A dead man walks. Reacher has ten years of rage to settle.
Who drives the story
Ex-military police drifter working undercover as a bodyguard, driven by a ten-year-old murder he failed to prevent. He gets his man — and pays for it with everything he buried to stay sane.
A former Military Intelligence agent turned smuggler, hiding as Beck's boss under a false name. He tortured Dominique Kohl to death and survived Reacher's bullet once; the second time, he does not.
DEA agent running a half-cooked sting on the Beck family, with one of her own agents trapped inside. She recruits Reacher, loses control of the operation, and watches him finish it for his own reasons.
The rug-importing patriarch everyone suspects of drug smuggling, actually a hostage father forced into arms dealing by Quinn. He ends the book in handcuffs anyway.
The college-student son whose staged kidnapping and staged rescue open the door for Reacher. Frightened and trusting, he hands Reacher the run of the house.
Richard's mother, distant and wary inside the walled estate. She is one of the lives Reacher ultimately pulls out of Quinn's grip.
A steroid-built bodyguard who hates Reacher on sight and finally gets his fight in the rain. He loses it, strangled with his own chain.
The undercover DEA maid, 'Teresa Justice,' whom Duffy is desperate to recover. Found drugged and abused in a hidden basement room, she is carried out alive.
The military police sergeant Reacher promoted and sent undercover against Quinn, found tortured and mutilated in a farmhouse. Her death is the engine of the whole book.
Also in the story
The ATF agent undercover as a second maid, who confirms the estate is a front for illegal automatic weapons.
How they are connected
Francis Xavier QuinnJack Reacher
He tortured Dominique Kohl to death and survived Reacher's bullet once; the second time, he does not.
Francis Xavier QuinnDominique Kohl
He tortured Dominique Kohl to death and survived Reacher's bullet once; the second time, he does not.
She recruits Reacher, loses control of the operation, and watches him finish it for his own reasons.
Zachary BeckFrancis Xavier Quinn
The rug-importing patriarch everyone suspects of drug smuggling, actually a hostage father forced into arms dealing by Quinn.
The college-student son whose staged kidnapping and staged rescue open the door for Reacher.
Richard's mother, distant and wary inside the walled estate.
She is one of the lives Reacher ultimately pulls out of Quinn's grip.
Elizabeth BeckFrancis Xavier Quinn
She is one of the lives Reacher ultimately pulls out of Quinn's grip.
A steroid-built bodyguard who hates Reacher on sight and finally gets his fight in the rain.
The undercover DEA maid, 'Teresa Justice,' whom Duffy is desperate to recover.
The military police sergeant Reacher promoted and sent undercover against Quinn, found tortured and mutilated in a farmhouse.
Go deeper
Revenge as unfinished business · The performance of identity · Machines versus monsters · Families held hostage
Themes explainedThe full story act by act, the ending explained and a quick quiz.
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