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The Secret

Jack Reacher, Book 28

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The Secret

By: Lee Child, Andrew Child
Narrated by: Jeff Harding
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Read by award-winning narrator Jeff Harding.

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

The gripping new Jack Reacher thriller from the No.1 bestselling authors Lee Child and Andrew Child.

Chicago. 1992. A hospital patient wakes to find two strangers by his bed.

They show him a list of names and ask a simple but impossible question. Minutes later he falls to his death from his twelfth-floor window - a fall which generates some unexpected attention.

That attention comes from the Secretary of Defense, who calls for an inter-agency task force to investigate. Jack Reacher, recently demoted from Major, is assigned as the Army's representative. If he gets a result, great. If not, he's a convenient fall guy.

Reacher may be an exceptional military investigator, but office politics aren't what gets him up in the morning. As he races to identify a cold-blooded killer and uncover a secret that stretches back 23 years, he must navigate around his new partners.

Will Reacher bring the bad guys to justice the official way . . . or his way?


PRAISE FOR THE JACK REACHER SERIES

'There's only one Jack Reacher. Accept no substitutes.' MICK HERRON

'Jack Reacher is today's James Bond, a thriller hero we can't get enough of.' KEN FOLLETT

'Everyone needs to kick some butt sometimes, even if it's just imaginary.' JOJO MOYES



Although the Jack Reacher novels can be listened to in any order, The Secret is the 28th audiobook in the internationally bestselling series.

The Secret was a No. 1 Sunday Times bestseller in October and November 2023.

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

©2023 Andrew Child & Lee Child (P)2023 Penguin Audio

 Crime Thrillers Genre Fiction Military Mystery Private Investigators Suspense Thriller & Suspense War & Military Thriller Fiction Crime

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Critic reviews

The Secret is a corker . . . Fast and furious, this is classic Jack Reacher doing what he does best – busting heads and breaking rules to get to the bottom of a conspiracy
A flow to the fight scenes . . . some flashes of humour . . . Welcome back, Jack
If there is a more iconic character in modern fiction than Jack Reacher, I’d like to meet them
Jack Reacher is on good form . . . Cue classic laconic violence
All stars
Most relevant
I really love the Jack Reacher series. This is another nice addition to the series; decent plot with an interesting series of twists. A note to Lee Childs, can we please have more than one per year? I love the series and would love to hear more.

Nice story, clean ending.

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I could not be happier to say how amazing this book was. I have to admit the last two collaborations, in my humble opinion, were… well… utterly disappointing! However this new exciting Reacher adventure is back on top form. I would akin it to “Bad Luck and Trouble”, “Never Go Back”, “Night School” and similar quality reacher tomes.

I return to the Reacher books again and again as they are all so different yet reassuringly familiar. This is one of those good ones that I will return to again, and again, I’m sure:

I know we may only have one more collaboration book between the Childs but I’m hoping Andrew will honour the legacy and keep up this new level of quality after Lee takes a bow and leaves stage left, with our thanks.

A thrilling, Reacher at his best, twisting tale

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I was looking forward to the new Reacher book and was satisfied, disappointed and frustrated in equal measures. I thought the overall plot was decent but the sub-plots were far fetched. The two villains seemed to overcome every obstacle with consummate ease which seemed incredulous to me and the ending was an anti climax.
The detail of Reacher as an intricate character himself isn't there either, in fact overall the book seemed to skim detail and I felt short changed by that and the overall length of the book.
Jeff Harding does a decent job and I don't mind him, my only criticism would be his female voice repertoire is one dimensional for all the characters in all the books.
Decent book if you've got loads of money or credits but if you're an avid Reacher fan you may be disappointed also.

Disappointing compared to earlier Reachers

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When you read a book, a narrator's voice gradually takes shape in your mind. The Reacher books are broadly intelligently written and Reacher comes across as a smart character, and my personal voice for the series reflects this (smiley face).
So I was disappointed by the reading style used for this audio book. The narrator tells the story almost as if choosing from a selection of, say, seven inflections, all taken from noire detective movies of the 1960s.
The story is good, not Lee Child at his best, but still entertaining. It saddens me slightly when realistically-written novels present unrealistic elements such as a character traumatised by her CIA husband's murder by KGB agents - as if the KGB were a roaming death squad from a low-budget movie (the FSB, on the other hand...). Artistic license is one thing, but this is how we form our opinions, and as citizens of democracies with a duty to vote sensibly, we should try to keep our opinions based on reality. Rather as one should not base one's idea of sex on pornography, one should be cautious about consuming literature that presents a view of reality that strays a bit too far from how things actually were.

Narrated crudely, and not Lee Child at his best

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This is the first Reacher story I've got to the end of and been underwhelmed. The story is OK. The clues to the ending are not nearly as subtle as previous stories and made the last hour or so of the book very formulaic. Also can't help but notice that the story is about 3 no hours shorter than most in the series.

Top performance as always by Ed Winchester though.

Weaker than Reacher

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