Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

A couple of wannabe trillionaires pose a high-tech threat in this latest Jack Reacher novel. Young Special Agent John Bisley is stabbed to death in an apparently targeted and premeditated attack, and Gen. Susan Turner wants to know why. Head of a “brand-new agency that won’t even say its name,” she seeks out the hard-to-find former Army major Jack Reacher to figure out what happened to Bisley and learn about the crime he was chasing. Turner heads CSA G-99 Section, a new organization “like the army’s own FBI,” and Reacher fits right in. “Rules of engagement?” he asks. “Keep it as clean as you can. But if you can’t, make it as dirty as you want,” she replies. Finding the pair of killers isn’t much of a challenge, and after reminding them that Bisley left behind a widow and a baby daughter, Reacher exacts a nonjudicial penalty with his three-inch-barrel Colt Defender. Not that the man of “implacable bulk” needs weapons, as he is nimble, powerful, and merciless in hand-to-hand combat and believes there’s “no such thing as an unfair advantage.” Reacher’s foes, at least in this adventure, are not even close to being his physical equals. That creates an imbalance and dilutes the tension: Of course the series hero always wins, but the confrontations—even the final showdown—are too easy. Luckily, there’s a fast-moving, complicated plot that’s tuned in to the 21st century. Bisley had been investigating cybercrime and “something to do with artificial intelligence.” Tiny Summertown, Colorado, has five giant data centers and a field of solar panels clustered together. They are the creations of an AI startup named Everything Everywhere Forever, or EEF. The creators aspire to be multitrillionaires through nefarious means, and that can’t happen on Reacher’s watch. Reacher doesn’t know the technical jargon, and he asks for explanations as though speaking “Hindi to a beagle.” Meanwhile, he hurts the people who need to be hurt as he and the general pursue what “feels like a very high-stakes game of Clue.” Fast-moving fun for action junkies. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.