The 21st Reacher novel, NIGHT SCHOOL, will go on sale:
November 7, 2016 - in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand in hardcover, trade paperback,
audio and digital editions.
Mass-market paperback editions of the 20th Reacher novel, MAKE ME:
On sale now in the UK, Ireland, US, Canada, Australia & New Zealand.
If you’re wondering when the next Jack Reacher novel is coming to your country, Lee’s literary agency posts an up-to-date list of foreign publications; just click on the book jackets for details. There are no on-sale dates (sorry), but at least you’ll know what publisher does or will publish each title.
To keep up-to-date on tours and novels, the best way is to sign up for The Reacher Report. These reports are electronically published on an irregular schedule (when we have breaking news, we’ll get that to you fast).
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Jack Reacher in the movies?
With a December 21, 2012, debut, Tom Cruise and a stupendous cast (see IMDB for the full
cast roster) star in Paramount Studios' JACK REACHER, based upon the novel "One Shot" (which was also the working
title). The first film in a projected franchise, Cruise will star in the sequel based on "Never Go Back" on October 21, 2016.
What does Lee think of the Hollywood adaptation? He was interviewed throughout the filming and here’s what he had to say:
Lee is a big fan of the finished film. Don’t forget he’s spent equal time on either side of the page/screen divide and understands better than most that changes are necessary and inevitable. And like Reacher he doesn’t favor half-measures…if we’re going to have a movie, then let’s have a movie star in it. There is only a small handful of genuine global male stars. All are great actors—you don’t get to be a star if you don’t have the chops—but Cruise might well be the best of his generation. And again, Lee has been around actors forever—Laurence Olivier was still in his sixties the first time Lee worked with him—so he’s a pretty good judge.
Plus, from an author’s point of view, it’s more exciting to see a new and fresh vision. Lee didn’t need to see a literal translation. Without comparing himself to Bob Dylan, he wonders what Dylan wanted to hear when someone covered, say, “All Along the Watchtower”…a tribute clone, or Jimi Hendrix? Lee thinks the Cruise/McQuarrie interpretation builds on the books in the same way.
Lee Child at the Rogers Little Theater in Rogers, AR, on Oct. 28, 2011.
Here’s the chronology for the curious amongst you.
March 13, 2012: Paramount, impressed by what they’ve seen, choose the enviable release date of December 21, 2012 (Slashfilm.com).
January, 2012: Shooting wraps and now the waiting begins…
June 17, 2011: It’s a GO!!! Tom Cruise has been signed to play Reacher.
“One Shot” begins shooting September 27, 2011, in Pittsburgh. Christopher McQuarrie to direct, based on his screenplay. For more info: Deadline.com.
What Entertainment Weekly thinks.
December 2010: Lee gets a call from producer Don Granger at the movie studio, and things seem to be very positive and optimistic … we’re very close to seeing One Shot greenlighted, he thinks. Christopher McQuarrie’s screenplay is an absolute knockout, he says … and they had a preliminary casting conversation. Details are still confidential, of course, but some very interesting names were mentioned. Fingers crossed.
July 15, 2010: Paramount Pictures secures Christopher McQuarrie (Oscar winner for The Usual Suspects) to write a new screenplay for “One Shot.” Story centers on a Dirty Harry-like investigator (not, as reported, a cop—this is still Reacher) who seeks the truth behind what seems an open-and-shut murder case after a trained military sniper is arrested for shooting five random victims. McQuarrie may also direct but that has yet to be confirmed.
Sometime in 1997: Most novelists are not given casting control (no matter what you’ve read) and Lee’s comfortable with that. He believes in letting experienced, talented people do their jobs. As long as Hollywood leaves the novel-writing to him, Lee will leave the movie-making to them.
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Why name him “Reacher” and how the heck do you pronounce it?
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Can I read the novels out of order?
Lee wrote the Reacher novels so you could start the series with any one of them. Really. No fooling.
Our suggestion? Read them in the order Lee wrote them (they were published in that order, too). We believe the prequels (The Affair and The Enemy) have more emotional impact after you’ve gotten to know Reacher a bit better. We have a link to a printable (and numbered) list of the books in order on this website BOOKSpage for your convenience. This list includes the short stories and more and can be reached via the Media downloads page, too. Same list, two links!
Why two titles for the same book: Running Blind and The Visitor?
THE INSIDE STORY
Have you ever wondered how authors choose their titles? The process isn’t always what you’d expect. Running Blind versus The Visitor wasn’t the first tug-of-war over Jack Reacher titles.
Originally, the previous Jack Reacher novel Tripwire was intended to be called The Hook but Lee’s U.S. publisher rejected that title because it reminded them of Peter Pan. Interestingly enough, his U.K. publisher—the home of Peter Pan—had no problem with it, but they acquiesced when Putnam came up with their own title, Tripwire. Little did anyone suspect that following closely on the heels of Tripwire’s release, in a flurry of marketing and ad campaigns, there’d be two novels with that same title: Donald E. Westlake’s The Hook and C.J. Songer’s Hook. Excellent company, indeed.
You don’t need to be psychic to pick great titles; creativity is key but above all, you’ve got to have good instincts. We like to think of Lee as being way ahead of the pack, in advance of the learning curve, finger on the pulse, eye on the… oh, you get my drift. So anyway, he writes the next Jack Reacher novel and calls it The Visitor.
Was Putnam ready to take a chance on their author’s canny ability to choose catchy titles or did they recoil in horror claiming everybody would think The Visitor was a science fiction novel? Hmm. This time, Transworld in the U.K. stuck with Lee and published The Visitor while Putnam chose their own title, Running Blind.
So what do you think? Which title would you have chosen?
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Why are some Reacher novels in first person but others in third?
Lee says writing in first person is more natural for him. But writing in third person gives him more freedom when building suspense.
With third person narrative, the suspense builds easily as the reader can essentially see around corners and anticipate events about
which Reacher has no knowledge. With the first person narrative, the reader can only know what Reacher knows. That’s it in a nutshell.
The storyline dictates what narrative voice would suit best. Certainly, with first person the story is more graphic and intimate as we’re
inside Jack’s head. So far in the series,
Killing Floor,
Persuader,
The Enemy,
Gone Tomorrow,
The Affair, and
Personal are in first person narrative. Die Trying, Tripwire, Running Blind/The Visitor, Echo Burning, Without Fail, One Shot, The Hard Way, Bad Luck and Trouble, Nothing to Lose, 61 Hours, Worth Dying For, A Wanted Man are in third person.
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Why did Lee choose to make Reacher an ex-MP?
Lee wanted Reacher to be:
1) suddenly downsized from something;
2) suddenly adrift in a world he wasn’t familiar with;
3) accustomed to doing things in a rough-and-ready and very non-civilian way.
So a previous career in the Army made sense, because it would explain all of the above.
He made him an ex-MP because:
1) he needed some forensic and detective-type skills; and
2) the Navy Seal or Special Forces thing had already been done. He made him an officer purely because he felt that although an Army-insider might see an NCO or Warrant Officer type as a more realistic choice, a higher rank might give Reacher better networking capabilities when calling on old buddies for help. It’s been mentioned that Army personnel undergo the type of officer candidate school training which eliminates the mavericks, but Lee was hoping Reacher would be regarded as “the one that got away.”
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How many Reacher novels sold? In what languages and which countries?
Called "The Strongest Brand In Publishing" by Forbes magazine in March 2014, the Jack Reacher series by Lee Child is a billion dollar brand published in
46 languages and 100 territories. With well over 100 million books sold, the series has commanded over a billion dollars in global sales. PERSONAL, the 19th Jack
Reacher thriller, was #1 on the best-sellers lists simultaneously in all English language countries and sold more copies than any other hardcover, of any type,
for the year 2014 in the UK.
Lee’s literary agency posts an up-to-date list of foreign publications. Sorry, but the publication dates are not included on this page. Try Googling for the publisher’s website, which should have all the info on which titles are available.
If you’re a publisher and would like to inquire about rights to the Jack Reacher novels, please send an email to Clare Wallace at DarleyAnderson.com.
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Contact Team Reacher: Foreign, Film/TV rights, Press & downloads
Rights (foreign):Mary Darby, Darley Anderson Literary Rights (film/TV):Darley Anderson, Darley Anderson Literary Press (Print, TV, radio, internet media interviews):Press Website inquiries:Webmaven
Please visit the Media downloads page for author photo, hi-res book covers, biography and bibliography.
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I have an idea for a novel. Can Lee read it/write it/help me write it?
If you have a great idea, you should write it yourself and reap the reward. Please don’t send any unpublished work or story ideas. Lee will never see your email—his lawyer has sent us strict orders to cull any such requests.
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How do I get Lee’s autograph?
To receive an autographed adhesive bookplate with a real signature (not pre-printed), send your mailing address to The Keeper of Signatures and we’ll get one out to you in our next mailing.
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Is Lee Child Lee Child’s real name?
It isn’t the name he was born with. He says, “The performers’ unions I belonged to in the past demanded a name change if there was a danger of confusion with an established personality. As a consequence over the years I worked under three different names, and I saw how it was often a valuable psychological boost, you know, new job, new name, personal reinvention, maybe this time things will work out a little better.”
And this time, things did work out a little better. Which begs the question, what’s real, anyway? “Maybe ten people in the world call me by the name on my birth certificate. Sometimes I can barely remember what it is. Ten million people call me Lee Child. That’s more real to me than government paperwork.”
Lee Child is the only name under which any of his writing has been published. All of his novels and short stories are listed on the website BOOKS and SHORT STORIES page, no exception.
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I signed up for The Reacher Report but I haven’t received one yet. Help!
There’s only a few reasons why this might happen. HOW IT WORKS: We use a double opt-in system to compile our mailing list. Using the link provided here, you can access our mailing list form. Once you’ve filled out the fields, checked the “I want to receive mailings from LeeChild.com” box, and clicked on the button which reads “Join Now”, you should automatically receive an email from us. This email will include a link, and ask you to click on it to confirm your registration. YOU MUST CLICK ON THIS LINK (or copy and paste it into your browser), or your email address will not be added to our mailing list. Using this double opt-in system assures your internet provider that our email is not SPAM.
If you do not receive an email from us asking you to confirm your registration, then it’s possible that you mistyped your email address, or your Inbox is over its size limit, or your spam blocker is bouncing our email. We know we’re not a spammer, but in this day of overzealous spam blockers, your ISP might not. We try our best, but sometimes we just can’t get through. Set your internal spam blocker, or ask your ISP, to allow email from [email protected] and LeeChild.com both. If you have a problem viewing images and links in the newsletter once you get it, this will solve that problem, too.
The last reason why you might not have received The Reacher Report is the simplest. Maybe we haven’t sent one out since you joined our mailing list? We publish The Reacher Report on an irregular schedule and don’t like to flood your Inbox with unnecessary notices. They’re infrequent but well worth the wait! Thanks for your patience.