Reacher: The Stories Behind the Stories by Lee Child

From the bestselling creator of Jack Reacher, comes Lee Child’s first autobiographical collection, sharing how the Reacher novels were written. 

It starts with the moment that changed everything on 5 September 1994, when he wrote the first chapter of Killing Floor and handed it to his wife, asking if he should continue. She said yes, so he finished the book in pencil (he still has the stub) and launched a new career.

In the early days, he liked to stay a year ahead, creating a buffer that gave him peace of mind. But soon touring, promotion and ‘being a writer’ wiped out the buffer. “Over time, I had learned that the actual writing became a smaller and smaller component of an established writer’s life. Promotion, PR, general gladhandling, ‘being a writer’ and personal concerns tended to dominate. But somehow, a book had to be written - every year,” says Lee Child. “From that point onward I would be in the same position as any other series writer, with a ‘just in time’ delivery - write, edit, publish, all in short order.”

Every year, on 1 September, he starts a new book. No outline. No plan. The story unfolds as he types, a method he calls fragile but trustworthy. It sounds incredibly risky, but it works! “People ask, do I know ahead of time what the ending will be? Truth is I rarely know what the next sentence will be. The story just happens, in real time, right in front of me, and I write it down. It feels like a fragile technique, but by then I had learned to trust it.”

“I flew back to New York toward the end of August, with September 1st bearing down on me. I had no specific ideas for the new book, but this would be the twentieth time I had had no specific ideas for a book, and it had always worked before. I was confident and really looking forward to starting. I had found that the first day was always a gorgeous feeling - an as-yet unsullied canvas, a world of infinite possibility ahead, nothing to do except sit there and tell myself a story.”

His first decision regarding voice is always spontaneous and instinctive: first person “I said”, or third person “Reacher said.” What sets this collection apart is its sense of time. Lee ties each novel to the moment he wrote it. For example, New York before and after 9/11, meeting a reader years after an early signing, his first computer and the early internet, watching Reacher move from page to screen. These aren’t just anecdotes; they ground each novel to where he was emotionally and physically when he wrote it. You can literally feel the shift from pencil-and-paper beginnings to a global brand under deadline pressure, and you see how the world around him quietly steers the tone.

Across it all runs steady gratitude for his readers. Early on, he was typecast as a mass-market thriller guy: big sales, airport shelves and dependable adrenaline. Over time, as the series endured and adapted, the sheer consistency of his craft became hard to ignore. For Reacher fans, the behind-the-scenes details are fascinating: why certain choices were made and how he kept the series fresh under pressure. For writers and curious readers, it’s a practical look at sustaining a yearly franchise without turning it into a formula.

Reacher: The Stories behind the Stories is a great companion to the novels and is an interesting collection of work moments, not a full life story. Lee’s voice is straight forward and witty and the pages fly.

Lee Child is one of the world’s leading thriller writers and has sold over 100 million copies. It is said a Jack Reacher novel is sold somewhere in the world every nine seconds. 

Reviewer: Andrea Molloy

Bantam