Jon Crunch: Review: Lee Child’s “Blue Moon” (Plus Thoughts on His Brother Taking Over the Series)

I guess I should have known something was amiss when I started Lee Child’s 24th Jack Reacher novel “Blue Moon” a few weeks ago.

I can’t quite put my finger on why I felt that way as I plunged into the narrative. For some reason, the “feel" just seemed different than your typical Reacher novel.

As I flipped the pages, I wondered if Child was intentionally shaking things up, or if he’s just run out of steam (more on that later).

Readers of this blog know how much I love Child’s Jack Reacher series. Each novel in his library is the literary equivalent of a hearty breakfast of fried eggs, bacon, hash browns, and black coffee (a meal dependably served at diners across the fruited plain — favorite haunts for Reacher).

I’ve read the entire series over the past 14 years, and have reviewed seven Reacher novels (and a short story collection) since I started this blog in 2016. I also covered Child’s appearance at the University of Nebraska at Omaha in 2018.

“Blue Moon” started off dependably.

This time out we find Reacher traveling on a bus (something the former military police officer is apt to do) when he spots a fellow passenger scheming to rob a sleeping traveler who has an envelope full of money in his pocket.

The bus is exiting the highway for its first stop of the day. Reacher (who has no place to be) decides to depart the bus at the depot. Curiosity is his motivation — he wants to see if the unwary passenger toting the money gets mugged.

Reacher being Reacher, he helps thwart the mugging attempt. The man with the cash is older and he gets scraped up in the process. His right leg is sore, which makes it difficult to walk.

The man’s name is Aaron Shevick. The cash is for a payment he needs to make at a bar before noon.

Shevick doesn’t want to say what the payment is for, but our protagonist soon deduces the gist of the situation. Shevick owes money to a loan shark, and sold off his Chevy Caprice to raise the funds — hence the reason he was on the bus with Reacher.

At first, Shevick shuns Reacher’s offer to help him walk to his destination, saying he can’t bring anyone along. But he soon realizes he won’t make it in time if he doesn’t get assistance walking (and the payment increases after 12 p.m.).

Pretty intriguing setup, right?

I’m not going to give away any spoilers this review.

The city they are in goes unnamed throughout the story, but it is shaped like a pear and controlled by the Ukrainian mob and the Albanian mob (with both crime organizations controlling separate halves of the city).

Reacher eventually learns why Shevick is indebted to mob loan sharks. We find out in fairly short order. We also learn that Shevick is married and has an adult daughter.

Reacher wants to aid the Shevicks during their time of crisis. That effort eventually pits our hero against the Ukrainians and the Albanians — meaning Reacher gets himself embroiled in a full-on mob war.

I’ll be honest, I found the reasoning behind Shevick’s money woes to be somewhat contrived. It’s not that the underlying reason lacked resonance in today’s society.

Rather, the way it was presented didn’t seem particularly credible. At first, I thought it might be a “cover story” for the real reason the Shevicks were indebted to the mob. That, however, was not the case.

As usual, Reacher stumbles across a number of interesting characters who weave their way though the narrative.

Early on, Reacher meets a waitress named Abby Gibson. She works at one of the mob-controlled night clubs. Before we know it, Abby’s fate becomes intertwined with that of Reacher and the Shevicks.

She wasn’t nearly as well developed as some of the other female protagonists Reacher has teamed up with over the years.

Abby is friends with a couple of struggling musicians (Frank Barton and Joe Hogan) who assist Reacher along the way.

One of the more interesting characters in “Blue Moon” is a former tank commander named Guy Vantresca. He's introduced to Reacher because his language skills are needed for the translation of Ukrainian text messages.

Despite a number of “Reacher tropes” strewn throughout the “Blue Moon,” the whole is not greater than the sum of its parts. Therein lies my disappointment.

A comment Abby makes during the story sort of sums up my feelings: “It’s like one movie is playing in slow motion, and the other one is running all speeded up.”

Most authors of series fiction have entries that are better than others. That’s to be expected.

A week ago (when I had roughly 50 pages left in “Blue Moon”), I learned on Twitter that Lee Child (whose real name is Jim Grant) is turning over the writing duties for Reacher to his younger brother, Andrew Grant (who will write under the pen name “Andrew Child”).

Child, who is 65, told The Bookseller, that “I love my readers and know they want many, many more Reacher stories in the future. I would love to make that promise, but realistically I am aging out of being able to keep it up. A few more, maybe, but not many, many more.”

Andrew Grant is 15 years younger than his brother. Child told The Bookseller, “we’re going to work on the next few together, and then he’ll strike out on his own.”

This made me wonder if the two brothers had *already* collaborated on “Blue Moon” — maybe as a trial run for the shift in duties.

I have no evidence of that, but the thought crossed my mind upon hearing the news.

It is kind of sad that Lee Child will no longer be at the helm of the Jack Reacher novels. It is a terrific series and Reacher is one of the most compelling protagonists of our day.

“Blue Moon” is fairly entertaining, but lacks the spark Child has consistently brought to the series.

I found the story of competing mob bosses to be hard to keep straight at certain times. I would periodically ask myself, “Is this guy in charge of the Ukrainians or the Albanians?”

The notion that mob henchmen would be roaming every street of a sizable city — as if the 21st century is like Al Capone’s Chicago in the 1920s — lacked verisimilitude.

That’s why Reacher novels are typically best when they take place in small, rural places that lay off the beaten path. Tiny dots on the map don’t attract the attention of prying eyes. That’s what makes them terrific fodder for mystery and intrigue.

Reading a new Lee Child novel is a highlight for me each year. My mom introduced me to the series in 2006, and I’ve enjoyed following the exploits of Reacher ever since.

The next Reacher novel will be titled “The Sentinel” and it will be published on Oct. 27, 2020.

“The Sentinel” will apparently see Reacher in Nashville, Tennessee, aiding a music band that has been cheated by a local bar owner.

I hope Andrew Grant is able to get the series traveling in the right direction. So much of Lee Child is infused into Reacher. It'll be fascinating to see where things go from here.

Related blog content on author Lee Child:

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