Lee Child, May 25-29

[Paul_Hochman]

If you all missed Lee in our Studio last week, here he is!

By the way, you were terrific at this year's Edgar Awards, Lee. You really made the evening great!

[IBIS]

In comparison to your earlier Reacher stories, I found the plotting of "Gone Tomorrow" a bit over-the-top...

Reacher is hunted by secret foreign agents, federal (CIA? DoD?) officials, mysterious Pentagon people, the NYPD... there is that intricately woven sequence where three totally different groups are intent to capture Reacher.... 

I felt a kind-of nostalgia for the simpler books where Reacher, in his frontier-man-mode, ambles into a small town, smells trouble, gets to the heart of it, rescues them who need rescuing, then drifts away.

The series seems to vacillates between these two extremes.

Where does "61 Hours" fall? 

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Lee-Child wrote:

 So, yes, 61 Hours is done.  It opens with Reacher in the middle of a blizzard in South Dakota.

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[IBIS]

Why I love Jack Reacher:

My friends and family are always amazed that I am such an ardent Reacher fan. I'm an ordinary, quiet, somewhat shy woman. I've never held a gun. I've never witnessed a murder. The only violent things in my life are when the strings on my violin snap in the middle of a performance.

I actually love spending time with Reacher because I feel a vicarious satisfaction when he knocks bad people's around. I love it when he puts things right. There's something implacable about him... if I was ever in trouble, he's the person I would love to have on my side.

I like all the women characters in your stories because they're genuine, capable and competent women... not just attractive bimbos.  Reacher treats them respectfully. He's the perfect boyfriend... he won't hang around and make a nuisance of himself. He won't disappoint me... he won't borrow money. He'll disappear after a couple of days... 

Have other women readers told you the same things? 

[Lee-Child]

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IBIS wrote:

About Frances Neagley...

I just finished reading Zoe Sharp's marvelous "Second Shot" ... in it she has a character named Frances Neagley. Her private investigation company helps Charlie Fox, "today's best action heroine" (your quote), find a missing person.

Is this the same Frances Neagley that you created in two of your Reacher stories? 

Do you personally know Zoe Sharp, and agreed to share the character of Frances Neagley in her story?

Meeting Frances in a different author's work makes her so realistic to me.

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There's a real Frances Neagley.  At a Bouchercon charity auction a few years back, she won the naming rights to a character in my next novel.  Zoe and her husband Andy are friends of mine, but that's not why she put Neagley into Second Shot.  Frances really loves to win Bouchercon auctions.

Funny story about that Bouchercon auction which led to the Neagley character in Without Fail.  After the bidding went on for a few minutes, it settled down to two women outbidding each other, volleying back and forth, higher and higher. I offered to kiss the winner and the bids kept coming. The bids got so stratospheric, I felt bad for the ladies so I said if they'd both donate to the charity, I'd put them both in Without Fail.  I asked the winners, Frances Neagley and M.E. Froelich, to fax me what kind of character they'd like to be and while I couldn't promise anything, I'd do my best.

Two days later, I got a fax from ME Froelich which read: "I want to be Reacher's love interest." Five minutes after that, Neagley's came through: "I want to be Reacher's sidekick and I want his love interest to die horribly." 

If you want to see what the real Neagley looks like, visit my website Scrapbook: http://www.leechild.com/scrapbook.php  Neagley's in the second row under 2007.

Lee Child

[Lee-Child]

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IBIS wrote:

In comparison to your earlier Reacher stories, I found the plotting of "Gone Tomorrow" a bit over-the-top...

The series seems to vacillates between these two extremes.

Where does "61 Hours" fall? 

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61 Hours will be much more run of the mill, as I told Janet Maslin in the NY Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/14/books/14masl.html?scp=5&sq=janet%20maslin%20lee%20child&st=cse).

Lee Child

[Lee-Child]

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IBIS wrote:

Have other women readers told you the same things? 

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Pretty much all of them have.

Lee Child

[Lee-Child]

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MissPenn wrote:

I wonder if I could ask you a question as a novelist in general:  What book do you wish you had written?

Thanks again.

Laura (aka MissPenn)

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Hello MissPenn,

Sophie's Choice by William Styron is one I wish I'd written.

Thank you for reading mine -

Lee Child

[JanetLou]

Hi Lee,

I usually lurk on your wonderful Forum, but wanted to come over here just to say how much I loved "Gone Tomorrow".

Best wishes, and congratulations on the NYT (and all the other lists) #1 debut.

Best regards,

Janet

[Lee-Child]

Thanks, Janet.  I appreciate the kind words about GT.  Now, go back to the Forum and post something - see you there.

Lee Child