“Wanted Man”, book 17 in the Jack Reacher series, starts out with Reacher standing on an eastbound interstate ramp late at night looking for a ride back to Virginia. He had been interested in a women’s voice on the phone in a prior book and wanted to go see what she looked like.
He waited exactly 93 minutes before a car stopped containing two men and a woman. It turns out that the men, Alan King and Don McQueen, are kidnappers and the women, Karen Delfuens, is actually a hostage and terrified waitress whose car they have hijacked.
The kidnappers were running from the scene where they had murdered a man at an abandoned pump station in the middle of nowhere, a crime to which several Federal agencies were quickly reacting to. Julia Sorenson, an F.B.I. special agent from Omaha was called in to investigate the potential interstate crime when the kidnapping is learned about.
The kidnapping leads Sorenson to Reacher. She is as smart and methodical, as he is, and he convinces her that whatever is unfolding, he and she should be on the same side.
The trail leads, eventually, to a secret fortified bunker and Reacher must break in to get to the real bad guys. The plot changes direction from a simple kidnapping and again Child, the master of plot, holds our interest to the end.
“I don't want to put the world to rights... I just don't like people who put the world to wrongs.”
“Reacher said, "So here's the thing Brett. Either you take your hand off my chest, or I'll take it off your wrist.”
“Hope for the best, plan for the worst.”
“Never forgive, never forget. Do it once and do it right. You reap what you sow. Plans go to hell as soon as the first shot is fired. Protect and serve. Never off duty.”
“No, I'm a man with a rule. People leave me alone, I leave them alone. If they don't, I don't