Gone Tomorrow
Gone Tomorrow is the thirteenth book in the Jack Reacher series written by Lee Child.[1] It was published on 23 April 2009 in the United Kingdom and 19 May 2009 in the USA. It is written in the first person.
 UK Cover | |
| Author | Lee Child |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | Jack Reacher |
| Genre | Thriller novel |
| Publisher | Bantam Press (UK), Delacorte Press (US) |
Publication date | 2009 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover, Paperback) |
| Pages | 396 |
| ISBN | 978-0-593-06402-3 |
| OCLC | 245599035 |
| Preceded by | Nothing To Lose |
| Followed by | 61 Hours |
Plot summary
It's 2am, and Jack Reacher is travelling on the New York City Subway. He notices a suspicious looking passenger who matches many of the specifications for a potential suicide bomber. When he approaches Susan Mark with an offer of assistance, she shoots herself.
NYPD is eager to close the file without investigating the tragedy, but Reacher has other ideas. He wants to know what happened that night, and, more importantly, why. Is everyone as honest as they claim to be? And if so, then why are there so many questions to be asked and avoided?
Reacher is repeatedly and emphatically warned off the case, but his guilt over possibly triggering the poor woman's suicide won't let him rest until he has pursued the mystery all the way to the very end. In a world gone grey with moral and ethical relativism only Jack Reacher stubbornly sticks to his high standards, no matter what the personal cost.
With the help of agent Theresa Lee and Susan Mark's brother, Reacher discovers a politician, John Sansom, is behind it all. Sansom was in Afghanistan with Osama Bin Laden when he ordered the FBI and Mark, who worked for them, to delete a compromising picture of him; but the picture falls into the hands of terrorists disguised as foreign Americans, Lila Hoth and her mother Svetlana. The pair had already murdered people, including Peter Molina, Susan's adopted son. Reacher discovers that they are Al Qaeda terrorists, not mother and daughter, and that Mark was sent the video of her son's slaying. Disgusted, she threw away the file and decided to kill herself. When Jack catches Lila Hoth and Svetlana in a hotel, he kills them both with a knife.
Critical reception
Gone Tomorrow has the switchback plotting and frictionless prose that are Child's trademarks. Unlike most of the series, though, it's narrated by Reacher himself. His lone-wolf habits and brusque, technophobic decodings of the world are always a pleasure, though how he maintains fighting fitness on a diet of pancakes, bacon and coffee is one of the world's great mysteries.
—John O'Connell, The Guardian[2]
Gone Tomorrow has a surprisingly retro flavour, captured in Reacher's line "roll the clock back". The narrative works its way back through history in search of answers to the problems of the present. And there is something nostalgically neolithic about Reacher himself, a nomadic hunter-gatherer who can only be stopped by an anaesthetic dart-gun originally aimed at gorillas.
—Andy Martin, The Independent[3]
References
- "Gone Tomorrow (Jack Reacher #13)". goodreads.com. Retrieved 10 October 2014.
- O'Connell, John (2 May 2009). "Gone Tomorrow". theguardian.com. Retrieved 10 October 2012.
- Martin, Andy (25 June 2009). "Gone Tomorrow by Lee Child". independent.co.uk. Retrieved 10 October 2012.