Shortlisted for the Crime Thriller of the Year Award at the Galaxy British Book Awards 2008.
Jack Reacher is contacted by a sergeant from his old “special investigators” unit after four members of the unit have been killed. The surviving members need to be rounded up to avenge the deaths and live up to their motto “you don’t mess with the special investigators”. In a slight change for Jack we see him investigating as part of a team rather than in his usual lone status which allows the character to develop in different ways and give us new insight into who Jack Reacher is. Violent and intense, fans will not be disappointed.
The events of 9/11 changed Jack Reacher’s drifter life in a practical way. In addition to his folding toothbrush, he now needs to carry photo ID to get around. Yet he is still as close to untraceable as a human being in America can get.
So when a member of his old Army unit manages to get a message to him, he knows it has to be deadly serious. The Special Investigators always watched each other’s backs. Now Reacher must put the old unit back together. Someone has killed one of them, and he can’t let that go.
Lee Child is one of the world’s leading thriller writers. His novels consistently achieve the number one slot in hardback and paperback on bestsellers lists on both sides of the Atlantic, and are translated into over forty languages. His debut novel, Killing Floor, was written after he was made redundant from his television job in Manchester, and introduced his much-admired maverick hero, the former military cop Jack Reacher. Born in Coventry, he now lives in America.
The 2013 Crime Writers’ Association Diamond Dagger was awarded to Lee Child.
Members of the CWA vote for the Diamond Dagger award-winner, which celebrates an author with an outstanding body of work in crime fiction.
Peter James, chair of the CWA, said: “I am delighted that the CWA has chosen Lee Child as this year's recipient. Lee is one of the few British crime-thriller authors to have become a global brand name; he is also an extremely charming and open person and a tireless promoter of our genre.”
