Reading author Lee Child’s third Jack Reacher novel, it dawned on me: A person could read one Jack Reacher book a month and it would be more than two years before reading all of them. 

There are 26 Jack Reacher books … so far. 

That’s a lot of Jack Reacher.

To give readers some idea how long the series has been around, a lot of the action in “Tripwire” takes place in one of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. Characters have to find pay phones to make calls, or they don’t carry a phone, because it’s before the advent of everyone carrying a phone everywhere. 

“Tripwire” was published in 1999. Even readers who were adults in 1999 will occasionally think in some situations, “just call them,” before recalling, “Oh, yeah, everybody didn’t carry a cell phone then.” And 9/11 comes to mind during the World Trade Center scenes.

Outside of these moments, “Tripwire” is extremely readable. 

Reacher is a former military police major who left the military to roam the United States living light from place to place and unintended adventure to adventure. Here, he becomes involved in a MIA case from Vietnam after people show up in Key West looking for him. Following their trail back to New York, Reacher discovers the daughter of his former commanding officer has been looking for him. The commanding officer has died and now the daughter is also a target of the people who had been looking for Reacher … all involved with the missing in action case.

A word about supporting characters here. Child spends a lot of time with the bad guy and other supporting characters in this book. The story of one supporting character, Marilyn, becomes as interesting as the main story with Reacher. Arguably, readers may feel a deeper connection with Marilyn than Reacher; however, Child does not give her story a satisfying end.

“Tripwire” is a good read. And maybe, next month, onto the next one: “The Visitor.” Maybe. A book a month from one series for a two-year period is a big commitment when there are so many other books to read.