Book review: The Secret by Lee Child and Andrew Child 

In the 28th novel in the series featuring Jack Reacher the protagonist faces office politics in conspiracy

 British authors and brothers, James and Andrew Grant, who use the pen names of Lee Child and Andrew Child. Picture: Jimena Peck for The Washington Post via Getty Images

• The Secret 
• Lee Child and Andrew Child 
• Bantam, €16.99 

This is the 28th novel in the series featuring Jack Reacher — the first, Killing Floor, appeared in 1997. In 2020, Lee Child announced that he would be co-writing with his brother Andrew, already a successful writer in his own right. The Secret is the fourth they have co-written.

Those not familiar with the books may know Reacher through the two films starring Tom Cruise and the TV series last year, with a new series due for release in December.

The character of Reacher is fascinating. He’s the classic loner, a sort of Robin Hood or hero from a Western film, who rides into town to right a wrong.

He owns nothing except a folding toothbrush, a passport, and an ATM card — and has no interest in forming any kind of long-term relationship.

Here is how he is described in the latest novel: “Six foot five. Chest like a refrigerator. Arms like other people’s legs. Cropped hair. Head tipped quizzically to one side.”

Set in 1982, The Secret opens in a Chicago hospital where a patient opens his eyes to find two strangers by his bed. A few moments later, they push him from his 12th floor window.

Who are these two young women and why did they ask him for a name?

The young women are sisters Roberta and Veronica Sanson, and what they are trying to do is find someone to answer an important question about an event which took place back in 1969. 

When the novel begins, they have already found seven of the men involved and killed them.

When the victim fell from his hospital window it attracted the attention of the secretary of defense, who realises that eight scientists — all connected to a US government programme in the 1960s — have died in what were initially believed to have been accidents.

He puts together an inter-agency taskforce to investigate, and Reacher is chosen as the army’s representative.

The authors in this novel have taken Reacher back to his time with the military police. The reason he left the army is revealed in No 16 in the series, The Affair.

After 13 years, he began a new life as a drifter — solving problems and dispensing justice in a brutal, but effective manner.

The taskforce Reacher is assigned to initially doesn’t know why the secretary of defense is so interested in the mysterious deaths. 

What they soon realise is that each of them has baggage which makes them expendable so, if they fail, they will be blamed.

It’s unusual for Reacher to be involved in office politics and bureaucracy.

He’s not sure whether he should trust the others, so he does what he usually does — forcing his way through obstacles and delivering his own brand of justice.

Without spoiling the experience for other readers by revealing too much, “the secret” of the title is that the US was creating offensive biological weapons in a secret programme in India — presumably to defend itself against the Soviet Union — and there was a leak in 1969.

The narrative moves between Reacher, the other members of the taskforce, and the actions of the Sanson sisters.

It’s fast-paced, with lots of twists and turns, action, and suspense. Just what you want from a thriller: It’s entertaining and you will be compelled to carry on.