Child, Lee

All across the United States respectable, upstanding citizens are showing up dead. These deaths could be accidents, and they don't appear to be connected; until a fatal fall from a high-floor window attracts some unexpected attention. That attention comes from the secretary of defense. All of a sudden he wants an interagency task force to investigate. And he wants Jack Reacher as the army's representative. If Reacher gets a result, great. If not, he's a convenient fall guy. But office politics isn't Reacher's thing. Three questions quickly emerge: Who's with him, who's against him, and will the justice he dispenses be the official kind or his own kind?.

In Gerrardsville, Colorado, two witnesses to the same tragedy give two different accounts. One guy sees a woman throw herself in front of a bus in what authorities will call a suicide. The other witness is Jack Reacher. And he sees what actually happened: A man in a gray hoodie and jeans, moving like a shadow, pushed the victim to her death; before swiftly grabbing the dead woman's purse and strolling away. Reacher follows the killer on foot, not knowing that he is part of something much bigger and far-reaching, a secret conspiracy with many moving parts, with powerful people on the take, all involved in an undertaking that leaves no room for error. If any step is compromised, the threat will have to be quickly and quietly and permanently removed. Because when the threat is Reacher, there is No Plan B.

From some of the most successful mystery writers in the business, an invaluable guide to crafting mysteries, from character development and plot to procedurals and thrillers.

Jack Reacher is heading west, walking under the merciless desert sun, when he comes across a Jeep crashed into the only tree for miles around; a woman slumped over the wheel. Michaela Fendon, an army veteran turned FBI agent, has been trying to find her twin brother, who might be mixed up Dendoncker and his dangerous people. Reacher offers to help, but taking on Dendoncker may be the riskiest job of his life. It's the kind of game in which the loser is always better off dead.

It is close to midnight on a Saturday night when Jack Reacher gets off a bus at the Greyhound station in Nashville. Reacher is in no hurry. He has no appointments to keep. No people to see. No scores to settle. Not yet anyway. But in the early morning hours, under particular circumstances, a familiar thought will be snaking through his sharp, instinctual lizard brain: A voice in his head telling him to walk away. Of course, this wouldn't be the first time he listened to his gut instead. Meanwhile, seventy-five miles south and west of Music City is a sleepy little town where a recently-fired guy nurses a grudge that will fester into fury, and a desire for payback. But who is watching him, standing guard over a long-buried secret, ready to strike before it can be revealed? If you don't have a sense of the danger you're in, then it's best to have Reacher.

Jack Reacher, an ex-military policeman, is passing through the town of Margarve, Georgia, when he is accused of murder, and must somehow find the real killer and prove his innocence--with virtually the whole town against him.

Jack Reacher comes to the aid of an elderly couple; and confronts his most dangerous opponents yet.

"Jack Reacher has extended his thumb and hit the pavement. His plan is to follow the autumn sun on an epic trip across America, from Maine to California. He doesn't get far. On a country road in rural New Hampshire, deep in the New England woods, he sees a sign to a place he has never been: The town where his father was born. . . At the same moment, in the same isolated area, a car breaks down. Two young Canadians are trying to drive to New York City to sell a treasure. Now they're stranded at a lonely motel in the middle of nowhere. The owners almost seem too friendly. The next morning in the city clerk's office, Reacher asks about the old family home. He's told no one named Reacher ever lived in town. He knows his father left and never returned. Now Reacher wonders, Was he ever there in the first place? As Reacher explores his father's life, and strands of different stories begin to merge, he makes a shocking discovery: The present can be tough, but the past can be tense. and deadly"--Provided by publisher.

Reacher rides the bus north from Milwaukee. At a comfort stop in Wisconsin dairy country he takes a stroll. Among the cheap junk in a pawn shop window he notices a West Point class ring for sale. It's tiny. A woman cadet's ring. Why would she pawn it? Reacher knows what Serena Sanderson must have gone through to get it. He fights through a biker gang and a South Dakota gangster, following the trail of the ring to the emptiness of Wyoming, in search of Major Sanderson. Is she OK?.

An anthology of short stories by co-written by pairs of twenty-two female and male thriller writers.