Night school

Jack Reacher, now in his final years as an army officer, is awarded a medal one morning and enrolled in a classroom that same afternoon. By nightfall he has vanished from view. He is not alone: an FBI agent and a CIA analyst, both accomplished operatives who have just pulled off major successes, sit with him and wonder why they were brought together. Their question is answered in 1996 when they learn about a jihadist sleeper cell in Hamburg. A Saudi courier has arrived there and is waiting to meet unidentified contacts. A CIA informant embedded in the cell overhears him mention that an American wants one hundred million dollars.

The three are ordered to track down that American. Reacher brings in Sergeant Frances Neagley, the finest soldier he ever served alongside, and the search quickly becomes more dangerous. The stakes are a large-scale terrorist attack if they fail. The trail runs from Langley to Hamburg, Jalalabad and Kiev, through deception, forged identities and unfamiliar adversaries. Reacher often operates outside the boundaries of the law to reach his goal.

This is the twenty-first novel in Lee Child's Jack Reacher series, and it moves back to Reacher's military years. Readers of espionage and action thrillers will find it a standalone-friendly entry, though longtime fans will enjoy the earlier history of its central character.