Chain Reaction by Lee Child and Andrew Child

A relief for Jack Reacher fans: the Child brothers are back to their best with their latest novel. Jack Reacher is a hard man to find, which is just how he likes it.

However, General Susan Turner, who Reacher rescued in Never Go Back, when she was in jail on a charge of bribery, is based deep inside the Pentagon and has the means and the motive to do so.

Turner needs his help as a member of her team has been brutally murdered on covert duty. She can’t trust anyone she works with, not even her deputy. She needs someone from the outside with no connections who has the intellect to solve problems and can disappear without a trace.

A start-up company specialising in AI that is twice as fast as its competitors has attracted millions of dollars in funding and set up five massive data centres and two giant solar farms in a remote Colorado town. But they are not prepared to let anyone get in their way and will take any means, fair or foul, to ensure they maintain complete control.

Reacher and Turner must team up to track down the perpetrators without the Pentagon's resources, as the system has been breached and the enemy knows their every move and location. Working closely together reveals Reacher's gentler side as their relationship evolves.

With the usual mix of detective work and Reacher’s quirky knowledge, plus his ability to neutralise any opponent, we get a splendid mix of action and drama.

This returns to the formula that saw the Reacher novels at their peak, and for Lee Child fans, it adds a new novel, Zero Margin, coming after the success of the Netflix series featuring Neagley.

Reviewer: Chris Casey

Penguin