Finished One Shot by Lee Child. This is one of Child’s thrillers starring ex-military policeman and all-around bad-ass Jack Reacher.

In this one, Reacher is bumming around the U.S. when he sees a disturbing news report — a sniper has killed several people in a nameless Indiana town. What’s worse is that Reacher tried — and failed — to put the army-trained sniper suspect away several years ago when Reacher will still an MP. So Reacher makes his way to Indiana, determined to put the guy behind bars once and for all. But things aren’t exactly what they seem, and Reacher soon finds himself caught up in a tricky conspiracy …

I really like this series, mainly because Reacher is basically a one-man wrecking crew who bums around the country, gets mixed up in bad situations, and helps people along the way. But I didn’t think that One Shot was one of the better books in the series. Why not? Well, for starters, I was able to figure out most of the mystery before the end of the book. One thing I really like about this series is that Child keeps you guessing until the very end, despite the subtle clues that he’s planted along the way. But with One Shot, I figured out a lot of what was going on well before the end.

Another problem I had with the book was the villains’ motivation. It just seemed to me like they could have found a simpler, less violent way to take care of their problem rather than doing what they did.

And finally, there was Reacher himself. Now, I like bad-ass characters — I write a series about one. But Reacher came off as really egotistical in this one — like he was so much smarter/stronger/tougher than everyone else that no one could touch him, much less take him down. Meh. I think that your character has to have some vulnerabilities and some weaknesses to make him relatable. I just didn’t connect with the super-duper Reacher in this one.

Overall, this isn’t the best Reacher book out there, but it’s still a solid thriller. Thumbs up.

Up next: Something from the TBR pile.

Books in my TBR pile: About 20.