Jack Reacher (novel series)

Jack Reacher is a fictional protagonist of a series of novels and short stories by British author Jim Grant under the pen name Lee Child. Reacher is a former U.S. Army Military Police Officer who is currently wandering around the United States, visiting places he had only heard about while he was growing up. By choice, he has no possessions except for a folding toothbrush, an ATM card and a Passport. He has a strong sense of duty to "do the right thing" which causes him to become involved with people in need.

The Reacher novels are usually published one per year. Most of the novels are set in the United States, in locales ranging from major metropolitan areas like New York City and Los Angeles to small towns in the Midwestern and Southern United States. To date, Reacher's travels outside the US have taken him to rural England (The Hard Way), London (Personal), Hamburg (Night School) and Paris, France, where Reacher and his brother visit their mother's grave.

Premise

The series is primarily known and advertised as a mystery crime series with other stories made to promote or relate to a specific major release or authors with Lee Child's permission form their own small spinoff series and universe. Since Killing Floor 1997 debut, most of the installments make up a Reacher canon novel universe which tells anthology action, mystery crime stories with periodic references to past events or characters where advances in the timeline are typically close to the same year as the book's release date.

The book series chronicles the adventures of Jack Reacher, a former major in the United States Army Military Police Corps now a drifter, roaming the United States taking odd jobs and investigating suspicious and frequently dangerous situations, some of which are of personal natures. The Reacher series has maintained a schedule of one book per year, except for 2010, when two instalments were published. The primary concept involves Reacher in terrorist plots, conspiracies and murder cases which prompts a handful of reoccurring characters to venture into different careers to fight against the threat.

For the most part, rather than having an overarching plot, the stories of each major entries are mostly self-contained and instead share narrative and thematic elements. The basic flow involves a incident occurring, and the parties responsible and their motives are hinted at and eventually revealed.

Other spinoff series' have followed their own shorter or self contained stories or canons.