Amazon Prime Video’s Reacher keeps fans coming back with its great fight scenes and witty one-liners. Or maybe it’s Jack Reacher’s (played by Alan Ritchson) muscle-bound moments. If you need more time with the titular character, check on the novels on which the popular TV show is based.
Lee Child (the pen name of Jim Grant) began writing the Jack Reacher series in the late 1990s. The various stories follow Jack Reacher, a retired United States Army Military Police Corps Major, as he lives a “hobo” life traveling America. However, it’s not exactly as peaceful as it seems since he’s constantly having to solve crimes. From carjackings to murder, if you have a mystery to solve, Reacher is your guy. He’s like a ripped Sherlock Holmes who takes no guff from people. Most of Reacher’s adventures happen in America, with his latest travels taking him to Europe.
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Currently, there are twenty-eight books and a collection of short stories in the Jack Reacher series, with another planned to be released in October 2024. Child announced he will step away as author of the books, but he’s handing over the reins to his younger brother, Andrew Grant (who writes as Andrew Child). So Reacher will be punching people and flexing his brain for years to come. Although the books can easily be read out of order, here is the order of when the Jack Reacher novels came out.
All Jack Reacher books in order
- Killing Floor (1997)
- Die Trying (1998)
- Tripwire (1999)
- Running Blind (2000)
- Echo Burning (2001)
- Without Fail (2002)
- Persuader (2003)
- The Enemy (2004)
- One Shot (2005)
- The Hard Way (2006)
- Bad Luck and Trouble (2007)
- Nothing to Lose (2008)
- Gone Tomorrow (2009)
- 61 Hours (2010)
- Worth Dying For (2010)
- The Affair (2011)
- A Wanted Man (2012)
- Never Go Back (2013)
- Personal (2014)
- Make Me (2015)
- Night School (2016)
- The Midnight Line (2017)
- Past Tense (2018)
- Blue Moon (2019)
- The Sentinel (2020)
- Better Off Dead (2021)
- No Plan B (2022)
- The Secret (2023)
- No Middle Name (short story collection)
(featured image: Amazon Prime Video)
