^ I was totally unaware Child was British when I read the first Jack Reacher book. Pretty transparent from what I can tell, though that doesn't mean much coming from me [as I am not the most critical reader with these kinds of books] and I certainly wasn't looking for it.
I generally feel as you do - oftentimes I notice non-native authors making errors with American colloquialisms. <cringe!>
Child gets a lot of credit from me on this.
"Great" literature this stuff ain't, but IMO definitely guilty-pleasure reading that's a significant cut above the rest.
YMMV,
-les