Now someone had killed one of them. Reacher and the survivors of the unit get together for one more special investigation, and their whole mission is to rock and roll the killer's world.

I loved the whole revenge concept, and Child starts the action off with a cinematic murder. A man is loaded onto a helicopter, flown out into the Nevada desert a short distance from Las Vegas, and dropped three thousand feet to his death. Later we find out this was to strip all forensic evidence from the body. (It's an interesting idea, but I'll have to do the research on that one to find out. I'm something of an amateur forensics person.)

Immediately Child shifts to Reacher, who has just discovered that someone has deposited $1030 into his bank account. After a little bit of headwork, Reacher draws the conclusion that someone has sent him a message. He knows it could only have come from his old crew. A 1030 call signified that an agent was in trouble.

Child's writing has always been economical. He's never used six words when five would do. Or one. His plotting is quick and tight, and if you don't pay attention you're going to miss something. He is, by turns bashing the reader with action and subtle about character interaction, history, and back story for the plot. Everything matters in his books, and he uses everything he develops.

Bad Luck And Trouble is written so lean and frantic that I read it in two sittings. Since the book is almost 400 pages long and has smallish print, that was a lot of reading. Several hours, in fact. But Child kept me nailed to the seat because I could never quite put the book down once he had it up and running. I finally passed out with it on my chest at night, then got up the next morning and finished it.

Child doesn't write books that let facts or reality get in the way. He stays close to the bone in those areas, but he's an excellent thriller writer and knows when to trust his instincts and let the story have its head no matter how wild it gets. He's also got a great grasp of Reacher and the other characters, because even though this is thriller material, all of the old unit came to life on the pages.

With its June release, Bad Luck And Trouble is an excellent beach read. It's got short chapters, short scenes, and terse clean writing with a plot that never breaks stride.