Murder Month 2019 - Small Wars

• Title And Author: Small Wars by Lee Child
• Publisher: Penguin
• Physical, eBook or Audiobook: Audiobook
• Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Borrowed from BorrowBox & Local Library
• Length: 1 Hours 17 Minutes

Maybe this wasn’t the best place to start with Lee Child and his well loved creation, Jack Reacher. This is, to my knowledge, 19.5 within the series. But when have I ever started in the right place...? 

Set in 1989, a young lieutenant colonel in a stylish handmade uniform and a swish car, drives through the woods down a lone road meets a very tall soldier with a broken-down car. 

But what connects a cold-blooded off-post shooting, an officer in the military police called Jack Reacher, his mysterious brother Joe and a secretive unit of pointy-heads from the Pentagon…? 

So… what are my thoughts of this short audiobook that I wanted to listen to due to Murder Month?

Well… like I said earlier on, this might not be the best place for me to start with Jack Reacher as… well… I kinda disliked him. I think I know why though - he’s an officer in the military police so, of course, he is going to be behaviour the way he does. And yet… and yet, I found it rubbed me up the wrong way. 

I might need to go towards an actual novel, if I decide to try him again. Am still in two minds. I might audiobook it (but bit overwhelmed with audiobooks the past few months [a few for this themed month] so might hold fire on that front). 

But the story itself… hmm… this is where I get a little stuck. Because, as a short story, it’s ok. Not great, but enough to keep you listen or whizzing through the pages. But, I feel like we’ve read/heard this story before. 

And I think that’s why I’m came away with the feeling I did. Though I don’t read much crime/mystery stories compared to other people, I feel like I have read this type of story before. Same with the resolution. It felt like I have read it before and it felt a little easy, like a “Get Out of Jail Free” card. It felt very cloak and dagger and when it comes to stories that feature, for example, the Government/the military, it feels a little easy. 

Like I said, this is probably the wrong place to try Jack Reacher (but when have I ever try a series in the right place?!). I think fans will like this, but not for me. If I feel brave in the future, I might try a novel… One day, we shall see…