Say it ain't so, Lee!

I recently discovered a tremendous thriller author, Lee Child - and his uber macho hero, Jack Reacher. While on a Spring vacation I'd picked up a book for my Mother. When she'd finished it - and praised it highly to me (the last time we went through this little literary dance, she read One For The Money by Janet Evanovich and said "you'll love this", and off we went on a rollicking madcap whirl with Stephanie Plum, reading all her books one after another) I went out and bought her all the rest of the Reacher books, and started in reading from book 1, Killing Floor, myself.

And I was hooked. Utterly, completely in the thrall of the long, tall, taciturn Jack Reacher (as a romance writer, I'm a major Alpha male lover anyway!). Reading a book every day or two I finished up the first 13 and then had to make due with some other favorite authors until the next release, 61 Hours, on May 18. (WARNING: SPOILER ALERT! THIS POST CONTAINS INFO ABOUT THE CLIMACTIC ENDING OF THE NOVEL - DO NOT READ FURTHER IF IT WILL MAKE YOUR BLOOD BOIL TO KNOW THE END!!!!!)

On Tuesday, May 18, I was on vacation again (I'm a gardener and Spring vacations are fairly close together), and the car had to be taken in for repairs. In a torrential downpour I ran it in, walked home, and then made the reverse trip to pick up the car at 3:30 in the afternoon. BUT as it was the 18th, I did not head home but, instead, made a bee-line for the Barnes & Noble to get my very own copy.

Now, if you don't know me, you may be like me - and you may understand the quivering I felt as I dashed through the doors, breathless with anticipation, eager to the point of silliness to get my hands on Jack Reacher, um, I mean, the new Jack Reacher title. And there he, er, it was - a major front of store display with the sticker on the upper right-hand corner (be still my heart) indicating it was being sold at a 20% discount (which, with my B&N membership, means 30% off, total! Whoopee - what a savings, I suppose I should pick up another book, too?).

I ran home, and dumped it in my Mother's lap (I'd promised her first dibs) and said, "Read. Fast."

And she did. Thursday night she passed it off to me and I snuggled on my bed at 9:30 to read. But Thursday had been a long, physically exhausting day, and while I tried my best to keep reading - I'd been hooked from page one - I couldn't keep my eyes open.

On Friday morning, a sleepy, hazy, overly warm for May day, I did a few chores, all the while hearing Jack calling to me from the house. After planting, weeding, and a variety of other spring gardening type chores, I showered and said, "Now, I can read!"

And I did. Throughout the afternoon, despite phone calls from friends and interruptions from Mother inquiring as to my progress ("I want to talk about the ending with you!" - it should have been a portent) I read and read and read. I felt the chill of the South Dakota blizzard taking the heat off my May Long Island afternoon. I fell for the intrepid heroine (unlike the prior Reacher novels, no love interest at hand, other than telephonically, for our boy Jack) the aged librarian Janet. I was repulsed by the vicious horror that was the antagonist, Plato (and let it be said that Child knows how to craft a compelling and worthy adversary for Reacher). I puzzled about the insider who'd gone over to the dark side. Was it Peterson, the young, earnest cop? Was it one of the two cops on desk duty as a result of an unknown incident? And what WAS that weird building that no one could identify?

On I read, and on, forging through the afternoon until I'd gotten too hungry and had to set aside time to make dinner. And there was the final day of the Jeopary ournament of Champions that I couldn't miss. Then, in the twilight (what better time to read a thriller as the sun sets and the darkness begins to close in, like a villain stalking his prey), I finished the book.

WTF?

Where's Jack? What happened to Jack? The building blows sky high, the ashes of the bad guys strewn about the countryside, along with the meth that leaves an entire town speeding and there is NO SIGN OF JACK REACHER!?!?!? ARRGHGHGH!

Okay. So you may have gathered I'm supremely unhappy with this tidbit. I wanted answers! This morning I scoured the net looking for stories with my Google question, "Did Lee Child kill off Jack Reacher?". And I can see that I am not alone in my anguish.

However, one of the posters commented that at the end of the book there is a "to be continued" and that another "Lee Child thriller" is to be released on October 19, 2010. It doesn't say another "Lee Child Jack Reacher novel", though. Is Child toying with us? Cold, cruel man!

Another poster quoted a scientific detail about the description of airflow in the chamber where Jack is battling desperately to escape. Flames upward, air sucked downward in a vent. Was that where Reacher managed to survive? If so, why have the very dum-da-dumdum ending of Susan, the aforementioned telephonic love interest closing the drawer on Reacher's file? Why no mention of the indominatable and (heretofore) indestructible Reacher walking on his laconic way (hitching, or grabbing the next bus out to parts unknown, as usual sans luggage and with just that toothbrush in his pocket)?

Please, please, pretty please - Mr. Child - Say it ain't so! Say that you've merely decided to leave your rabid reading public hanging by their fingernails off the proverbial cliff-hanger! Say that you have not grown weary of the tall man's escapades and moved on to another protagonist!

Say that Jack Reacher will be back - to kick bad guy ass and leave the women's hearts a flutterin' !

A New Decade for Reading!

December 2009 was a tough month for my reading. I was trying to finish my (very first) full-length novel (Mother challenged me to do it, so, there you go). I read far fewer books - almost none in fact - than I usually do.

So here I am on January 2, 2010, with one completed manuscript that I have to edit, and THOUSANDS of books waiting to be read.

It's almost more than I can stand - too many books to even make a decision. I pick up a romance, but NOT, how about a thriller. No, wait, a non-fiction tome on the Civil War that I've been dying to read. Wait, how about that biography of Beatrix Potter. Or the latest paranormal by Laurell K. Hamilton. Or Robert Parker's new Jesse Stone mystery. I've got e-books, and short story collections. Plus some erotica that's sure to start my new decade off with a bang. Plus a World War II novel on the Navajo Code Talkers, an investigative history of Jack the Ripper and a book on literary theory.

Well, there's nothing else to do but pick one and get started.

Here's to another year of reading, of books, learning, knowledge, enjoyment, amusement, entertainment and pure, plain old fun.

If you didn't get a book for Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanza, or New Years, check out your library. Or head to the book store (trust me, they need the business). If cash is tight, try a used bookstore. Amazon.com has used copies of anything ever written for a few dollars. And, while you're at it, read to a kid, or buy a kid a book.

Now, let's see, I think I'll start with . . .