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the Complete Review
the complete review - fiction



Die Trying

by
Lee Child


general information | review summaries | our review | links | about the author

To purchase Die Trying


Title: Die Trying
Author: Lee Child
Genre: Novel
Written: 1998
Length: 552 pages
Availability: Die Trying - US
Die Trying - UK
Die Trying - Canada
Les caves de la Maison-Blanche - France
Ausgeliefert - Deutschland
Destinazione inferno - Italia
Morir en el intento - España
from: Bookshop.org (US)
  • The second Jack Reacher novel

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Our Assessment:

B : solid thrills throughout, but the basic (convoluted) plot just too overblown silly

See our review for fuller assessment.



Review Summaries
Source Rating Date Reviewer
The LA Times . 26/7/1998 Dick Lochte


  From the Reviews:
  • "I missed Reacher’s debut last year in Killing Floor. If it was as wonderful as the glowing quotes provided by the publisher indicate, it’s hard to explain why this sequel is such a clunker." - Dick Lochte, The Los Angeles Times

Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers. Similarly the illustrative quotes chosen here are merely those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review as a whole. We acknowledge (and remind and warn you) that they may, in fact, be entirely unrepresentative of the actual reviews by any other measure.

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The complete review's Review:

       Die Trying takes place some fourteen months after Jack Reacher left a lifetime in the military. He has been taking in the sights -- "You got to remember, I'm a thirty-seven-year-old American, but I've never really been in America much", he explains --, becoming a true drifter: so far he hasn't spent more than ten days in any one place:

Thirty-six year I was always where somebody else told me to be. Very structured sort of a life. I suppose I am reacting against it. I love moving around when I feel like it. It's like a drug.
       He's in Chicago when the novel opens -- and soon enough is on the move again, albeit not of his own volition. Bad, bad luck sees him swept up when a woman is kidnapped: he'd been walking by a dry cleaner when a young woman dropped her crutch, which he gallantly picked up and handed back to her, just as the kidnappers make their move. He could have taken the three men, but, concerned about stray bullets hitting innocent bystanders, lets himself be taken along for the ride.
       The woman -- the actual target -- is Holly Johnson, a Yale and Harvard graduate who, after a short, successful stint on Wall Street has gone on to become an FBI agent -- currently hobbled by a soccer injury. The reason she is kidnapped isn't because of her job or wealth, however (as Reacher realizes: "Holly, for God's sake. These guys don't want Holly Johnson, FBI agent. The whole FBI thing is incidental") -- it's because of her father and his prominent position. As she admits: "Everybody assumes everything happens because of my father. Me too", and in this case everybody and her are right.
       Reacher and Holly are in for a long ride -- Child's predilection for having his protagonist cover great distances already comes to the fore, although mercifully once they get to their destination Reacher and Holly stay (or rather: are stuck) there (at least until there's a long, long helicopter flight at the end, sigh).
       There are glimpses of the bad guy along the way, as he is having a room prepared for the captive he is expecting. At first he is only referred to as 'the employer', though he soon proves himself as one who is not exemplary: it's the workmen -- who do a fine job with the specially designed room -- winding up paying quite a high price for their troubles. Our first glimpse of the bad guy already reveals that he is -- as is unfortunately all too typical of Child-bad-guys --: "a huge guy, freakishly bloated", but it's a while before we get more specifics:
His name is Beau Borken. Thirty-five years old, six feet in height and four hundred pounds in weight. Big guy, right ?
       A right-wing nut, Borken has carved out a corner of Montana for himself and quite a group of followers, whom he rules over with an iron fist. And Beau has plans, big plans. And -- in yet another all-too-typical Child touch -- there's a countdown-clock of sorts ticking all the while. As Borken explains to Reacher -- because of course he does:
(W)e're two days away from a unique moment in history. Things are going to happen which will change the world. Plans are made and operations are under way.
       The fact that Holly is an FBI agent might have been 'incidental' in her being selected to play a part in Borken's plans, but ensures that the FBI is even more involved than it would otherwise get. Once it's clear that she's been taken the small, select group from the Chicago field office tasked with dealing with the situation is determined to do whatever it takes to get Holly back. (This being a very sensitive matter, it's left to a very small group of agents, which seems ... unrealistic.)
       Among the nice touches are that both sides have traitors in their midsts to contend with: the FBI has had a bit of an eye on Borken's group for a while, and they have a man on the inside who infiltrated the group and sends occasional updates (communication is difficult). And, as soon becomes clear, Borken is getting inside information from the FBI as well, so clearly not everyone there is playing for the right side. And on top of it all, the video evidence the FBI gathers from the abduction suggests to them that Reacher is one of the kidnappers, so their working assumption is that he is one of the bad guys. (It's unclear why Holly isn't more suspicious of Reacher, who just happens to be there when she gets kidnapped, and whom the kidnappers just happen to keep alive .....)
       It's all a bit silly for a while, but solid thriller fun as Holly and Reacher are being driven to their fate. Naturally, Holly and Reacher are drawn to one another, and are soon enough rolling in the hay, but for the most part it's the danger and uncertainty that make for a suspenseful read.
       Aside from Holly's rather too prominent personal connections -- dad; her godfather -- Child also already is pushing reasonableness with the strange room Borken has built for Holly. And, once the action settles down in Borken's territory, the novel spirals increasingly into silliness. Child is very good here on the up-close detail and action, especially when Reacher is involved (and less so when Reacher is out of the picture), but he aims way too high -- or rather: broad -- with the plot here, with Borken's plan(s) just way too ambitious and far-reaching. A lot of Borken's planning is meticulous -- but not nearly enough -- and he makes some curious choices here (not least: letting Reacher live); a little tweaking, a little patience (when the authorities use the fact that it's a holiday as a delaying tactic Beau chuckles: "'Independence Day,' Borken said. 'Maybe I should have chosen another date'"; no kidding (though of course he has his reasons for choosing this day -- but maybe wait a year ?)), a little more (self-)control and he surely could have accomplished considerably more.
       The action-scenes and confrontations are still good -- Child does this sort of stuff very well -- but's hard to ignore the silly bigger picture -- trying to be so much bigger than is really warranted. Making the stakes ginormous does not make things more suspenseful; in fact, it proves deflating.
       Ultimately, Child pegs what he's accomplished with Die Trying with a single line, when he's describing Reacher in a tight, dark spot:
He was operating in a one-dimensional world.
       A shame. Child does the small stuff very well here -- it's the kind of detail and presentation you want in this kind of thriller -- but whiffs big time with the bigger picture, in trying to make that way, way too big.

- M.A.Orthofer, 25 February 2025

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Links:

Die Trying: Reviews: Lee Child: Other books by Lee Child under review: Other books of interest under review:

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About the Author:

       British author Lee Child was born in 1954.

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© 2025 the complete review

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