The Reacher Guy

Unlike the character Jack Reacher; Lee Child’s biographer elaborates beyond the laconic; creating an engrossing book that illuminates the moving parts that came together to produce an intriguing series of international thrillers.

Though an academic, Martin’s biography is highly accessible, mirroring the novels that feature this singular character. The most evocative of thriller novels, have fragments of truth woven into the narrative. To fully understand why the Jack Reacher novels have become a global phenomenon, Martin delves into the history of its author.

Authorised by Lee Child, we are presented with an array of photographs, as well as personal insights that are presented in a series of vignettes. Though many readers are aware of the turn of events that led Jim Grant to become Lee Child – his termination in employment at Granada TV studios – but they say the devil is in the detail – and Martin’s biography has plenty to reveal. Some of the detail is precious, and at times very droll – but it is never boring.

Unlike ‘Reacher Said Nothing’, another non-fiction work; one that focused on Lee Child’s writing process – The Reacher Guy places a lens to the author’s life, using his writing as the spine that holds not only the book, but also the reader’s attention as if this book were a thriller itself.

We have family history, back to Ireland and to a grey post-war England backdrop. There are vivid insights into the young Jim Grant, through vignettes, recollections and anecdotes, many that are as revealing as they are intriguing. Like the linkages between Ian Fleming and his singular creation James Bond; Martin weaves the same rope-burns that link Jim Grant to Jack Reacher. It is of little surprise that we see the liberal viewpoint shared between Child and Reacher – as was the upper-class (and some would say) jingoistic world view that Fleming and Bond shared.  Though one aspect both writers shared was the re-creation of themselves in an imagined light, their creations righting the wrongs in the eras that the authors themselves traversed.

This is a dense volume in terms of detail, but rendered utterly readable and insightful, because in a world surrounded by troubles, we all need a knight-errant – a tough guy to help us. James Bond and Jack Reacher were two such fictional characters that held universal appeal, because both could be relied upon to combat the bad guys, and give them a good biffing.

One may ponder who this book is marketed at? The Jack Reacher fan, the aspiring thriller writer, the bibliophile or the casual reader? I’d assert that The Reacher Guy is marketed at readers who are curious as to what drove Jim Grant to reinvent himself as Lee Child. Not unlike Ian Fleming, Jim Grant took from his surroundings what was required, and made of it something more.

Hugely recommended.