Lee Child · 2004 · thriller

Lee Child's 2004 Jack Reacher thriller, set in his army days. On New Year's 1990, as the Berlin Wall falls, a general dies in a seedy motel near Fort Bird and Major Reacher's investigation spirals into a conspiracy that runs from Virginia to Paris and the U.S. garrison at Heidelberg - and out to the desert of Fort Irwin - as the Cold War army fights its own.

1. 1
   Fort Bird

   The MP duty officer on a quiet North Carolina post, Reacher is handed a two-star general found dead in a nearby motel, his briefcase gone.

2. 2
   Virginia

   Sent to break the news to the general's wife, Reacher and Lieutenant Summer instead find her bludgeoned to death in her own home.

3. 3
   Columbia

   A Special Forces colonel turns up shot in a South Carolina alley, money and heroin in his pocket, and the dominoes keep falling.

4. 4
   Paris

   Reacher and his brother Joe cross the ocean to sit with their dying mother, and learn a wartime secret that reshapes them.

5. 5
   Heidelberg

   Chasing the armored-corps officers to their German garrison, Reacher and Summer terrify the brass and close the trap.

6. 6
   Fort Irwin

   The trail ends in the California desert, where Reacher runs down the last of the conspirators at a Mojave firing range.