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Book review: Night School by Lee Child

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Night School by Lee Child (first published in 2016 by Transworld publishers)

For me, Lee Child’s finest quality as a writer is his constancy. His second finest is his pared-down prose, which offers sufficient clarity of plot, crispness of dialogue and dimension of character for his 21 stories to tell themselves. 

But, for a while now, Child’s novels have felt formulaic. Because Jack Reacher – man-mountain, former MP and wandering nomad – can’t leave things alone. 

He smells some small-town drama, some nasty local lore, and that’s it. He’s mad. And the bad people of the American Midwest (those who hurt women, children, or animals) get hurt in all the ways they deserve to. 

An army story

Night School, thank goodness, shares the premise of a small handful of Child’s newer bestsellers; namely, it unfolds before Reacher becomes a coffee-addicted, expired-passport-toting, blues-music-seeking hitchhiker with only a toothbrush and the ‘clock in his head’. 
Yes, in Night School, Reacher’s still serving in the US Army.

This time, he’s only 35 and he’s battling to save America, or maybe the entire world, from a very believable terrorist plot.

What’s particularly interesting is that Night School’s events occur between the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center and the turn of the millennium, when we were all panic-stricken that Y2K (remember Y2K?) might bring chaos. And in those days, large-scale terrorism on US soil seemed only a faint possibility. 

What’s the plot?

Reacher, a highly decorated major, is unexpectedly recruited for an urgent and top-secret assignment.

Here it is: A US undercover agent, embedded in a Saudi terrorist cell in Hamburg, has overheard a messenger tell one of the terrorists, “The American wants a hundred million dollars.” Who is the American and what could he possibly have that’s worth $100 million? 

With its “hair on fire”, the National Security Council dispatches its deputy chief to recruit Reacher and his counterparts from the FBI and CIA. 
What to expect

Expect an old-fashioned spy story; where there’s teamwork and folders of operatives and even a lamp shifted a few inches along a windowsill to send a signal. And if you’re used to Child, expect a shift to terrorism, as opposed to the individual crime and backwoods machinations typical of his villains.

Here’s a taste of Night School:

He pulled in and parked, and heaved open the chromium door, and stepped inside. The air was cold and bright with fluorescent light. The first person he saw was a woman he knew. All alone in a booth. From his last but one command. 

The best soldier he had ever worked with. His best friend, possibly, in a guarded way, if friendship was permission to leave things unsaid. At first he thought it was another not very amazing co-incidence. 

It was a small world, and close to the Pentagon it got smaller still. Then he reassessed. She had been his top sergeant during the 110th MP’s glory years.

She had played as big a part as anyone, and bigger than some. Bigger than most. Bigger than him, probably. By being very smart. Way too smart to be a coincidence.

Read more of Tiffany’s reviews on her book blog.

Purchase a copy of Night School from Takealot.com.

You might also like:

Book review: A Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith

Book review: In the Woods by Tana French

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