Persuader is the seventh book in the Jack Reacher series written by Lee Child. After a chance encounter with an old adversary, Reacher finds himself once again obsessed with revenge and in increasingly dire straits in an attempt to settle a decade-long score. Reacher works with DEA agents and infiltrates a criminal organization, quickly rising in the ranks to get revenge on his old enemy.
Description[]
Walking along the street, Reacher sees a man who should be dead. Ten years before, that man murdered someone important to Reacher and got away with it. Should Reacher contact the police and let them sort it out? That isn’t something Reacher has much patience for. No-wait justice, that’s our guy.
Plot[]
Jack Reacher is working unofficially with the DEA to bring down a boy's father, Zachary Beck, who is suspected of smuggling drugs under the pretext of trading in oriental carpets using his company Bizarre Bazaar as a front. They stage a kidnapping of Zachary's son, Richard Beck with Reacher appearing to be the man who rescues him. A frightened Richard places his trust in Reacher and asks him to take him back home. Reacher gains access to Beck and gradually gains his confidence by working as a hired gun/bodyguard.
While working undercover he regrettably has to eliminate a few of Beck's minions to prevent them from exposing him. During this time he figures out that he was not the only undercover agent appointed to keep track of Zachary Beck. The house maid too, turns out to be a federal agent trying to find evidence of arms smuggling against Zachary.
The DEA, on finding that they were mistaken about the nature of the business Zachary was involved in, tries to pull Reacher out. Reacher refuses to step back as his primary motivation in getting involved at all in this off-the-books operation is to have another go at Francis Xavier Quinn, a former Military Intelligence agent who, ten years before, had brutally mutilated and murdered a female military police colleague of Reacher's.
Reacher had originally presumed Quinn to be dead after their last little encounter but found that assumption to be incorrect after running into Quinn in public. It's ten years later and Quinn somehow just happens to be Zachary Beck's boss in a supremely lucrative, international gun-running enterprise. And it is revealed that Zachary was forced into working for Quinn and his family was tormented by bodyguards appointed by Quinn.
As always, it is Reacher's all-consuming obsession with revenge, or at least with his personal interpretation of doling out justice, which pushes him far beyond the normal boundaries of physical endurance and acceptable risk.
Adaptations[]
The novel served as the basis for Season Three of the Reacher TV Series on Amazon Prime.
Appearances[]
Characters[]
- Jack Reacher
- Zachary Beck - Owner of Bizarre Bazarr, an oriental rug importer in Portland, ME.
- Richard Beck - Zachary's Son.
- Elizabeth Beck - Zachary's Wife.
- John Chapman "Duke" - Head of Zachary's security team.
- Paul "Paulie" Masserella - Gate guard at the Beck estate.
- Angel Doll - Member of Beck's security team.
- Francis Xavier Quinn - Former Army Intelligence officer.
- Susan Duffy - DEA Agent.
- Steven Eliot - DEA Agent.
- Terry Villanueva - DEA Agent.
- Dominique Kohl (backstory) - First Sergeant, U.S. Army Military Police.
- Teresa Justice (undercover as Teresa Daniel) - DEA Agent.
- Harley - Member of Zachary's security team.
- Emily Smith - Operations manager at Bizarre Bazarr.
- The Maid - Undercover ATF Agent.
- The Mechanic - One of Duke's men.
Locations[]
- United States
- Maine
- Abbot - fictional town on the coast between Portland and Kennebunkport
- Portland
- Massachusetts
- Boston
- Maine
Organizations[]
Weapons[]
- Beretta M9 Special Edition
- Soviet NSV Tank Mounted Machine Gun
- Glock 17
- Glock 19
- Para Ordnance P14
- AK-74 Kalashnikov Assault Rifle
- AKSU-74 sub-machine gun
- Makarov 9mm Pistols
- VAL Silent Sniper Rifle
- RPG-7 Rocket Launcher
- SA-7 Grail Heat Seeking Surface-to-Air Missile
- Mossberg M500 Persuader (Cruiser model)
Vehicles[]
- Lincoln Town Car
- Chevy Caprice
- Cadillac DeVille
- Ford Taurus
Events[]
Miscellanea[]
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