BOOKS: Running Blind: Lee Child

May 7—When I mentioned last month that a reader could read a "Jack Reacher" book once a month for more than two years, the plan wasn't to actually do it.

But for the third month in a row, since watching the Amazon Prime series "Reacher," I've reached for one of Lee Child's "Jack Reacher" novels. I skipped the first one, "Killing Floor," since the first season of the show was based on that book. But I picked up "Die Trying," the second book in the series, two months ago; "Tripwire," the third book in the series, last month; and "Running Blind," the fourth book, this month.

There are more than two dozen "Jack Reacher" books — this could become a habit for quite some time.

It would be an easy habit, too.

After reading a thick history book, or an even thicker biography, or an even longer classic, Child's "Jack Reacher" is the type of book I want next — an adventurous page-turner. So far, instead of having to weigh if an adventure book is worthy, these books have fit the bill and have not disappointed.

"Die Trying" pushed Reacher into busting up a violent separatist white-supremacist group. In "Tripwire," Reacher deals with a brutal extortionist who is threatening him, a woman he loves and others.

"Running Blind" is a mystery for both Reacher and the reader. Someone is killing women who left the service after filing complaints of sexual harassment or were sexually assaulted while in the military. Briefly, Reacher is the FBI's chief suspect because, as a former military police major, he investigated the cases of two of the victims. Actually, the feds pitch him as a suspect to compel him to help in their investigation into the series of deaths.

Reacher is a man who spent his childhood as a military brat and the majority of his adulthood serving in uniform. He abruptly left the military and since has wandered the United States falling into various adventures not so much because he's looking for trouble but rather because it seems to find him, often because he's simply trying to help someone in everything from helping a woman struggling with a cane pick up her fallen dry-cleaning to manhandling a couple of mobsters leaning on the owner of his favorite restaurant.

Will there be another "Jack Reacher" novel next month? "Echo Burning" is the fifth book. It's already on my shelf. There will likely be a couple histories, some thick book, and a couple of other books before the time in June when likely I will reach for the next "Reacher."