Review: Personal by Lee Child

***** 5 Stars

First of all I just have to comment on that cover. Jack's in London and what a ride he has and not just on the underground. Yes Reacher takes the tube.

I was incredibly excited to receive an ARC of this book back in June as Lee Child is one of my favourite authors and Jack Reacher one of my favourite characters. I've been on a long journey with Reacher since the first book 'The Killing Floor' was published in the UK back in 1998 and here we are 16 years later on book number 19 and what a book it is.

The book starts with Reacher picking up a copy of the Army Times and seeing ad in the personal's section addressed to him.'Jack Reacher call Rick Shoemaker.'  He could just ignore the ad but he doesn't and what happens next takes him on a hunt for a potential assassin visiting both Paris and London in a race against time. His job to track down an old enemy that he put inside sixteen years ago and prevent him from being anyway near the fast approaching G8 summit being held in London.

A Reacher book wouldn't be a Reacher book without Jack having a beautiful female sidekick and in Personal it comes in the form of Casey Nice, a rookie analyst for the CIA recruited straight out of Yale. Nice accompanies Reacher to London where they walk into a turf war between Serbian thugs and an old fashioned East End gang called the Romford Boys and one of them is hiding John Kott the ex army sniper that Reacher is hunting for.

This book is a is a real page turner that moves along at a break neck speed and I just couldn't put it down until I'd finished. It was great seeing Jack walk the streets of London and reading about familiar places although I did think of the tv show 'Birds Of A Feather' when Chingford is mentioned. For me Personal is Reacher at his coolest, facing danger head on because this time it is personal and Kott has him in his sights.
I also liked hearing a little more about Reacher's mother who died and is buried in Paris. It was very touching to see him visit her grave and to hear about what she did during World War 2. The only downside to this book is now that I have finished it I am going to have to wait a year until the next one. Unless Lee Child can be persuaded to write book 20 a little quicker. Pretty please!

Thanks to NetGalley & Random House/Bantam Dell for the ARC in exchange for an honest review