 25
First published 2020
Jack Reacher arrives in a Tennessee town near Pleasantville with nowhere urgent to be. Walking the streets in daylight, he witnesses four men preparing to attack a lone target. Reacher steps in to even the odds. The victim turns out to be Rusty Rutherford, a mild-mannered IT manager who was recently terminated after hackers breached the town's computer systems. All municipal data, records, and sensitive information got locked down in the cyberattack. Rutherford insists he's innocent and wants to remain in town to prove it. Reacher senses deeper currents beneath the surface. The attackers belong to something bigger and more dangerous. A conspiracy is unfolding, complete with cover-ups and killings, all revolving around this unremarkable man in his coffee-stained shirt. Rutherford has no clue about the forces aligned against him or the true scope of what he's stumbled into. But he has one advantage: Jack Reacher at his side.
Genres: adventure, suspense, mystery, crime, thriller, action
Vibes: fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-allies, fish-out-of-water, unlikely-hero
Setting: Pleasantville, Tennessee
Period: contemporary
386 pages · Kindle Edition · Delacorte Press
Content warnings: violence