Having tackled this thread late, as usual, I'd like to put in my tuppence-worth (cent's-worth?) and say that the first time I read a Reacher novel, (in the hard form days) I literally chucked it in the corner as being too daft, too gratuitously (?!) violent, too dumb, and too dear.....
A couple of years later my son grabbed one in an airport while we were waiting for a flight, and a few hours later, having "nothing better to do"
I had it finished.
I'd also finished being so high-falluting about it,
and accepted it as a modern equivalent of the classic "ripping good yarn".
Best taken without being pernickity, adopting a certain amount of suspension of belief, and relaxing into it - accepting them for what they are - an entertaining rattling good read !
I still wince a bit at some of the violence, but you can more or less skim it, it doesn't harm the plot much ................
