High Heat: (A Jack Reacher Novella)

Written by Lee Child

Narrated by Kerry Shale

Thriller master Lee Child presents an exclusive ebook novella about the teenage Reacher.

July 1977. Jack Reacher is almost seventeen, and he stops in New York on his way from South Korea to visit his brother at West Point. The summer heat is suffocating, fires are raging in the Bronx, the city is bankrupt, and the mad gunman known as Son of Sam is still on the loose.

Reacher meets a woman with a problem, and agrees to help her . . . and then the power grid fails and the lights go out, plunging the lawless city that never sleeps into chaos.

What does a visiting teenager do in the dark? If that visiting teenager is Jack Reacher, the answer is: plenty.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House UK Audio
• Release date: Sep 19, 2013
• ISBN: 9781448171361

Lee Child

Lee Child, previously a television director, union organizer, theater technician, and law student, was fired and on the dole when he hatched a harebrained scheme to write a bestselling novel, thus saving his family from ruin. Killing Floor went on to win worldwide acclaim. The Midnight Line, is his twenty-second Reacher novel. The hero of his series, Jack Reacher, besides being fictional, is a kindhearted soul who allows Lee lots of spare time for reading, listening to music, and watching Yankees and Aston Villa games. Lee was born in England but now lives in New York City and leaves the island of Manhattan only when required to by forces beyond his control. Visit Lee online at LeeChild.com for more information about the novels, short stories, and the movies Jack Reacher and Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, starring Tom Cruise. Lee can also be found on Facebook: LeeChildOfficial, Twitter: @LeeChildReacher, and YouTube: LeeChildJackReacher.

Reviews for High Heat

[jamespurcell · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Reacher, a fit and feisty 16, does NYC, during a blackout on his way to visit his brother at West Point. It is a very productive night as he thumps a drug dealer, spot "son of Sam, maybe and score with the ladies. A worthwhile early start to his knight errant persona.

[terrygraap · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A short story in the Jack Reacher series by Lee Child. Reacher assists a suspended FBI agent in taking down a mobster. Reacher is only sixteen traveling from Korea to NYC to hear music and met girls.

[antao-3 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Reacher portrayed as 16-year-old and behaving like a 30-year-old.

Child is a terrible writer. His short, uneven sentences à la Dan Brown and his proneness for meticulously describing every simple physical motion, not to mention his readiness to begin almost every sentence in a row with the same word, really (almost) puts me off. I know, I know Lee Child is no Shakespeare, but somehow I can't help myself. Each time one of his books comes out I swear to myself I won't pick it up, but once again I couldn't resist. I've sinned again. After finishing "The Cuckoo's Calling" by J.K. Rowling late last night and after perusing my digital library I came across the latest Lee Child (not "Never Go Back", which comes out at the end of the month).

I just wanted to read the first pages and then stop reading and put it aside, but I kept on reading to see what happened next. When I got to the end of it I was beside myself, because I had needed to keep reading it. Voodoo book...?

Child is an terrible writer but a shrewd storyteller. After a while you forget how awful his prose is, because you become engrossed in the story and can't wait to see what happens next. Cheater...

I fear I will sin again when "Never Go Back" comes out..."

[jpodlaski_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I've read all the books by Lee Child and never thought I'd give an "average" rating to any of his works. Unfortunately, the author has chosen to make Jack 16 years-old and giving him more knowledge, experience, and sex that a kid of his age should have. However, I did read it all, and thought it would have played better if Reacher was in his 20's.

[dreamingbear-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Another interesting interlude between the regular books. It adds an interesting twist to the character, Reacher, however unlikely it is to have been.

[mswallack_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I can't say that I really liked High Heat that much. First, Reacher just felt ... um ... wrong. We've seen him as a teen before, but in this book, his actions were much more those of a man and less those of a teen (though his thoughts about women seemed much in line with what one would expect). Or, to say it a different way, the story would have felt more "real" had Reacher been a young soldier on leave (or even a West Point cadet on leave) rather than a teen. Oh, well. I'm also not sure that I loved the serendipitous meeting with history, but the way that it happened was actual worth a good chuckle. Worth reader if you're a Reacher fan; otherwise... well why aren't you a Reacher fan?

[mikerhode · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

NYC blackout in 1977 - I remember we were driving home during it and saw the city go dark.

[ajohnson2371 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Nice quick read, enough to tie me over until Never Go Back arrives in a couple of weeks.