James Penney's New Identity/Guy Walks Into a Bar: Two Jack Reacher short stories

Lee Child

Nov 2011 · Jack Reacher Short Stories Book 2 · Random House

About this ebook

Here are two Jack Reacher stories first published together in ebook form, now also included in the new Jack Reacher story collection No Middle Name.

James Penney's New Identity: In the dry desert of Southern California, James Penney is laid off from the plant after seventeen loyal years of service. With the threat of the bank repossessing his treasured red Firebird, he goes on the run. But why are the cops so hot on his trail? And who is the tall military policeman, built like a weightlifter, who offers him a ride?

Guy Walks Into Bar: Just a few minutes before the terrifying opening of Gone Tomorrow, Jack Reacher stops at a bar in lower Manhattan for a late night beer and some music, His eyes are drawn to a rich young Russian girl and her bodyguard. Is she in danger? Who are those two suspicious-looking guys sitting at separate tables, watching her?

These two short stories are part of the Storycuts series.

Ratings and reviews

The first one, Penney's New Identity, is a fun read, and shows that Child can occupy characters other than Jack Reacher for a decent length of time and tell a compelling, taughtly-plotted story. The ending is a direct tie-in to the Reacher novel The Persuader, but with some details changed or missing. The second one is more superfluous, a fun diversion supposedly leading up to the excellent Gone Tomorrow, but little more than a stylistic experiment.

If you love Jack Reacher you will buy no matter what, but its short with no real ending an for £1.50 you better off buying a full book.

The previous reviewer isnt joking; there is nothing to read other than publishers legal bumph. Cant see many people opting to purchase this book.

About the author

Lee Child is one of the world’s leading thriller writers. He was born in Coventry, raised in Birmingham, and now lives in New York. It is said one of his novels featuring his hero Jack Reacher is sold somewhere in the world every nine seconds. His books consistently achieve the number-one slot on bestseller lists around the world and have sold over one hundred million copies. Lee is the recipient of many awards, most recently Author of the Year at the 2019 British Book Awards. He was appointed CBE in the 2019 Queen's Birthday Honours.