George F. Snell III

2020 has stolen a lot from all of us. Now it's managed to kick Jack Reacher in the nuts and leave him heaving up in a roadside gutter. "The Sentinel" is a hand-off book with Lee Child giving the major writing duties to his younger brother Andrew (Grant) Child. The hand-off resembles the infamous NY Jets "butt" fumble. Meet the new Jack Reacher - chatty, running around, being disarmed while chatting, being tricked, chatting some more, and even become a criminal. The plot in "The Sentinel" isn't worth mentioning because you need GPS and a compass to follow the logic of it, because there is no logic. It's mind-numbingly ridiculous to the point where the reader just gives up trying to comprehend it. But the worst parts: - Jack has become boring. A parody of himself. - The rest of the characters are flat: From the wooden Rusty Rutherford, the IT Guy, Reacher is saving to the love interest police woman who has no role whatsoever other than to throw herself at Jack in the ending pages. - The action sequences that are over explained. Where is Reacher's wit? His quirky observations? His move -first, talk-later philosophy? Jack Reacher fans are going to buy this no matter what. That's unfortunate. They deserve better.