As Marv Lachman said during the DEADLY PLEASURES panel at BOUCHERCON #50, “It’s had to pick the right book to read on a plane.” My go-to books for trips that involve flying are Lee Child’s Jack Reacher books. I find them easy reading and involving page-turners. Perfect for a cramped plane with crying children, intermittent announcements on the loudspeakers, and roaring engines.
Personal (2014) is the 19th book in the Jack Reacher series. It takes Reacher until page 190 to beat the crap out of a Bad Guy…a record of restraint for Jack. Reacher decides to assist some old Army colleagues in tracking down a rogue sniper who failed to kill the President of France only because of some new bullet-resistant glass. The scenes in France, and later England, show that Lee Child must have visited the crime scenes because they ring true with richness of detail. Child links Reacher with a young, anxious State Department rookie who Reacher decides to mentor during the mission. As I mentioned above, the pages fly by and I happily filled the time in the air to Dallas and the flights back to Buffalo with the exciting hunt for the sniper before he can assassinate the leaders of the G-8 (France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, and Russia). If you’re looking for a fast, satisfying read, I recommend Personal. GRADE: B+
Only read one Jack Reacher novel. The very first one. I thought it okay but found Reacher a little too good at everything to be believable. Maybe one day I’ll try another one in the series once I get my mountain of a tbr pile down. I can’t read on a plane. I’m tall and always find flying uncomfortable and end up sleeping through most of a flight.
Steve, you are a lucky guy. I could never sleep on a plane. The vibration and noise defeat me every time. I was tempted to try some sleeping pills when I was doing a lot of traveling in my youth…but decided against it. You’re right about the competence of Jack Reacher.
If it’s uncomfortable, how can you sleep?
I did like this one too when I read it. The last one (since it) defeated my first effort. I can sleep on long flights – I used to sleep going to England all the time – but Jackie can’t, nor can she sleep on a train.
Actually, I got a lot of reading done on the plane trips this time, finishing two books – Dervla McTiernan’s THE SCHOLAR on the way to Dallas and William Shaw’s THE BIRDWATCHER on the trip home. Usually I will read a few short stories, but I was in the middle of these books and wanted to finish them. I agree, if asked to pick, I would go with someone like Lee Child or Nick Petrie (almost a clone of Child).
Jeff, I’ll have to try a Nick Petrie novel. I like clones at times.
Earplugs, earplugs, earplugs! Never fly without them! My usual reading, once I’ve done the crossword in the inflight mag, is a battered paperback I’ve read before but probably have forgotten the plot & whodunit. Oakland-Dallas and back it was Christie’s Mrs McGinty’s Dead, a ’50s village mystery with Poirot, though it could have just as easily been a Marple. I spotted the key moment that Christie tried to slip by us – maybe thanks to dim recollection or maybe acute deductive powers, who knows?
Art, Diane wears earplugs on planes, but I don’t like the feel. I don’t like in-the-ear devices like APPLE Earbuds, either. I prefer over the ear headphones. Congratulations on figuring out that Christie!
I discovered the Reacher series when it started and have read all of them except the new one, and that one is waiting for me at the library. Nearly all the early ones are quite good, but in the last ten years or so the quality began to decline. I’m still on board but, increasingly, it mostly out of habit. Most popular series go downhill eventually. Unless they’re written by Michael Connelly.
Michael, yes you’re right about the decline in the Reacher series. But they still hold my attention on a plane. I agree with you on Michael Connelly. He somehow manages to keep the quality of his work at a high level.
Me too. I’m waiting for the new Connelly from the library.
Jeff, Michael Connelly might be the best crime writer today.
I read one Reacher and liked it but on picking up a second found too many similarities–not so much plot but descriptions. Connelly seems to be the favorite writer in my family. He reads well on audio which is how my son and his wife read on their long drives to work.
Patti, Lee Child has a winning template for his Jack Reacher books. As long as I read them in moderation, I don’t mind all the similarities.
I no longer fly, and thank heavens for it. I could never read, sleep or even be comfortable on an airplane, and the seats these days are even tighter. Plus the TSA nazis making the process so lovely. Triple bah on flying. But it’s a two day drive to Sacto, so that’s doable, but no one is going, so I guess we’ll skip it too. As for Reacher, I haven’t read one, but Barbara has read them and enjoyed them. Maybe I’ll try one someday.
Rick, Jackie certainly agrees with you about the TSA Nazis, after the way we were treated this time.
TELL ALL!
Rick, Diane and I spent $85 to get TSA Pre-Approved through AAA for the next five years. We sail through the process.
I read one Reacher and thought it sucked! I’m not inclined to give another one a try but I did drink his booze in Chicago!
I read the first Reacher in hardcover and a couple of PBs since then. Probably have a half dozen other ones that I likley will never get around to reading. I’m just back from a bookstore where I tracked down a trade paperback of Lou Berney’s November Road. Says it’s a first edition. After reading that it won all the major awards at Bouchercon plus a Hammett award. I first checked our library for a copy and then outr usually terrific independent bookstore McNally Robinson. Neither place had it and the library had no other Berneys. Anyone reading this message actually read this book?
I read the previous book, and since my library has it, I’m on the list for it, but there are several people ahead of me.
It’s in transit to my local branch, I’ll probably have it tomorrow. I’m amazed your libraries don’t have it, mine has 23 copies.
Kent, I’m going to read NOVEMBER ROAD as soon as I track down a copy. I’ll post a review to this blog.