Master storyteller Lee Child has brought us at least twenty New York Times bestsellers, eleven of which have made it to the top spot, and for good reason. His main character, Jack Reacher, a highly dangerous ex-military lone ranger, travels around the country and introduces us to one thrilling encounter after another.
As a little background, Lee Child is the pen name of Jim Grant, a former television director and native of England who now resides in New York City.
And guess what? All his Jack Reacher books have been optioned for film!
26 Lee Child Books to Add to Your Collection
If you love thrillers and are looking to read through his books before watching them on the big screen, we hope this post can help.
1. Killing Floor
What happens when a stranger steps into a town that experiences its first homicide in thirty years? They frame and arrest him, that’s what. But they don’t know that they picked the wrong guy as scapegoat: Jack Reacher is a former US military who will not take this false accusation lying down.
2. Die Trying
Jack Reacher is taking a normal walk on a normal day, but when he helps steady a woman as she struggles on her crutches, he suddenly sees a handgun aimed right at his stomach. Before he knows it, he’s kidnapped by the woman who professes to be FBI, and chained inside a dark van. What in the world is going on?
3. Tripwire
Being invisible is a habit with Jack Reacher, which is why he lives a low key life as a swimming pool construction worker by day and a bouncer at a strip club by night. But what happens when a private detective sent to find him is found beaten to death? Who is it that badly wants to find him? And why?
4. Running Blind
Two army high-flyers who both knew Jack Reacher and were also both pushed to step down from the service are suddenly found dead—with the same marks of what appears to be an attack by an army man. Who else could it be but Jack Reacher?
5. Echo Burning
What happens when an innocent former American military guy hitches a ride with a beautiful woman in the middle of a scorching landscape? Oh, did we mention that the woman’s husband is in jail, and when he’s released, he wants to kill her?
6. Without Fail
Jack Reacher may not have a regular job, or a fixed address. But if there’s one thing he can’t turn down, it’s when someone needs his help. Now, that someone is a woman working to protect the Vice President of the United States from direct threats to his life.
7. Persuader
Jack Reacher has no commitments except one: to make wrong things right, while also rewriting his own painful past. So when he witnesses an attempt to kidnap someone in an inhuman way, he take action. But what he does results in a cop losing his life. Has his obsession with justice blurred his own sense of morality?
8. The Enemy
What happens when a New Year’s Day murder victim in a dingy motel room is actually a two-star general? Jack Reacher happens to be the officer on duty. What will he tell the general’s wife?
9. One Shot
A terror attack on a city leaves five person dead, but the police are quick to land in on the suspect—who, strangely, won’t say anything except to ask for Jack Reacher. Why in the world would this psychopath want him, and does that mean he’s involved?
10. The Hard Way
A confirmed loner, Jack Reacher is concerned only with one thing: making sure that the man driving the Mercedes containing $1 million in ransom reaches its destination safe and sound. But what if nothing goes according to plan?
11. Bad Luck and Trouble
Jack Reacher has effectively created his cloak of invisibility around himself, and he loves the anonymity. But when someone from his old Army unit manages to reach him, he knows something serious must be up. And indeed, he finds out that one of their elite team members has been found dead in the California desert, with another six of them missing in action.
12. Nothing to Lose
While looking for a cup of coffee in between two small Colorado towns, all Jack Reacher expects is an empty road for twelve miles. But he ends up face-to-face with four deputies, charging him with vagrancy. What are these locals trying to hide that they would have to meddle with him?
13. Gone Tomorrow
Jack Reacher knows the twelve warning signs of a suicide bomber, and while watching the passengers at a New York City subway at 2:00 in the morning, he ticks off four of his fellow passengers as safe. But the fifth rings all the warning bells. When the train stops at Grand Central Station, should Reacher intervene? What if he’s wrong? Or worse yet, what if he’s right?
14. 61 Hours
Jack Reacher is simply hitching a ride through a gathering storm in the icy South Dakotan winter. Who knew that a brave woman standing up for justice would need his help, especially with a murderer in her trail?
15. Worth Dying For
Jack Reacher isn’t looking for trouble. But when he falls into the ill will of the local Duncan clan that has kept the entire county in terrified submission, he knows he’s in for it. But he can’t let go of the unsolved mystery of the eight-year-old girl who just went missing on day. Is solving the case worth dying for?
16. The Affair
When someone cuts a woman’s throat in Mississippi just near a big army base, Jack Reacher goes undercover to investigate: is the culprit a civilian, or one of the soldiers in the base? And why does the county sheriff’s investigation not seem to get anywhere? Is she really having trouble getting information, or is she hiding something?
17. A Wanted Man
Jack Reacher is used to hitching a ride, but not when he has a freshly wounded nose. Finally, when he gets a ride, he discovers that the two men and one woman in the vehicle are telling him lies. Up ahead, he sees a police roadblock as the police are looking for suspects to an incident. Are his companions innocent, or are they using him as a decoy to get through?
18. Never Go Back
Arriving in Virginia, Jack Reacher discovers that the woman he’s supposed to meet isn’t there. In fact, a great many things are not the way they’re supposed to be. And Reacher is determined to find out why.
19. Personal
Having no fixed address, Jack Reacher knows that when someone tracks him down, it means something big has happened. This time, it’s because someone has attempted to assassinate the French president with a long-range shot. Reacher knows only one man who could’ve done it. The only problem now is to find him.
20. Make Me
The railroad stop named Mother’s Rest on the remote prairies seems to be an inviting place for a stopover. But when Jack Reacher wanders into it, he finds a woman looking for a missing colleague, a strange note talking about a few hundred deaths, and a tiny town right in the heart of darkness.
21. Night School
The army sends Jack Reacher, right off of a secret mission, to a school with only two other students: a CIA analyst and an FBI agent. Their mission? To find the culprit of what seems to be something big—and bad—planned for the country.
22. The Midnight Line
When Jack Reacher spots a West Point class ring in the window of a pawnshop, he wonders how it got there. Clearly, nobody would just give up a ring representing graduation from West Point—you pay too high a price to get it. So now he wants to find that woman cadet who owned that ring. If she’s fine, no harm done. If not, then it’s a good thing he’s on her trail.
23. Past Tense
What does a young couple stuck in a lonely motel in a remote area have to do with Jack Reacher—who happens to wander to the place where his father was born, and is told that no one ever lived there with the name of Reacher?
24. Blue Moon
As a former military guy, Jack Reacher is quick to notice when things aren’t right. On a bus, he observes an old man sleeping in his seat with a big fat cash envelope peeking out of his pocket. When a thief tries to nab the envelope, Reacher is quick to step in. But the old man refuses Reacher’s help in getting home—but he clearly looks like he’s in huge trouble. Is he in the clutches of two rival gangs? How can Reacher help him?
25. The Sentinel
With only lodging, food, and good country music on his mind, Jack Reacher doesn’t expect to be on the go until he meets a group of musicians whom a greedy bar owner has cheated. Then, he can’t keep himself from stepping in.
26. Better Off Dead
Why did a Jeep crash into the only tree in the barren Arizona road? When Jack Reacher spots it, he heads straight to the nearest town, with FBI agent Michaela Fenton by his side as she searches for her twin brother. Has he gotten himself entangled up with a group of dangerous people?
Reading Lee Child Books
Reading Lee Child’s books about Jack Reacher the wandering avenger will surely keep you up all night. If you’re looking for a thriller with a real spot for justice and making wrong things right, you can start right with this list.
If you know anyone who enjoys reading mysteries and thrillers dealing with social issues, consider gifting them or recommending them one of the books on this list.
Did you find this post helpful? Let us know in the comments below!
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Yen Cabag is the Blog Writer of TCK Publishing. She is also a homeschooling mom, family coach, and speaker for the Charlotte Mason method, an educational philosophy that places great emphasis on classic literature and the masterpieces in art and music. She has also written several books, both fiction and nonfiction. Her passion is to see the next generation of children become lovers of reading and learning in the midst of short attention spans.
