Top Ten Things

That will happen in every Jack Reacher novel.

1. There will be a mole.
2. A brawl early on in which Reacher will face seemingly long odds — three against one? Eight against one? — but dispatch them quickly, effortlessly, with clinical detail of his strategy.
3. A beautiful woman with a dark secret.
4. Whom Reacher will have sex with.
5. A villain who is more sadistic than you thought possible or perhaps even necessary.
6. He or she will also be at the top of a large conspiracy, with considerable financial assets or influence.
7. Reacher will get new clothes, and throw away his old ones.
8. Reacher will say nothing.
9. Reacher will drink coffee.
10. In the climactic battle, he will have some kind of handicap. Maybe he’s been shot. In “61 Hours” he’s fighting a guy who’s just 4’10″ — but in a room with a five-foot ceiling, so he has to be on his knees. Maybe he’ll be taking on an entire militia.
11. He’ll realize he’d got it all wrong, and immediately come up with a new theory about what is happening.

Eleven? So sue me, a top ten list sounded better as a title. Formulaic? Yeah, but I can’t stop reading them.

There are two more I have to track down and read, and a new one is coming out in mid-October.