"A wanted man" by Lee Child. This book won "National Book Award" (An award for British writers) in 'Thriller and crime novel' category in 2012. More than a million copies of this novel have been sold.
This is the 17th book of Jack Reacher series but the first one I read. Jack, the protagonist, is ex-military police.
A man is murdered by two men. There is a eye witness. County sheriff starts the investigation. Soon FBI special agent Jessica Sorenson takes over the investigation. State department and CIA are also interested. Hunt for the killers begins. Eye witness goes missing.
Jack Reacher, a huge ex army police investigator, hitches a ride with 2 men and a women, who claim to be a team working together. Jacks finds discrepancies in their statements, that a common man would have easily missed. The women in the car communicates to Jack by blinking eyes while other two are asleep (don't know why she does not simply mouth the words) and tells him that the two men have hijacked her car.
Who are the two men? Who is the murdered man? What is the motive? These two guys seem to be resourceful, how come? Can FBI track them? What role does Jack play?
Lee Child has displayed amazing power of deduction. Identifying inconsistencies and drawing conclusions has been shown as Jack Reacher's forte. A lot of time is spent traveling on straight roads in the american dessert. Not much happens for long stretches of time in the book but you still do not get bored. Readers are hooked to the story. This, I think, is the key to success of this book.
The climax was supposed to be full of action, but turns our to be a low key affair.
Read if you have time. It's also OK to give it a miss.
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