The Affair – A Book Review and Movie Trailer

This is the latest (sixteenth) Jack Reacher thriller from Lee Child. The first 15 books are in a chronological order. However, The Affair goes back to the beginning and attempts to explain some of the back story of Jack Reacher going back to his army days. This book is set in 1997, Jack Reacher is an MP in the army asked to investigate the murder of a young woman in a one-horse town in Mississippi.

The preliminary evidence points to an officer with top-connections in the Senate. The army is primarily concerned that he is found innocent. Jack Reacher though is in search of the truth and justice, never mind whether the culprit is from the army or a civilian.

With the help of a beautiful Sheriff, Jack Reacher slowly (or rather very quickly) unravels the threads of the mystery to find the killer.

My Review

I have so far been pretty ambivalent about Jack Reacher. I have read a couple of books and while I found them decent, they were really not my cup of tea. Jack Reacher was a bit too much of a tough guy and I didn’t really understand his motivations.

Well, the issue of his motivations was solved with the reading of this book, which although the latest in the series can be read as a standalone, or the start of the series.

So, did I like the book?

I liked the tension of the novel, the setting of the place and the characters. The pacing of the book is good too. However, I did feel let down by the mystery. You know those mysteries where you have the most obvious person, and you think, nah, that’s too obvious, it must be someone else. And then it turns out, the obvious person is the culprit. If the obvious villain’s motivations are not explained away properly, you are left with a sense of disappointment. And that was how it was with me.

Although there was a red herring that was present throughout the book, it didn’t work well enough in my opinion, and a lot of inconsistencies were never explained away finally.

Still, the beginning and middle sections of the book are very entertaining, so I ended up enjoying the book overall.

And now I come to the Tom Cruise disaster…again and again, Jack Reacher’s size is mentioned in the book. He is supposed to be 6’5 and about 250 pounds. And here, the pint-sized Tom Cruise is playing Reacher in his upcoming movie – Jack Reacher. I think that just blows. In my head, someone like Vin Diesel seems right (at least he looks tough and like an ex-army man). How about maybe Jason Statham? Or Sean Bean? I would watch if it was Statham ;). Don’t know about the Brit accent though.

I looked for the trailer on youtube, and linked to it from this post (see above).

In the fight sequences, you can clearly make out he is smaller than the bad guys.

Oh, well, that’s Hollywood…maybe he will be good after all. He is a good actor, but I don’t see the scope for any kind of acting in this movie at all. It will be an out and out action movie, I am sure. So, why is Tom Cruise even interested?

I am not too invested in Reacher’s character to mind so much, but I know there are tons of fans out there. What do you think? Do you think Cruise is going to do justice to the role? Are you looking forward to the movie? Who do you think should play the role of Jack Reacher?

Thanks to Random House for sending me a copy of this book for review.