Jon Crunch: Book Review: “Night School” By Lee Child

I’ve read a lot of Jack Reacher books this year.

A little over a month ago, I made it my mission to read all the remaining Lee Child novels I had yet to complete. I have completed and reviewed four of the six I have remaining. In this review, I tackle the fifth on my list — “Night School.”

As was the case with my review of “The Enemy” a few days ago, “Night School” finds Reacher in another “prequel” story set in the 1990s.

It was sort of serendipitous that I happened to read these books back-to-back. “Night School” was published in 2016 — 12 years after “The Enemy.”

Both novels feature Reacher during his tenure as a military police officer. Both involve stories centered on the changing face of the military in the European theater.

“Night School” takes place in 1996, and starts off with Reacher receiving a medal for his service in The Balkans. Our independent-minded MP isn’t one for accolades. He is an individual focused on his duty — and doing the right thing in the cause of justice.

Others apparently admire that quality, and Reacher is soon ordered to report to a corporate office park in McLean, Virginia — a place called Educational Solutions Incorporated. Reacher, along with two men named Waterman and White (from the FBI and CIA, respectively), find themselves under the purview of the NSA.

They are tasked with solving a puzzle for the intelligence agency. An Iranian informant, who lives in an apartment with three Saudis in Hamburg, Germany, believes he has uncovered a secret plot that could pose a threat to the United States.

An unexpected messenger from the Middle East has visited the apartment — a courier on a mission unrelated to the informant and his roommates.

The informant overhears a conversation between the messenger and one of the Saudis. Apparently, the messenger was in Hamburg to be told something (not to deliver a message). An “opening statement,” in a manner of speaking.

The statement the messenger received was this: “The American wants a hundred million dollars.”

Warning klaxons sound throughout the intelligence community. Reacher and Co. need to find out what the message means, and who is involved.

Reacher ropes Sgt. Frances Neagley into the investigation (a character who has appeared in a number of Reacher novels, including “Without Fail,” which I reviewed in February). In fairly short order, the pair leaves the office park and heads to Hamburg to hunt down clues (because, as Reacher puts it, “[The NSA] said we’d get anything we want.”)

“Night School” finds Reacher in a race against time as he and the team try to track down the rogue American — and learn what is being sold for $100 million.

Typically, Lee Child structures his stories where the narrative stays firmly with Reacher — whether he is telling the story using a first person narrative, or a third person narrative.

He’ll often offer glimpses of an antagonist in the story (peeks around the corner), but those moments are typically short and mysterious. He rarely reveals too much.

In “Night School,” Child bounces around between various characters — using an approach that is more multi-threaded in nature. It's something you see in a number of espionage thrillers.

That structure can reveal too much information to the reader. Too many glimpses into the antagonist’s activities make “Night School” less of a mystery, and more of a thriller.

This appears to be conscious decision on the part of Child for the novel. In this interview from March 2016, Child reveals details about his yet-to-be-titled novel (“Night School,” which was published later in the year):

Child says, “For the new book [“Night School’] I’m making it less novelistic and ... more like a movie. Not in the sense that it is a screenplay disguised as a novel ... I’m trying to induce the same feeling in the reader’s mind that they would have if they were watching a movie. In other words the speed, the flow … and critically, certain conventions in movies that manage exposition slightly differently.”

I can tell the difference. I’ve been working on writing my own novel the past couple of years, and Lee Child is one of the authors I like to study — in terms of pacing, dialogue structure, and exposition.

“Night School” ultimately works as a thriller, but Child’s change in style makes the engrossing process of Reacher solving a mystery much less compelling than other entries in the series.

Yet there are still moments where we see Child at his best. For instance, this passage where Reacher is getting a shave at a Hamburg barber shop illustrates the author’s terrific prose:

“[The shave] turned out to be a luxurious experience. The water was warm, and the lather was creamy. The steel was perfect. It hissed through, on a molecular level.”