The Affair

By Lee Child
Dell, $7.99, 608 pages

The Affair, by Lee Child, is the 16th book in the Jack Reacher series. Child takes readers back to 1997, when Reacher was part of the army. Reacher is ordered to go undercover and investigate the murder of a young woman in Carter Crossing, Mississippi. The evidence Reacher uncovers points to a soldier at the nearby Kelham military base, but this soldier has influential friends in Washington who may be conspiring to keep this murder under wraps. As more murders crop up, Reacher combines forces with local sheriff and former marine Elizabeth Deveraux to help solve the mystery that threatens Reacher’s convictions about the justice system he upholds.

Lee Child does a good job creating a complex plot, which progresses nicely at each turn of the page. Child adds new elements to the plot in a way that keeps readers interested and wondering about the outcome. However, the dialogue throughout the book is extremely brief and often repetitive in style. The lack of multidimensional characters is a problem, which can cause readers to disengage from the characters and, therefore, the book itself. While Child may be deficient in character writing, he is more than capable when it comes to creating mysterious circumstances.

Reviewed by Lindy Gervin

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