Thursday, May 20, 2021

First Shot (Grant Fletcher) by John Ryder


 It is pretty obvious Lee Child's Jack Reacher was a big influence on this one. Ex-military loner with good detective skills shows up in a small town to deal justice. I guess that is starting to become a genre of it's own. So, this might be seen as a Son of Reacher instead of Son of Spade.

Anyway, the story is about the mentioned military loner called Grant Fletcher. He is enlisted by an old army mate to investigate the disappearance of his daughter. He encounters some unfriendly citizens as well as a smart and attractive FBI agent.

Fletcher as a character isn't that unique at a first glance. However, he has an interesting traumatic backstory which both adds extra spice to the story as well as the character. The fact he's a father adds something to his character as well.

The FBI agent, Zoey Quadrado, is a pretty well-rounded and strong female protagonist. It looks like she will be a series regular. That could be interesting and take away Fletcher out of standard Reacher territory.

There's a lot of action scenes in here, which seem to be taken right out of an action movie. These, together with the story behind Fletcher's trauma are definitely the strongest points of the story. The main investigation was a bit thin and could have used some surprises.

I like the setup at the end where we get a hint at how Fletcher and Quadrado will get into new trouble.

All in all, not a bad new series for those who can't get enough of Reacher and want just a little extra spice to the formula.