Reacher never starts fights. Many times he could walk away, except that his assailants would probably hurt him if he did so. He measures his force (and the injury he exerts) proportionally to the threat. He kills mostly to avoid being killed. Occasionally he kills the bad guys preemptively, usually when imprisoned and his captors would kill him to prevent his escape.

The second thing that seemed to define this book was Reacher not having full confidence about everything. He seems more human in this and at the same time even more awesome than regular humans. It looks like he's wrong about a lot of things and he still keeps at it, like a sledgehammer. As in other Reacher novels, there is a fair amount of unbelievability, but we’re having fun so where’s the harm? In this one, most veterans will have a few eye roiling moments and there was one military scene that was almost laughable and made me consider that maybe British writer Child was confusing English bureaucracy with ours. Tracing the dead man's trail to New York, Reacher discovers the PI was working for Reacher's former commanding officer, mentor and close friend Leon Garber. Reacher teams up with Garber's daughter Jodie, a sharp Wall Street lawyer, to find out why Leon needed Reacher's help and they find themselves embroiled in a life-threatening search for the truth—and the deeper they dig, the more dangerous and twisted their path becomes. He flouts the law - instead he is guided with his own moral compass - one that is more true, more admirable than legislative bodies and regulators can usually imagine. His ultra-competence and self-control permit him to narrowly focus his aggression. This narrow focus mostly justifies his extra-legal acts. He does not imagine that aggressors need escape injury or death, therefore, he rejects much of the constraints that ruled his MP career - and which rule our police. It’s the kind of book that has somebody repeating questions a whole bunch of times while other characters ponder things so if you’re already irritated you should probably avoid it.Another thing is that the book constantly contradicts itself and then goes out of its way to underline that it’s doing so in the most forehead slapping way possible. For example, at one point Reacher thought he knew how some thugs would come after him and Jodie. Yet they use a different tactic which takes him by surprise and almost works. Afterword, Reacher calmly notes that he hadn’t thought about them doing that which was almost a fatal mistake. Yet later in the book when it looks like an assumption that he made was wrong Reacher has a complete meltdown about it where he bemoans the loss of his once perfect record at following his hunches and wonders what he’s supposed to do in life now that his skills have so obviously failed him. So Reacher shrugs off making an error that almost gets them killed, and yet when a blue sky guess he made that has no immediate potential impact looks like it might be wrong he falls apart.

A more realistic book, in comparison to all the very unrealistic things he does in this series. It's probably because this plot follows more of a crime show storyline of detective work by Reacher and lady vs the previous books he was in situations without all the info or a way to investigate through normal channels. He's not so sure that he wants to "own" a house - or to let the house "own him". If he weren't head-over-heels for Jodie Garber this would be a no-brainer. Therein lies an unusual problem. In one novel, Reacher recalled that he mostly finished near the top and once won in series of world-wide military long-range shooting competitions. This foreshadowed the rare instance in which hitting targets at 1000-yards was important to the plot. More often he makes do at seemingly "long odds" with pistols. In those cases 4-to-1 is nowhere near an even fight.

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He also has disdain for most law-enforcement personnel - not just officers - mostly because they are ruining his day. Exceptions are those he needs and teams with. The kidnapped lady FBI agent is one. Others include the various clerical experts who can tweak databases, call in favors, cajole other police/military clerks, and generally do what it takes to get Reacher his information.