Jon Crunch: Book Review: “The Enemy” By Lee Child

One of the neat aspects of a Lee Child novel is that the author is unafraid — at random points — to do “prequel” novels featuring his protagonist Jack Reacher in the past.

In “The Enemy,” we find Reacher in North Carolina on Jan. 1, 1990.

Reacher is suddenly swept away from his assignment in Panama (Operation “Just Cause”) and dispatched to Fort Bird and the 110th Special Unit — a mysterious move happening with MP XOs at installations across the map.

When a two-star general named Kramer is found dead at a seedy North Carolina motel — located next to a strip club — it sets into motion an intricate puzzle for Major Reacher to solve. Hours later, the general’s wife is found dead in her Virginia home...and the body count doesn’t stop there.

Reacher enlists the aid of Lt. Summer — an ambitious female officer Reacher plucks out of the O Club while eating lunch.

“The Enemy” is the second novel in a row (after “Persuader”) where Child employs the first-person narrative. As is the case with benchmark detective fiction, the first-person structure allows a reader to track down clues — and solve the mystery — alongside the narrator.

"The Enemy" is more “procedural” in nature than some of the other entries in the Jack Reacher series. We are treated to autopsies, plaster casts, database analysis, and a variety of other forensic data the military police has at its disposal.

It turns out the dead general was on his way to a conference in California. He was from XII Corps in Germany — a big-deal tank operation put in place in case of war with the Soviet Union.

The novel twists and turns its way into a vast conspiracy — involving the future of the military in a post-Cold War world. As the Berlin Wall is being dismantled in "The Enemy," a 40-year-old military strategy is starting to see its foundations crumbling.

There is an enjoyable subplot in “The Enemy” involving Reacher’s mother, who lives in Paris. Reacher reunites with his brother Joe to visit the ailing woman — giving a familial connection that we don’t often see in Child’s novels.

Wistful and sentimental moments give additional insight into Reacher. For example, the origin of his love of coffee is covered in this passage:

“Joe was probably the only other human being on the planet who liked coffee as much as I did. He started drinking it when he was six. I copied him immediately. I was four. Neither of us has stopped since. The Reacher brothers’ need for caffeine makes heroin addiction look like a little take-it-or-leave-it sideline.”

Believe it or not, there is actually a line of Jack Reacher-branded coffee available for fans to order — https://www.baltcoffee.com/catalog/jack-reacher-coffee:

While at times it might seem like today’s thrillers and mysteries lack refinement, Lee Child has the ability to weave in little metaphors — that act as connective tissue in his stories.

As Reacher and Summer track down clues in the death of General Kramer, they come across a hardcover book Kramer owned about the Battle of Kursk — a famous World War II tank battle between the Germans and the Russians in 1943.

Reacher refers to that battle a number of times as the narrative unfolds. In this passage — as he and Lt. Summer try to determine their next move in the investigation — Reacher thinks:

“I was quiet for a long moment. Thought back to Kramer’s hardcover book. This was like July thirteenth, 1943, the pivotal day of the Battle of Kursk. We were like Alexander Vasilevsky, the Soviet general. If we attacked now, this minute, we had to keep on attacking until the enemy was run off his feet and the war was won. If we bogged down or paused for breath even for a second, we would be overrun again.”