Past Tense cover art

Past Tense

(Jack Reacher 23)

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Past Tense

By: Lee Child
Narrated by: Jeff Harding
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Only £0.99 a month for the first 3 months. Pay £0.99 for the first 3 months, and £8.99/month thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Start my membership

About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Read by award-winning narrator Jeff Harding.

**NOW A MAJOR PRIME TV SERIES STARRING ALAN RITCHSON**

JACK REACHER NEVER LOOKS BACK . . . UNTIL NOW.

The present can be tense . . .

A young couple trying to get to New York City are stranded at a lonely motel in the middle of nowhere. Before long they're trapped in an ominous game of life and death.

But the past can be worse . . .

Meanwhile, Jack Reacher sets out on an epic road trip across America. He doesn't get far. Deep in the New England woods, he sees a sign to a place he has never been - the town where his father was born. But when he arrives he is told no one named Reacher ever lived there. Now he wonders: who's lying?

As the tension ratchets up and these two stories begin to entwine, the stakes have never been higher for Reacher.

That's for damn sure.

Although the Jack Reacher novels can be listened to in any order, Past Tense is the 23rd in the series.


'There's only one Jack Reacher. Accept no substitutes.' - Mick Herron.

‘Jeff Harding’s [...] narration captures Reacher’s character perfectly [...] you have to savour every minute.’ The Sunday Times

© Lee Child 2018 (P) Penguin Audio 2018

 Crime Thrillers Modern Detectives Mystery Suspense Thriller & Suspense Crime Thriller Fiction Exciting

Listeners also enjoyed...

 The Equalizer cover art
Straight Shot cover art
Gone Forever cover art
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes cover art
The Brief cover art
Crashed cover art
Terminal Rage cover art
The Child cover art
Who in Hell Is Wanda Fuca? cover art
Surviving the Game cover art
Atlas Shrugged cover art
The Blake Brier Thriller Series Boxset - Books 1 to 3 cover art
Tales of the Nameless World: Volume 1 cover art
Scamps & Scoundrels cover art
The Deep Blue Good-By cover art
The Squire cover art

Critic reviews

Absolutely loved Past Tense – Lee Child just gets better and better, which is a very rare quality in a writer of a long-run series. Whip smart, always compelling, always fun, he is dangerously addictive. (Peter James)
Jack Reacher is today's James Bond, a thriller hero we can't get enough of (Ken Follett)
I loved it. One of the best. (Jonathan Ross)
It’s Lee Child. Why would you not read it? (Karin Slaughter)
Sometimes you just want someone who can beat the s*** out of people! I pick up Jack Reacher when I’m in the mood for someone big to solve my problems (Patricia Cornwell)
Loved [Past Tense]! Nothing makes for a great weekend quite like quality time with Jack . (Lisa Gardner)
Busy, bloody and ingenious
One of the best...hits the mark perfectly. (Joanne Harris)
The pace picks up...the action becomes brutal, and we're led to an extremely satisfying conclusion...I'm becoming increasingly understanding of our appetite for fiction that features proper punishment for baddies. It's deeply comforting to escape into an imaginary world where we're all safe in Jack Reacher's gammon-joint sized hands.
All stars
Most relevant
best Reacher for a while. narrated well as always


reminded me of some of the earlier ones

back to old skool Reacher

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
No Spoilers here....
I have read all the Jack Reacher books, I got through this one in 3 days. I would put this one
up there, solid dual line story. I would rate this 5th best of 23 in my book. My favs. persuader, Night school, The hard way, the affair. If you like the Jack Reacher books, you will like this. Narrator is Jeff Harding, as always very good.

Great Book.. Good Story.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
better for being slightly shorter i thort, polished performance and right storytelling. resounding thumbs up.

Sure does zip along!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Wasn't sure were this was going after the first few chapters but it turns into a classic Reacher.
Plenty of typical action and a really interesting story about Reacher's family history.

A Slow Burn But Stay With It - Fantastic!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
i dont get tired of Jack Reacher shame the films arent as good as the books.

another great Lee Child book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews