Echo Burning by Lee Child is yet another fantastic entry in the Jack Reacher series. I have to say that I adore Jack Reacher. He is the embodiment of what I love in my thriller protagonists. He is highly intelligent, confident without being arrogant, polite, and friendly yet reserved enough to listen to his instincts. Reacher is all alone in the world and in this book I found that almost desperately aching. There is no doubt that Reacher uses his life experiences to help him along in life. He is a true realist. I found Carmen to be a little irritating. I understood her motives but that didn’t make me sympathetic to her.

Echo Burning takes place in the back country of Texas. In the book this small town set in the middle of nowhere is represented as hostile to anyone other than Caucasians. There were times when I felt that the attitude was more aligned with the 1960s than the early 2000s. The thing that I love most about Lee Child’s writing is that after five books, he can still surprise me. The past two books I’d had things pretty much figured out. In this book, I didn’t know what was going on until Reacher revealed his hand. I truly enjoyed this book and am glad to have read it. I can’t wait to continue with the series. I’m excited to see if Lee Child can continue to keep me in the dark. I consider that to be the true standard of a thriller/suspense writer.