no middle name

I just borrowed No Middle Name: The Complete Collected Jack Reacher Short Stories from my wife, who hadn't read it yet. She picked it up recently in paperback and I was looking for something to read. I've read a bunch of the Reacher Stories, but not in order, and I certainly haven't read all of them. I didn't know what this one was about--I don't usually read book jackets and back covers--so I was on my third story before realizing that this wasn't a novel and I was reading a series of unrelated short stories. I remember thinking, we're really jumping around in time, and I'm not sure how these things are even related

The way I've noted the title with its sub-title above, its a little easier to see. The sub-title on the book cover is a little small, as you can see in the image to the left. If the size of the text on the cover is any indicator, and I assume it is, Lee Child is what is selling the book, Jack Reacher is next in line, and the book's title is third, almost an afterthought down there at the bottom. And the sub-title? Well, you're going to need to dig for that, its not even as important as the best seller list crap. Its even written in that too-narrow-to-read, Surgeon General's Warning font. warning, the information contained here is not really meant to be read

The stories range from novella size to a few pages that read more like a slice-of-life; just Reacher being a good guy. Some of the stories fill in some of his early life, and other slot in between his larger adventures, and I'm not sure the timing, or where they fit in is even important. I get the feeling that Lee Child may have an idea, and if he can't spin it up into a novel, he doesn't just give up on it, he writes it through to see where it goes. Sometimes its 500 pages, and other times its 50. or 10.

So, as I said to my wife when she asked me about it, it wasn't what I was expecting. Is the publisher really trying to hide the fact that this is a collection of short stories and not the next Reacher novel? I'm not sure, but I can tell you that my wife is the one who bought this, and after reading a few of the stories, she wasn't sure when they were going to get tied up into the same story either. score two for the publisher But this book is better than the last one.

My recommendation is clear, you should read this if you're a Jack Reacher fan.