Jack Reacher decides to walk across America. When he gets to the junction of Hope and Despair in Colorado, he chooses to visit Despair. When he attempts to order coffee in a local restaurant, he is ordered out of town and told that they don't like strangers.
Being a former Marine, Reacher doesn't like being told what to do and waits 'til dark to return to Despair. After checking a local factory, he finds the emaciated body of a young man. Then he returns to his motel in Hope and meets a college student, Lucy Anderson, who was also made to leave Despair. Her husband is missing.
The plot was slow to develop and at times bordered on the absurd. At one point Reacher gets into a bar fight with six men. He inflicts such damage to the men that they need medical treatment for things like, a broken arm, a broken nose, and a concussion, while he comes out of the fight with hardly a scratch. In another case, returning to Despair once again, he is with Officer Vaughan, when a crowd of two to three hundred people stand in the highway blocking their way, chanting, "Out! Out! Out! The image didn't seem realistic.
When things happened with the plot, it seemed that the decision to take action was based on Reacher's intuition with little to back it up, ie was the problem with the factory, was it with the military, was it something with the kingpin Jerry Thermond?
The town of Despair is unfriendly, the people think little of anyone but themselves and with Reacher's usual point to help people who couldn't help themselves, no one really wanted his help. He should have left the people in Despair to their own fate.
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4 comments:
It's too bad this book didn't meet your expectations. I've been seeing Gone Tomorrow from this author quite a bit. I made a mental note to read it at some point, or maybe another title to understand what other readers are talking about, but I guess I'll avoid Nothing to Lose. Thanks for the review. =)
Aw, man. I just bought it and I was hoping it'd be good. Oh, well. Maybe I'll feel differently...
Mike,
as I'm reading your blog, a thought occured to me: I don't know about other readers, but I would like to learn about your adventures as a writer. What has inspired you? How was writing your first draft? How did the editing and proofreading go? What's it like being on the road to finding an agent, a publisher, and then later on, seeing your book displayed on shelves in bookstores?
Anyway, this is just what I'm thinking right now. Maybe you'll keep it all a secret until later, when others would be very interested in reading your book, or when they would like an interview with you.
Yup, it would be something I'd be interested in learning about. I'm writing the first draft to a YA story, but I don't tell many people. In about 2 weeks, it will be hard for me to juggle book writing, book blogging, and my studies. =/
I just read this and was also disappointed. It caught my interest in the first pages but what a let down as I went along! Oh well, I still love Jack Reacher.
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