The events of 9/11 changed Jack Reacher's life in a practical way. In addition to his folding toothbrush he now needs to carry photo ID to get around. Yet he's still as close to untraceable as a human being in America can get. So when a member of his old Army unit manages to get a message to him, he knows it has to be serious.

Hitching rides is an unreliable mode of transport. That's Jack Reacher's conclusion. He's adrift in the fearsome heat of a Texas summer, and he needs to keep moving. The last thing he's worried about is exactly who picks him up.

Two small towns in Colorado: Hope and Despair. Between them nothing but twelve miles of empty road. Jack Reacher can't find a ride, so he walks. All he wants is a cup of coffee. What he gets are four redneck deputies who want to run him out of town.

Digging swimming pools by hand in Key West, former military policeman Jack Reacher is not pleased when Costello, a private detective, starts asking questions about him. When Costello is found dead, Reacher knows that he is in serious trouble.

In 'Without Fail', the Secret Service, the organisation that protects the presidency, enlists the help of Jack Reacher. This is another well-plotted, violent, romantic, nailbiting thriller from Lee Child.

Suicide bombers are easy to spot. They give out all kinds of tell-tale signs. Mostly because they're nervous. Riding the subway in New York at two o'clock in the morning, Reacher knows the 12 giveaway signs to look out for. Watching one of the passengers, he becomes sharply aware: one by one, she ticks off every point on his list.

Six shots. Five dead. A heartland city thrown into terror. But within hours the cops have it solved. A slam-dunk case. Apart from one thing. The accused gunman refuses to talk except for a single phrase: 'Get Jack Reacher for me'. Reacher lives off grid. He's not looking for trouble. But sometimes trouble looks for him.

There's deadly trouble in the wilds of Nebraska and Reacher walks right into it. First he falls foul of the Duncans, a local clan that has terrified an entire county into submission. But it's the unsolved case of a missing 8-year-old girl, already decades-old, that Reacher can't let go.

Nebraska - and Jack Reacher, huge, hulking and with a freshly busted nose, is still trying to hitch a ride east to Virginia. He's picked up by three strangers - two men and a woman. Immediately he knows they're all lying about something.

You can leave the army, but the army doesn't leave you, notes Jack Reacher. Sure enough, the retired military cop is soon pulled back into service, this time for the State Department and the CIA. Someone has taken a shot at the president of France in Paris. The bullet was American - and how many snipers can shoot from three-quarters of a mile with total confidence? Very few, but John Kott, an American marksman gone bad, is one of them. If anyone can...