Guest Blog – Tripwire by Lee Child

I keep telling myself that I am going to start reading best sellers, classics or something intellectually stimulating. So far it hasn’t happened. When I was looking for something to read on a cross country flight, I bought a Lee Child mystery/thriller. It took no time at all for me to become engrossed in Tripwire. In fact, I wanted life to quit getting in the way of reading.

Tripwire is a story that has its roots in the Vietnam conflict. Therefore the villain is from my generation. Every time that I read a Lee Child I feel certain that the next book cannot possibly have a bad guy worse than the one in the novel I am reading. Somehow though they always manage to horrify me with their evil deeds. Hobie in Tripwire is certainly no exception. He has a scarred face from severe burns and has lost his right hand. In place of the hand he has a hook that has a razor capability. He uses the hook to intimidate and injure people who get in his way.

It takes the entire novel for Reacher to come face to face with this evil man. And the ending is surprising. I will tell you that Reacher meets the love of his life and I am curious to know how and why he goes back to wandering the country leaving her behind. I guess I will have to check out the next book in the series, Running Blind.

Child is enthralling but he does have his flaws. Of course, this is not great literature, but that doesn’t bother me. This time he totally gets it wrong by saying that the guys going to Vietnam all wanted to be Frank Sinatra. I wonder how he got his timeline and wars so mixed up. Sinatra was the idol during WW II. Who do you suppose guys wanted to be in the late sixties? I have no idea. Certainly in Good Morning, Vietnam no Sinatra recordings were played.