The Midnight Line by Lee Child

The Midnight Line by Lee Child - 384 pages
Jack Reacher Book 22
- Published 11/7/17

I was fortunate to score an advance reader copy of this book via NetGalley.  This book finds Reacher still living his nomadic existence and he stumbles across a West Point class ring in a pawn shop in Wisconsin which leads him on a cross country odyssey to reunite the ring with its owner.  Reacher wants to satisfy his curiosity about what caused the owner to give up the ring.  His quest leads him into the dark underbelly of the opiod epidemic that has destroyed so many communities. 

This is another solid entry in a very popular franchise.  My minor quibble was that I was thrown out of the story just a little bit when at two different times adult American characters had to explain what Bigfoot is to other adult characters which to me seems like it is common knowledge.    

Dear John by NIcholas Sparks

Dear John by Nicholas Sparks-276 pages

I decided to read this one next and this is the last Nicholas Sparks novel I am going to read for now. I have seen the movie and, in many ways, I like the book better. I can't decide which ending I like better (the endings are different, for those who haven't both read the book and seen the movie). I am conflicted about the book ending just as John Tyree (the male protagonist and title character) is. Overall, I am glad I have read the book and I am glad that this month's romance challenge has led me to read some Nicholas Sparks novels. I think my favorite of the three I have read this month is The Notebook, though. It's such a great love story (even though I am not really into romance that much).

No Man's Land by David Baldacci

No Man's Land by David Baldacci
432 pages or 11 hrs., 37 mins.

This is the fourth in a series, and while many series start to be tedious and unimaginative at this point, John Puller is going strong.  Special Agent Puller takes on the challenge of investigating his mother's disappearance because his father has just been accused of her murder...30 years after the fact.  As Puller revisits his childhood neighborhood trying to spark memories and find clues, a strange threat is closing in on the same spot of real estate, but for a very different reason.

Baldacci does a great job of telling what appear to be two different stories that converge for a pretty plausible tale and a dramatic ending.  Puller's colleague/part-time love interest, Victoria Knox, reappears in this book, and the relationship retains all the animosity and attraction that keep it interesting.

Once in awhile I found the dialogue predictable, but not enough to keep me from thoroughly enjoying the tale.  My question is:  When is someone going to make these into movies?

Gentlemen Bastards: On the Ground in Afghanistan with America's Elite Special Forces - Kevin Maurer

Gentlemen Bastards: On the Ground in Afghanistan with America's Elite Special Forces - Kevin Maurer, 256 pages

The Green Berets have long been one of America's premiere fighting forces focusing on counter insurgency techniques as their primary fighting tool.  In the early stages of the war in Afghanistan the Green Berets helped put the Taliban on the run by unifying Northern Alliance fighters.

Now nine years later, the author Maurer sets out to write the update to the classic books on the exploits of the Green Berets in previous wars.  But he finds out that the mission of the Special Forces has changed primarily to raids instead of building relationships to strengthen the indigenous forces ability to fight for the themselves.  This book celebrates the fighting men of the Special Forces and their dedication to the mission even when bureaucracy gets in the way of success.  Maurer brings the reader to the battlefield with vivid and honest descriptions of the people he encounters and relationships formed while embedded with the Green Berets.     

The Ranger by Ace Atkins

The Ranger by Ace Atkins - 368 pages

After years of war Army Ranger Quinn Colson comes home to northeast Mississippi to bury his Uncle, the longtime county sheriff.  Colson is told its a suicide but others suggest it was murder.  An action packed week of investigation leads Colson to confront harsh truths about his Uncle, his childhood heroes, and himself.  Fans of Lee Child's Jack Reacher and Elmore Leonard's Raylan Givens will find Quinn Colson to be cut from the same cloth and equally as enjoyable of a read.