Tag Archives: scott blade

a reason to kill

Leave a reply

A Reason to Kill (Jack Widow #3) by Scott Blade.

From Goodreads:

In Scott Blade’s #1 AMAZON bestselling series, Jack Widow hunts for a missing girl in a race against time that may give him more than one reason to kill.

Former Undercover NCIS cop, now Jack Widow is A Drifter. A Nobody. A Stranger. A Hero.

Jack Widow, the ultimate loner, waits to catch a bus at a Texas station to nowhere in particular. Seated across from him is an elderly woman, clearly in a state of distress. Eight hours ago, her own son, who just got out of prison, abducted her granddaughter and vanished.

Her son, James Hood, is mixed up with the wrong people–powerful people. The kind of people who will kill to protect a deadly secret. Terrified for her granddaughter’s life, she has no one left to trust.

With nowhere to turn, she follows their trail, on her own, toward a border town in South Texas.

After showing Widow a picture of her six-year-old granddaughter, Claire Hood drops dead of natural causes, right at the bus station, right in front of him.

Jack Widow isn’t the kind of guy to let wrongs go. He picks up her bus ticket and takes her place on a quest that will give him a reason to kill.

My Rating: ⭐⭐

I have no idea why I keep reading these. The characters are poorly developed, clichéd and the storylines really are terrible with a poor quality of writing that depends heavily on the much better original Reacher series by Lee Childs. I guess they’re like junk food for the brain, the reading equivalent of having dinner in McDonalds!

This also appears to be where the author decided to change characters and jump to the older Jack Widow instead of Cameron Reacher. At least Widow has life experience to justify his abilities and skills.

Header image by Kaboompics .com from Pexels

winter territory

3 Replies

Winter Territory (Get Jack Reacher #2) by Scott Blade

From Goodreads:

CARRYING REACHER DNA, CAMERON IS ON THE ROAD TO GET JACK REACHER.

Orphaned and alone, Cameron follows in his father’s footsteps until he is pitched neck-deep into a conspiracy that spans from Washington’s most secretive agency to the mountains of Wyoming.

Deep in Northern Wyoming, in the dead of winter, CIA Agent Alex Shepard is desperate. A few days ago, he sent an undercover agent to the Red Rain Indian Reservation. When his man was supposed to check-in, Shepard heard nothing. No report. No communication.

With a major snowstorm fast-approaching, Shepard’s secret mission is in peril. He thinks that his agent is dead. He has no time left. And lives are on the line.

Enter Cameron Reacher–Shepard’s one hope to recover his agent and stop an unthinkable terrorist plot.

Now Cameron will face the harsh, winter elements; a reluctant and beautiful tribal deputy; and a hidden enemy.

My Rating: ⭐⭐

This was a refreshing change for me as the last few books I’ve read have been quite complex in terms of both character and storyline. This certainly isn’t.

Saying that it’s quite poorly written with a weak and implausible storyline full of repetition and great leaps based on intuition more suited to an experienced adult than an 18 year old explained away as genetic memory from a father he never knew.

As with the first book in the series this was reissued a few years later with the adult Jack Widow character. I haven’t been able to get a download of that version but if my previous experience is carried through that may be a better read.

This is an easy read and reminds me of a cross between the 80s versions of The A Team and Magyver. Just forget about believability and quality and go with the flow and you will get the most out of it.

Header image by Ricardo Esquivel from Pexels

gone forever

3 Replies

Gone Forever (Get Jack Reacher #1, Jack Widow #1) by Scott Blade

From Goodreads:

Jack Widow is an elite NCIS Agent. He’s the guy sent to hotspots all over the world, undercover as a Navy SEAL to investigate high-level crimes, until he is pulled off assignment after someone has shot his sheriff mother, way back home in Mississippi.

In order to solve the murder of a mother, that he hasn’t seen in years, Jack Widow is forced to return home from an undercover assignment. Taken-to-be a worthless drifter, Widow discovers a distraught husband, a missing wife, and the small town of Black Rock, Mississippi, where the people harbor a horrifying secret that they will die to protect.

Good thing Jack Widow will kill to find out what.

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

This is a difficult book to rate as there are two different versions of the same story.

The first version is based around Cameron Reacher. He is 17 years old and the unknown son of Jack Reacher who is a character created by Lee Childs. His mother dies of cancer at the beginning of the story but on her deathbed she tells him the truth about his father. Cameron leaves his hometown to try and find himself and his father. Along the way he stumbles across and disrupts an organised crime gang that kidnaps and sells young women into sex slavery.

The second version is a rewrite published approximately 1 year later and sees Cameron replaced by Jack Widow who is in his mid 30s and an experienced NCIS undercover agent. He is estranged from his Mother who told him the truth about his father when he was 17. She has been shot while investigating the disappearance of a young woman and Jack returns to his hometown in time to say goodbye to his mother and take up the investigation to find her killer.

I’m a big fan of the Jack Reacher storyline and this fits well with it. This author writes in a similar style to Lee Childs which makes the story feel familiar. I accidentally downloaded the first version initially and read it to completion before realising that there was a second. This first version is full of issues, not least being the improbable experience of Cameron Reacher at only 17. The more mature version of Jack Widow suits the story so much better. I’d struggle to give the original version much more than 2 stars.

Once I realised there was a rewrite I then read it to see the differences. The first third dealing with Jack’s back story, his mother’s death and connection to the investigation are much better and I’d definitely recommend this version. This is the version I’ve based this review on. I can see why the author went with a new name but I do wish he had stuck with Cameron Reacher, it connected better to the original Jack Reacher.

Header image by Ricardo Esquivel from Pexels