Join the HCSF Reading Group to discuss One Shot By Lee Child
In-Person Meeting
Sunday, December 15, 2024
4:30-6:00 pm PST
Dolores Heights, San Francisco
Location sent to registrants the week of the meeting
HCSF Members: Free, but RSVP required
Non-Members: $10 Not a member? Register here for membership!
Click here to register
Registration ends Friday, December 13
One Shot
by Lee Child
471 pages 2005
This is Book 9 in Child's successful 29+ book series about Jack Reacher, a retired military police investigator turned vigilante investigator/enforcer. Reacher orders the exact same meals in mom and pop diners wherever he goes. He finds one beautiful and smart woman to fall for and bed in every book. He purchases new clothes every few days, so there's no need to wash them or carry even a suitcase from motel to motel in town after town across rural America.
What makes Reacher so compelling for a 21st C American audience? And how does an author keep a formula fresh over so many years? Is fresh even the point? How funny is it that a Brit like Lee Child has given us an American hero as clever as Sherlock Holmes, but whose natural habitat is Walmart parking lots and Greyhound bus depots?
“In One Shot, a shooter seemingly kills five random people with six shots. One missed shot conveniently leaves a bullet behind. This evidence leads directly to a former Army sniper named James Barr, who will only tell the police that he’s the wrong guy, and to find Jack Reacher. They don’t have to, since Reacher sees a CNN report about the killings and immediately heads that way. He’s not there to defend Barr, but to help put him away. Barr is counting on Reacher’s clear moral purpose, but he’s beaten so badly that he can’t remember anything about the day of the shootings. Reacher must piece together what happened, and in the process picks apart the prosecution’s case. One Shot presents one of the best moral dilemmas for Reacher. While in the Army, Barr committed an unsanctioned mass murder at long range. Army politics allowed Barr to walk free, but Reacher promised that if he ever stepped out of line, he’d be there to bury the sniper in prison. This is Child’s writing at his peak, gradually tightening the Swiss watch of a plot as Reacher balances his hatred of Barr with the morality of railroading an innocent man.” (Publisher)
Meeting organizer:
Kirsten Miclau
readinggroup@harvardclubsf.org
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