Better Off Dead - Lee Child & Andrew Child

Better Off Dead

By Lee Child & Andrew Child

  • Release Date: 2021-10-26
  • Genre: Mysteries & Thrillers
Score: 4
4
From 4,813 Ratings

Description

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Don’t miss the hit streaming series Reacher

Digging graves had not been part of my plans when I woke up that morning. 

Reacher goes where he wants, when he wants. That morning he was heading west, walking under the merciless desert sun—until he comes upon a curious scene. A Jeep has crashed into the only tree for miles around. A woman is slumped over the wheel.
 
Dead? No, nothing is what it seems. 

The woman is Michaela Fenton, an army veteran turned FBI agent trying to find her twin brother, who might be mixed up with some dangerous people. Most of them would rather die than betray their terrifying leader, who has burrowed his influence deep into the nearby border town, a backwater that has seen better days. The mysterious Dendoncker rules from the shadows, out of sight and under the radar, keeping his dealings in the dark.
 
He would know the fate of Fenton’s brother. 

Reacher is good at finding people who don’t want to be found, so he offers to help, despite feeling that Fenton is keeping secrets of her own. But a life hangs in the balance. Maybe more than one. But to bring Dendoncker down will be the riskiest job of Reacher's life. Failure is not an option, because in this kind of game, the loser is always better off dead.

Reviews

  • Awful.

    1
    By Trajann
    Poorly written. Boring plot. Unreadable.
  • Meh

    2
    By Subscriberfor25years
    Rambled
  • Great book, simply put its Childs Play!

    5
    By DWFREIDELL
    I love all of the books by Lee and Andrew Child, they are simply the best. So thought out, meticulously detailed and suspense fully written. Keep it up boys!
  • Nearly unreadable...

    2
    By A. S. Kaku
    ...and I don’t say that lightly. I wanted to give the transition a chance. After all, I’d just started reading the series in late October 2023, and was looking forward to not running out of fun reading material for a while. But “The Sentinel” gave me pause, with its unimaginative plot. “Huh, ripped from the headline,” I’d thought. “Don’t think I ever saw that in a Reacher novel.” The style was gone too. Instead of the musical, whippy prose I’d grown to admire, “The Sentinel” adopted a more staccato yet droning quality. By that time, I’d read 24 Reacher novels and one short story collection in under 10 weeks, so I was in a good position to notice the change. Rebooted into the Mashable-grist plot and reimagined by a new clomping voice, Reacher has become...ordinary. I figured the first book was a gimme, and immediately plunged into “Better Off Dead.” It is, as stated, nearly unreadable. The pointless fragmentation of sentences is in full force. People. Do this. On Instagram. A lot. Too. And I have no idea what they think they’re achieving. Reacher has morphed into just a big dude moved by conventional loyalties and wisdom, and there’s a welter of unconvincing telling, not showing, of his smarts. Faint nods are given to Reacher character tics we’ve come to know, like his preoccupation with prime numbers—but so phoned in that you wonder if the new author just doesn’t get what that feels like, that pleasure Reacher takes in pattern recognition. I don’t know what happened. Conan Doyle could kill Holmes but bowed to public pressure and resuscitated him. Maybe today’s authors have publishing contracts that require a “use it or lose it” approach to valuable franchises. Whatever the case, I wish the Childs well. Thank you, L.C., for a wonderful 2 1/2 months.
  • Average at best

    3
    By Superflyjd
    I’ve never put a Jack Reacher book down as many times as i did this one. The flow was rough
  • Better off unread

    2
    By RRRIP-Hauf
    The collaboration of father and son or more likely son writing and dad editing has not turned out well. Over described scenes and a Jack Reacher who no longer would recognize himself on the page. Jack should have gotten a eulogy instead of this treatment. Reacher fans be forewarned Jack is dead Andrew Child killed him.
  • Reacher does not drive

    1
    By Nike Athlete
    This series is going downhill fast. Reacher does not drive. He always has someone with him that drives. You expect us to believe he drives a big rig Truck? Huh. There is no “story” here. Oh wait, there is, in the last 20 pages of the book. The rest of it is boring. Let’s read one more to finish this series. It’s a true shame these books are not what they used to be.
  • Typical Reacher, you get what you expect

    4
    By youoweme4hours
    Classic Reacher novel. Nice flow and pace with a couple of twists and turns. Easy to read and a page turner. I skipped over some of Lee’s descriptions as he can tend to get a little too descriptive for my taste and attention span but, overall, I enjoyed it.
  • Disappointing

    1
    By Youareidiots6
    I am a fan but this story was not believable. Just off in plot, descriptions, every part of writing he is so good at. Actual boring which is never a word you would use for Lee Childs previous books.
  • Ruined the reacher series

    1
    By Mr. E NYC
    Nepitism at its finest, Andrew Child has come in and ruined the legend his father built.