Lee Child continues his outstanding series of Jack Reacher novels with "Worth Dying For," his fifteenth in the series and the immediate followup to "61 Hours," both thematically and chronologically. Chronologically, because both of these novels have a 2010 publication date. Thematically, because this novel starts right after that novel ended, which was with a horrific explosion which should have resulted in Reacher's death. Naturally, I couldn't believe that this had actually happened, so I waited with bated breath to hear about Child's next novel. 

I was reminded of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle trying to kill off Sherlock Holmes by having him and Professor Moriarity fall to their deaths over Reichenbach Falls. Maybe this explosion would have been Reacher's "Reichenbach Falls" moment, which could have allowed Child to create and develop a new literary hero. After all, other authors have moved on to new characters after having written fewer novels than what Child has accomplished in his Jack Reacher series. Fortunately, not in this instance.

My curiosity was piqued, for if Reacher is in this new novel, then how in heaven's name did he survive that explosion? Well, we can all rest easy, for like Doyle, who had to bring Holmes back to life because of the public clamor, Child has allowed Jack Reacher to survive what would have killed an ordinary man. I am not entirely impressed with the way that he explains how this feat was accomplished, but suffice it to say that he did, although Reacher is hobbling through the first few chapters of this novel like he has been through a meat grinder.

2010 must have been a signal year for Lee Child. Not only were his prior two novels number one best sellers, this was also the year in which he came out with not just one, but two novels. And to top the year off, he was a guest of honor at the 2010 Bouchercon "By The Bay" convention, which was held last October in San Francisco. Bouchercon is the World Mystery Convention where every year readers, writers, publishers, editors, agents, booksellers, and lovers of crime fiction gather together for a long weekend of both education and entertainment. Lee Child was honored for his "distinguished contribution to the genre," and he was introduced by none other than Robert Crais, another one of my favorite authors and the creator of the Joe Pike and Elvis Cole mysteries.

Lee Child is currently the author of fifteen Jack Reacher thrillers, including the New York Times bestsellers, "Persuader," "The Enemy," "One Shot," and "The Hard Way." Other novels have become number one bestsellers, and these include, "Gone Tomorrow," "Bad Luck and Trouble," and "Nothing to Lose." His debut, "Killing Floor," won both the Anthony and the Barry awards for Best First Mystery, and "The Enemy" won both the Barry and Nero awards for Best Novel. Foreign rights to the Reacher series have sold in forty territories, and all of the titles have been optioned for major motion pictures. (I will look forward to see who they cast for the lead role.) Lee Child is a native of England and a former television director, but he now lives in New York City, where he is hard at work on his next thriller.

Back to this thriller... Like all crime stories, Reacher has an uncanny ability to stumble into trouble. It either finds him or he blunders into it, as he does in this novel when he is in the middle of a trip hitchhiking from Bolton, South Dakota, (in the last novel, "61 Hours") to Virginia to visit a woman who happens to hold his old job and had done him the favor of providing the plans for the secret Cold War Army base near Bolton.

The story starts innocently enough with a man in his truck driving his granddaughter somewhere when a call comes through on his cell phone. The grandfatherly demeanor of Eldridge Tyler quickly dissipates when the the unknown caller tells him that "we have trouble here," and he is hired to dispense with a "problem." Who is the problem? A big guy, more than six feet, five inches tall, weighing about 250 pounds, and walking rather oddly like he has been hurt. We immediately recognize that Jack Reacher is the "problem."

Earlier Reacher is let out of a car in the middle of nowhere in Nebraska, and he heads to a seedy looking motel on one corner of the junction. It had once been a proud, futuristic looking structure, but has since faded badly. The manager, who was at the bar tending the lone customer, took his thirty bucks for the night and Reacher asked for coffee. The lone customer turns out to be the area doctor and a first class drunk, which doesn't impress Reacher when a call comes in asking for his medical attention. The doctor wants to turn the call down, but Reacher forces him to treat a Mrs. Elinor Duncan for a nose bleed from what appears to be a repeated case of spousal abuse from her husband, Seth Duncan. 

Filled with righteous rage, Reacher searches for the local restaurant where Seth Duncan is dining with friends, who turn out to be his siblings and father. The chain of events where he becomes a "problem" starts after he beats Seth Duncan to a pulp, and afterwards they call in their forces to exact retribution. Reacher will soon discover that he has stepped on the wrong toes, for the Duncan family owns the county lock, stock, and barrel, and have cowed everyone in the area into submission. The Duncans want him out of the way before he interrupts their shipment of illegal cargo to powerful downstream customers in Las Vegas, the kind of people who don't take no for an answer. Unfortunately for them, Reacher decides to stay to investigate the unsolved murder of a young girl decades before. In the process, he will stumble across the Duncan family's unbelievably sordid and depraved illegal business activities in a story not for the squeamish. 2010, Delacorte Press, 400 pages.