Lee Child Shares the Limelight
[Ed Note: Many thanks to the people who wrote in to alert us to our typo on Lee Child’s name — now fixed. We HATE it when that happens, but appreciate the corrections!]
New York Times book critic Janet Maslin wrote a love letter to mystery author Lee Child yesterday, in advance of the May 18 arrival of his new book, Gone Tomorrow. On Amazon, preorders for the novel have shot up to #38. Libraries we checked show large reserves on widely varied numbers of copies.
Child, whose real name is Jim Grant, is currently president of the Mystery Writers of America and sold about 6 million copies of his books around the world last year. He is also older brother to another British thriller writer, Andrew Grant, who will appear with Child on some tour stops to promote his new novel, Even. Libraries we checked are carrying Even in varying numbers, from zero or 1 copy to 165 copies.
In comparing the two books, Maslin says:
While Gone Tomorrow and Even leave no doubt about which of these writers is the rock star and which the tyro, the books overlap in ways sure to raise interest in the family’s DNA. The plot and style similarities are that much more remarkable considering that Jim and Andrew grew up barely knowing each other because of their age disparity
Gone Tomorrow winds up taking the Reacher franchise to a wild extreme. That this Reacher is so effortlessly larger than life is evidence of how intense the overall series has become. Even is in the same vein, if not the same league. It would bring Mr. Child’s style to mind whether or not the authors were brothers.
Maslin also noted that Lee Child’s next Jack Reacher novel, 61 Hours, is finished and slated for publication in 2010.
| Gone Tomorrow (Jack Reacher, No. 13) |
| Lee Child |
| Price: | $27.00 |
| Hardcover: | 432 pages |
| Publisher: | Delacorte Press – (2009-05-19) |
| ISBN-10: | 0385340575 |
| ISBN-13: | 9780385340571 |
The audiobook is available from Books on Tape (May 18, 2009)
- Unabridged; 12 CDS; $100
- ISBN: 9781415962886
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May 16th, 2009 at 8:52 am
Hi Nora! Just so you know, it’s Child, not Childs…look right on the book jacket, if you don’t believe me! :)
May 16th, 2009 at 8:37 pm
Where is your editor?! It is Lee Child (singular) and he is a phenomenal writer!