Not a Drill (A Jack Reacher short story)

Written by Lee Child

Narrated by Kerry Shale

The brand new Jack Reacher short story, published as a digital exclusive.

The tiny town of Naismith has nothing going for it - except the start of a wilderness trail through Maine's ancient forests. But one day the trail is suddenly closed by county police.

No reason is given. Rumours start - is there something in the woods that no one must see? That no one must even know about?

Then Jack Reacher drifts into town. What does he make of the Do Not Enter tape strung between the trees?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House UK Audio
• Release date: Jul 29, 2014
• ISBN: 9781473510579

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 Not a Drill (A Jack Reacher short story)

[alanteder · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

So-so Reacher short story. It had an interesting buildup with Reacher hitching a ride with some Canadian hikers in the north woods of Maine* but the pay-off was pretty obscure and didn't really involve Reacher doing anything very much.*The northern tip of Maine is about 1,000 km's from Toronto, so the distance can hardly be described as "Toronto wasn't very far away", so points off for the geography lesson from Reacher/Child.

[terrygraap · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A short story in the Reacher series by Lee Child. Reacher travels north on the I95 cooridor to the canadian border. He hitchhikes back south with a couple and a gal. He goes to a remote area in the forest where the couple hikes and locates a dead body.

[henrimoreaux · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Some of the Jack Reacher short stories have been pretty interesting and filled in some gaps either between novels, or in the series background as a whole. Unfortunately this does none of those things, in fact it bares basically no relation to the novel it comes after and whilst events do occur within the short story they are largely irrelevant and meaningless.There's no real pay off at the end of the story, just an illustration of how adept Reacher is at reading situations, yet we already knew that.Unless you got this free in the back of a full length novel, I wouldn't bother with it. Yeah it fills in some time, but there's better Reacher shorts you could read or you could just go from Never Go Back to Personal and be no worse off.Disappointing.

[moekane_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I have to agree with Lee Childs' personal assessment that he is not a short story writer.

[ajohnson2371 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

My friends know me as a diehard Jack Reacher fan, and the series is one of three that I will read before anything else (except for each other).
I was surprised that this one didn't grab me like the other Reacher books. I liked it, but it just didn't take hold. I felt that it wasn't a typical example of the series. (Then again, as a short story, does it have to be like the others?)
I missed the usual Reacher elements -- brawling, some deep mystery, or even the usual "I/Reacher said nothing."
It almost seemed like Reacher was just a secondary character. The one or two scenes where Reacher shined were too short. (No spoilers here.)
In essence, it was a nice holdover until Personal comes out in a couple of months, but I felt a little... cheated. Everything seemed driven by the ancillary characters who knew what was going on, Reacher stumbles onto it, but then there's no "big reveal." The climax was sort of.. ho hum.

I can only hope that the next full Reacher book will grab me and take a stronger hold.

[alan1946 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Disappointing – yes, that would really sum up this very short episode in Jack Reacher’s life.
Disappointing in that it cost more than the next full Reacher novel, and that it was far, far shorter.
Disappointing in that it did not really achieve anything helpful. It bears no relation to any previous or subsequent novels, and really does not seem to serve any purpose.
Perhaps there was an idea there that never really grew into fruition. Certainly the style was right – a puzzle that Reacher strays into and tries to resolve, but there was no real resolution to this one, it ended quite suddenly as though Lee Child was acknowledging that this idea would not really run any further, so cut his losses.
Buyer beware – this is not a Reacher worth bothering about.