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■ Reacher
Amazon Prime’s Reacher is currently on the third season… and it’s very good! The new season is based on Lee Child’s novel Persuader. I have enjoyed all the Reacher series so far… although on retrospect, I felt Season 2 focused too much on Reacher’s old MP squad. With Season 3, it’s all about Reacher, but this time he has a new team to work with: East Coast accent DEA Agent Susan Duffy, rookie Steven Eliot and retiring old man Guillermo Villanueva.

Reacher Season 4

America’s favorite Hobocop is back in Reacher: Season 4. Amazon dropped the first three episodes on August 12, 2026… with the rest of the series doled out every Wednesday.

I haven’t read any of the novels, but the fourth season is based on Gone Tomorrow (2009). It starts off with a bang, literally as a woman commits suicide in front of Reacher on the subway. With that, it sets off a chain of events that finds the homeless Reacher trying to get to the bottom of it.

The FBI, the CIA, and various three-letters agencies, are out to get Reacher and his “team” of a detective and a small-time cop from New Jersey. The other helper, some conspiracy former Washington Post writer, I really like him. He’s only trying to help, and I get the impression that he’s the key in blowing up the whole story.

The one character that I do not care for is the woman with the bone marrow trying to find out who her father is. Maybe it’s how she was written, but she looks like a hot underwear model. The hair, the makeup, the dress, it just looks like she didn’t belong in this show of a hobo and his rag-tag cop team.

I also didn’t really like how Reacher kept saying “jump drive”. I’ve never heard that term before, but it is a thumb drive or flash drive or USB drive or dongle. No one calls it a jump drive. Maybe it’s a regional thing. Reacher has never been one to keep up with technology, after all, he didn’t know what Only Fans was.

Also, maybe I’ve complained before, but Reacher is just down-right cocky. Sure, I know he can do what he says he will do, but it just comes off like he’s a jerk sometimes. I know the writer is trying to paint him as intelligent, but just imagine if Hulk Hogan was trying to deliver those detective lines… sometime it just didn’t work for me.

As usual, action is top-notch. The pacing, in the first three episodes, are good. A bit of action, a bit of investigation, and always keeping you guessing what is going on.

So far, I’m really excited to seeing the rest of the season. It’s going to be annoying to wait a week.

Lee Child

The man behind Reacher, author Lee Child has a book called Reacher: The Stories Behind the Stories. It is not the latest Reacher book, but it contains the stories behind his Jack Reacher novels. So, if you ever wanted to know what Killing Floor or Blue Moon was based on, Child gives us the details.

In addition to the background stories, this book also includes a brand-new, original Reacher short story (the first Reacher story by Lee Child since 2019). I did read the very short story (about 20 pages). It’s about Reacher hitchhiking in Alabama and helping out a woman change the tire of her truck. It ends with a fist fight with a group of truckers who accused Reacher of killing someone who gave him a ride (since he was last seen with the victim). It feels like this short story might be setting up a much bigger story – but who knows.

There is little nuances in the written stories that doesn’t really come across in the television show. For example, Reacher is always hungry. Or that he just enjoys walking.

Anyway, this book is really for the diehard Lee Child / Jack Reacher fans. For casual fans, like me, you’re better off just enjoying the Amazon Prime Television show (or the Tom Cruise movies) or maybe just buy that first Killing Floor novel.

Lee Child’s autograph

P.S. The story behind the story of this Book Report is that I unintentionally got the book for free. I had ordered a Barnes & Noble signed edition, because I needed another book to qualify for the free shipping. After a week, the book never arrived. I checked tracking, and UPS handed it off to the post office for delivery – and it showed that it was delivered. I talked to B&N’s support and they were very kind and basically considered the book as lost and refunded my money. That was really nice of them, I thought I was going to be given B&N credits, so you had to spend the money at their store and/or ask me to file a report with UPS (because they weren’t the ones who lost the book). Anyway, after all that was settled… a few days later, my next-door neighbor came by and hand-delivered my package. He said the mail man delivered it to his address by mistake.