Lee Child. Echo Burning. Jove, 2001.

Hope for the best, plan for the worst. That was his guiding principle. (86, italics in original)

Army and law enforcement veteran Jack Reacher is one tough guy. In Echo Burning we get to see his strengths: his size, his skill with weapons and fists, his knowledge of crimes, and perhaps the chip on his shoulder. However, Echo Burning also demonstrates some weakness. Reacher is experienced and skilled, but he is no superhero. He is mortal like the rest of us.

Lee Child writes cleverly. There are so many plot twists, it becomes almost impossible to review the story. Of course, plot twists are entertaining and keep us reading. Echo Burning is a wild tale in both senses. The story is one surprise after another, and it takes place in the Wild West and near wilderness of West Texas.

The title comes from the heat. The town Echo, Texas, in the summertime is hot and dry. The book will make readers thirsty. Time and again we read of temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, overloaded air conditioners, and wet clothes that dry in no time.

We also read about a complicated situation drifter Jack Reacher (Jack Creature?) has gotten into. Having to leave a situation in a hurry, he begins to hitchhike. He is picked up by a woman in a big car with a crazy story. Carmen is looking for help. Her husband has been in prison for a year and a half for tax evasion and is getting out soon. She claims he used to beat her frequently, and she fears it will be worse when he gets back home.

Home is a sprawling family ranch overseen by her mother-in-law and single brother-in-law. Reacher agrees to do what he can to help. He will work as a hired hand there, but he confesses to her that he knows little about horses. She figures that they are always looking for help, and if he can keep an eye on things even for a week, she might be able to get by. (There is more, but I want to avoid too many spoilers.)

Meanwhile, we read from time to time brief episodes concerning a trio of hired assassins. We would call the hitmen, except the leader is a woman. Hitpersons? Hitpeople? They are very smart and very careful. We read of how they kill a lawyer from Echo who was a long-time friend of Carmen’s husband. They cover their tracks carefully. Indeed, readers might think that if they follow similar procedures, they could get away with murder. After all, these teammates are pros and have been getting away with murder for some time.

It takes a long time in the novel before we see a more direct connection between the hitpeople and Carmen’s situation. Although Reacher finds himself in a couple of bar fights and at least one shootout, much of his focus is on the mystery he sees. Who is telling the truth? Is everyone lying?

He picks up on details that others miss. At one point, for example, he is given a FedEx packet of documents. He weighs the documents and notices that the papers he was given weigh about a pound less than the weight on the shipping label. What else was in the mailer?

There are many other such details that show Reacher’s smarts. He realizes that some of the things going on around Echo such as the lawyer’s disappearance were committed by professionals. That gets him thinking in a different direction: What would pros do? Who is hiring them? This is more than the mere family drama that Carmen thinks it is.

The motif of anti-Mexican prejudice recurs through the story. The husband’s family and some of their friends look down on Carmen because she is Mexican. Now, she says her family settled in California when it was still part of Mexico, so she is as American as anyone, but is she telling the truth? Not that her husband’s family and other residents of Echo would believe it.

I have spent a little bit of time time in West Texas and adjacent New Mexico. Lee Child does get a sense of the geography of the region. He also tells a real tough-guy tale.

Over the years I have had few students read Jack Reacher novels—I suspect in part because of the popularity of the Amazon television series. When I had the opportunity to read this, I took it to see what they were about. I can see why they are popular. I suspect they will endure for some time.