Reacher left home at 18, graduated from West Point. Performed 13 years of Army service, demoted from Major to Captain in 1990, mustered out with the rank of Major in 1997.
“I was born in Berlin. Never even saw the States until I was nine years old. Five minutes later we were in the Philippines. Round and round the world we went. Longest I was ever anywhere was four years at West Point. Then I joined up and it started all over again. Round and round the world.”
“Where’s your family now?” she asked.
“Dead,” he said. “The old man died, what? Ten years ago, I guess. My mother died two years later. I buried the Silver Star with her. She won it for me, really. Do what you’re supposed to do, she used to tell me. About a million times a day, in a thick French accent.”
“Brothers and sisters?” she said.
“I had a brother,” he said. “He died last year. I’m the last Reacher on earth, far as I know.”
“When did you muster out?” she said.
“April last year,” he said. “Fourteen months ago.”
“Why?” she asked.
Reacher shrugged.
“Just lost interest, I guess,” he said. “The defense cuts were happening. Made the Army seem unnecessary, somehow. Like if they didn’t need the biggest and the best, they didn’t need me. Didn’t want to be part of something small and second-rate. So I left. Arrogant, or what?”
In TRIPWIRE, Jodie (Jodie Garber, KNOWN ASSOCIATES tab above) noted “His lazy lopsided grin. His tousled hair. His arms, so long they gave him a greyhound’s grace even though he was built like the side of a house. His eyes, cold icy blue like the Arctic. His hands, giant battered mitts that bunched into fists the size of footballs.” Reacher has a scar on his arm where his brother struck him with a retaliatory chisel (see FAMILY tab above, Brother: Joe).
Born on an Army base in Germany. His father chose his name; it read “Jack-none-Reacher” on the birth certificate faxed to the Berlin Embassy. They called his brother Joe, but nobody ever called Jack by his first name. How it came about, no one knows but Jack was always called Reacher.
As kids, Jack and his brother moved so much that spending a full school year in any one place felt weird. “Our friends just kept disappearing. Some unit would be shipped out somewhere and a bunch of kids would be gone. Sometimes we saw them again in a different place. Plenty of them we never saw again. Nobody ever said hello or goodbye. You were just either there or not there.”
Service Awards (circa 1990):
Top row: Silver Star, the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit
Second row: Soldier’s Medal, the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart
Bottom row: “Junk awards”
“Medals?” she asked.
He shrugged.
“Dozens of the damn things,” he said. “You know how it is. Theater medals, of course, plus a Silver Star, two Bronzes, Purple Heart from Beirut, campaign things from Panama and Grenada and Desert Shield and Desert Storm.”
“A Silver Star?” she asked. “What for?”
“Beirut,” he said. “Pulled some guys out of the bunker.”
“And you got wounded doing that?” she said. “That’s how you got the scar and the Purple Heart?”
“I was already wounded,” he said. “Got wounded before I went in. I think that was what impressed them.”
What he doesn’t have: A driver’s license, Federal benefits (doesn’t want them), tax returns (doesn’t do them; he hasn’t filed taxes since he left the Army).
Mother: Josephine Moutier Reacher was 30 when Jack was born. Widowed in 1988. Died in 1990 when she was 60. When she was 13, she joined the French resistance and under the alias Beatrice worked with Le Chemin de Fer Humain (the Human Railroad), saving 80 men. She garroted a schoolmate, a boy who threatened to give her up to the Nazis. Josephine Moutier was awarded La Medaille de la Resistance (the Resistance Medal) for her heroism.
“The name Joe was hard for her. It was very short and abrupt, and she struggled with the initial J because of her accent. It came out like ZH. Like the boy was called Zhoe. Jack was much better. Her accent made it sound like Jacques, which was a very traditional old French name. Translated, it meant James. Privately, she always thought of her second boy as James. But she, like everyone else, called him Reacher.
Father: Born in Laconia, NH. Marine, served in Korea and Vietnam.
“A plain New Hampshire Yankee with an implacable horror of anything fancy…[he] had no use for wealth and excess.
Very compartmentalized guy. Gentle, shy, sweet, loving man, but a stone-cold killer, too. Harder than a nail. Next to him I look like Liberace.”
“Didn’t you like him?”
“He was OK. But he was a freak. No room for people like him anymore.”
Brother: Joe, 6’6″, 220-250 lbs. Born on an Army base in the Far East. Star-shaped scar on his neck from “messing with a broken bottle” when he and his brother were kids. Has a scar on his forehead too, gift of his brother. Two years older than Jack. Joe was taller than his brother, making him appear slight by comparison; Jack used to beat up the kids who gave Joe trouble in school. West Point graduate. He spent 5 years in Army Military Intelligence before joining the Treasury Dept. Never won any of the “good medals” only the junk awards. Kept a closet full of designer label suits (24 at last count). Died at the age of 38.
“[He was] built like a brick outhouse. Hands like shovels, face like a catcher’s mitt. We were clones, physically, the two of us. But we had different brains. Deep down, he was a cerebral guy. Kind of pure. Naive, even. He never thought dirty. Everything was a game of chess with him.”
Special Investigators (BAD LUCK AND TROUBLE)
The team motto: “You do not mess with the special investigators.”
Reacher was CO. “Dixon and Neagley were the only women and Neagley was the only NCO. The others were all officers. O’Donnell and Lowrey were captains and the rest were all majors, which was totally screwed up in terms of a coherent chain of command, but Reacher didn’t care. He knew that nine people working closely would operate laterally rather than vertically, which in the event was exactly what happened. The unit had organized itself like a small-market baseball team enjoying an unlikely pennant run: talented journeymen working together, no stars, no egos, mutually supportive, and above all ruthlessly and relentlessly effective.”
Stan Lowrey
Killed by a drunk driver in Montana.
“At first glance Stan Lowrey had not been an obvious candidate for a rural fantasy. He had been a big-boned black guy from some scruffy factory town in Western Pennsylvania, smart as a whip and hard as a railroad tie. Dark alleys and pool halls had seemed to be his natural habitat. But somewhere in his DNA there had been a clear link with the earth. Reacher wasn’t surprised he had become a farmer. He could picture him, in a raggedy old barn coat, knee-high in prairie grass, under a huge blue sky, cold but happy.”
Calvin Franz (also in THE ENEMY)
Self-employed P.I., Culver City, CA.
Reacher remembers him “talking, laughing, full of drive and energy”.
Tony Swan (also in THE ENEMY)
Asst. director, corporate security for a SoCal defense manufacturer. Kept a chuck of concrete from the Berlin Wall on his desk. Had a German Shepard named Maisi.
“Affable, good-humored, intelligent.
“Swan was short, and wide. Almost cubic. He probably owned a percentile all his own, on the quartermasters’ charts.”
Manuel Orozco & Jorge Sanchez (Sanchez also appeared in THE ENEMY)
Partners in a Las Vegas security business.
“Both men were mavericks, lean, fast, leathery, impatient with bullshit.”
Dave O’Donnell
Washington, DC, P.I. Meticulous, doesn’t mind paperwork.
“Tall, fair, handsome, like a stockbroker…carried a switchblade in one pocket and brass knuckles in the other. A useful guy to have around.”
Karla Dixon
Forensic accountant, New York. Good with numbers, liked to discuss famous mathematical theorems with Reacher. Thick black hair, cut short.
“Dixon was dark and very pretty and comparatively small, a happy woman who thought the worst of people…she looked relaxed but never quite still, always burning energy, always giving the impression that twenty four hours in the day were not enough for her.”
Frances L. Neagley (also in WITHOUT FAIL, see reference below)
Refused promotion, would not apply for Officer Candidate School.
“She was smart and resourceful and thorough. And very tough. And strangely uninhibited. Not in terms of personal relationships. She avoided personal relationships. She was intensely private and resisted any kind of closeness, physical or emotional. Her lack of inhibition was professional. If she felt something was right or necessary, then she was uncompromising. Nothing stood in her way, not politics or practicality or politeness or even what a civilian might call the law… She impressed him, deeply. Sometimes even came close to scaring him.”
Eileen Ann Hutton (ONE SHOT) Brigadier General, Judge Advocate General’s Corps, US Army
Age unknown; she and Reacher had a relationship prior to ONE SHOT.
“Her hair was shorter. She had no tan. There were fine lines around her eyes. But otherwise she looked just the same as she had fourteen years ago. And just as good. Medium height, slim, poised. Groomed. Fragrant. Feminine as hell… [Her eyes] ran like a stock ticker, warm, warm, welcome, welcome, with a periodic bright flash: Mess with me and I’ll rip your lungs out.”
Lieutenant Summer (THE ENEMY)
Lieutenant, Army Military Police
Age 25, petite and slender. Cute booty.
“Her hair was very short. Almost shaved. Smooth skin. I liked the way she looked. And she was a fast driver. That was for damn sure.”
Leon Garber (THE ENEMY)
General, US Army Deceased at age 64 of heart failure, leaving behind one daughter, Jodie.
“A short, squat, tough man. A wide smile he always used whether he was happy or annoyed or in danger. A brave man, physically and mentally. A great leader. Honest as the day is long, fair, perceptive. Reacher’s role model during his vital formative years. His mentor and his sponsor. His protector.”
Susan Duffy (PERSUADER)
Rogue agent, Drug Enforcement Administration
Early 30′s, pale, slim and attractive. Great legs.
“Her voice was low and warm and a little husky.”
M.E. (Mary Ellen) Froelich (WITHOUT FAIL)
Secret Service Agent, charged with protecting the Vice President
Age 35, short fair hair, quiet confidence. Dated Joe Reacher.
“Close up, she looked good. Smelled good. Perfect skin, great eyes, long lashes. Good cheekbones, a small straight nose. She looked lithe and strong. She was attractive, no doubt about it. He wondered what it would be like to hold her, kiss her. Go to bed with her. He pictured Joe wondering the same thing, first time she walked into the office he ran. And he eventually found out. Way to go, Joe.”
Frances L. Neagley (WITHOUT FAIL)
Security consultant, former Army Master Sergeant
Late 30′s, medium height, slim, dark hair and eyes. Great smile. Spends serious gym time. Has a purely platonic relationship with Reacher, she doesn’t like to be touched.
“Beyond expert-qualified on every kind of close-quarters combat you can think of. Scares the hell out of me, certainly.”
Carmen Greer (ECHO BURNING)
Housewife
Age “maybe 30″, short, slim, dark-skinned, fine-boned, “maybe 100 pounds”. Married with one child and an abusive husband.
“Long black wavy hair, dark eyes, small white teeth visible behind a tense half-smile… She looked like some kind of Aztec royalty. She was wearing a simple cotton dress, printed with a pale pattern. Not much to it, but it looked expensive. It was sleeveless and finished above her knees. Her arms and legs were dark and smooth, like they had been polished.”
Alice Amanda Aaron (ECHO BURNING)
Age 25, graduated Harvard Law School, practicing law at a legal mission in Pecos, Texas, as penance for coming from a wealthy family.
She stood up suddenly and walked away. She was wearing denim shorts, and she was taller than he had guessed. Short shorts, long legs. A fine tan.”
Jodie Garber (RUNNING BLIND / THE VISITOR)
See TRIPWIRE, below.
Lisa Harper (RUNNING BLIND / THE VISITOR)
FBI Agent, stationed at Quantico.
Age 29.
“She had long fair hair in a loose ponytail. White teeth in an open, tanned face. Bright blue eyes. She was wearing a man’s suit, extensively tailored to fit. A white shirt and a tie. Small black shoes with low heels. She was over six feet tall, long-limbed, and very slim. And completely spectacular. And she was smiling at him.”
Jodie Garber Jacob (TRIPWIRE)
Age 30. Daughter of General Leon Garber (THE ENEMY), she met and fell in love with Reacher when she was 15 and totally off-limits to Reacher. In TRIPWIRE she’s divorced, using her maiden name and working as a corporate attorney. There’s 15 years of anticipation on both Jodie and Reacher’s parts. What do YOU think happens?
“She was a young woman, maybe 30…very beautiful. Achingly beautiful. Very slim, tall in her heels, long legs in sheer dark nylon. Fine blond hair, long and unstyled, blue eyes, fine bones. She moved delicately across the lawn and stopped at the bottom of the cement steps, like she was waiting for him to come down to her.”
Holly Johnson (DIE TRYING)
Newly inducted FBI Special Agent, former Wall Street stock analyst
Age 27, dark, attractive, self-assured; leg-ligament injury while playing soccer requires use of a cane.
“She felt lithe and athletic. Firm, but soft. Young. Scented. He was drifting away and enjoying the sensation.”
Officer Roscoe (KILLING FLOOR)
Police Officer
Age: about 30, dark hair, not tall, but to call her medium would be unfair given her vitality.
“Her smile was like a welcome blast of sunshine on a rotten afternoon.”