Book review: Worth Dying For, by Lee Child

Worth Dying For

By Lee Child, Dell, 544 pages, $9.99

Lee Child’s thriller “Worth Dying For” begins where the last one, “61 Hours”, left off. His macho man, Jack Reacher, is hitch-hiking — his preferred mode of travelling — to Virginia to meet the woman he falls for in “61 Hours”. He is dropped off for the night in the middle of nowhere in rural Nebraska, and checks into the only hotel in town and comes across what seems like a case of domestic violence.

A woman with a bleeding nose calls the hotel’s bar knowing that the county’s only doctor would be there, but the doctor seems unable or unwilling to help her. Reacher, however, reminds him of his Hippocratic oath and forces the drunk medico to attend to the woman with a bleeding nose.

He then tracks down and thumps Seth, the offending husband, who is a member of the Duncan clan that has terrorised the county and has the locals in its thrall. They own the only transportation company and the corn-growing farmers of the area have only them to depend on to move their produce. When Seth runs to his evil father and uncles, the Duncans declare war on Reacher.

Another man would have carried on after driving the doctor to administer to the woman with a bleeding nose. But Jack Reacher is not just another man. He is intrigued by the control the Duncans exercise over the locals and the fear they instil.

With Reacher in town, the Duncans discover that they are unable to go about their business. They are not just bullies who employ the “Cornhuskers” — former athletes now hired as muscle to intimidate the locals. They are involved in a very dirty racket, and are at the bottom of a criminal pyramid that extends to powerful international mobsters — Italians, Lebanese, Iranians, Saudis — based in Las Vegas. Until Reacher is eliminated, the Duncans refuse to collect the next consignment, riling their overlords in Las Vegas and forcing them to send two enforcers each to validate the clan’s story and, if true, find and eliminate the intruder.

Finding Reacher is one thing, eliminating him quite another. Meanwhile, there is an added twist: the mystery of a little girl who disappeared 25 years ago. Reacher is on to the case, using all his expertise as a former military policeman. As he digs deeper, dark secrets tumble out and the stage is set for the final showdown in the corn fields of Nebraska.

“Worth Dying For” is a typical Lee Child thriller. Though there are too many loose ends and improbable scenarios in this book to recount here, you’ll enjoy it if you approach it with an open mind, strictly for entertainment reasons. This is a novel that requires a little suspension of disbelief. Once you’ve made the effort, it is a rollicking read.