The Enemy

It wasn't my intention to read another Lee Child novel for a while but the airport in Las Vegas convinced me otherwise. I randomly grabbed "The Enemy" (464 pages) thinking it was a newly released paperback. I was was wrong, it was originally published in 2004. From the back cover:

"Jack Reacher. Hero. Loner. Soldier. Soldier’s son. An elite military cop, he was one of the army’s brightest stars. But in every cop’s life there is one case that changes everything. For Jack Reacher, this is that case.

New Year’s Day, 1990. In a North Carolina motel, a two-star general is found dead. His briefcase is missing. Nobody knows what was in it. Within minutes Reacher has his orders: Control the situation. Within hours the general’s wife is murdered. Then the dominoes really start to fall.

Somewhere inside the vast worldwide fortress that is the U.S. Army, Reacher is being set up as a fall guy with the worst enemies a man can have. But Reacher won’t quit. He’s fighting a new kind of war–against an enemy he didn’t know he had. And against a conspiracy more chilling, ingenious, and treacherous than anyone could have guessed."

This is definitely my least favorite novel I've read by Child for a variety of reasons. Mostly I think I was turned off by the story taking place in early 1990. Though well written, the story hiccups along at jerks that I found myself not really caring where the story was headed, I just wanted it to conclude. It was somewhat interesting to see Reacher in action when he was in the military but that's about all this novel has to offer in the series. A long investigative story with a Scooby Doo ending. Read anything else by Lee Child before reading "The Enemy."