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Q. I think my friend would like the Reacher series by Lee Child. The first one I read was my favorite, but I can’t remember the title. I do remember the story began with Jack Reacher having coffee at a sidewalk café in New York City. Is that enough information to find the right book?
A. Lee Child’s thrillers are very popular. He seems to have written at least one a year since 2002. We have 23 books in the series now. In addition to the regular editions, we have large type editions, audiobooks, eBooks and downloadable audiobooks.
I consulted our online catalog for an answer to this question. It searches the same database in one of two modes.
The “classic catalog” lets you narrow your search by author, title, subject or series. It works like the physical-card catalog we used until 1994, when we moved from the Hutchison Street library into our current Hopkins Street building. When you know an exact title or author, the classic online catalog can still provide the most efficient access.
This time there was a fishing trip aspect to our search, so I used the new version of the catalog. I think of it as a Google-type search except Google is more tolerant of misspelled words. For this question, I searched the catalog with these terms: New York Reacher.
This search brought up nine books. I knew the patron had been reading Lee Child’s series a long time so I opted to sort the list by date. The newest book was on the top of the list. It made sense to start at the bottom.
We clicked on “Hard Way,” the oldest book on the list. When we selected the Review option, we found three reviews. Bingo! The third reviewer mentioned the sidewalk café scene.
These books can be addictive. Here are quotes from the scene our reader remembered in which the former 6-foot, 5-inch major in the Army’s military police is sitting in a sidewalk café.
“Jack Reacher ordered espresso, double, no peel, no cube, foam cup, no china, and before it arrived at his table he saw a man's life change forever.
“Not that the waiter was slow. Just that the move was slick. So slick, Reacher had no idea what he was watching...
“He liked to sit outside in the summer, in New York City. Especially at night. He liked the electric darkness and the hot dirty air and the blasts of noise and traffic and the manic barking sirens and the crush of people. It helped a lonely man feel connected and isolated both at the same time.
“He paid for his coffee as soon as it arrived and left his change on the table. That way he could leave exactly when he wanted to without insulting the waiter or bilking the owner or stealing the china.
“Reacher always arranged the smallest details in his life so he could move on at a split second's notice. It was an obsessive habit. He owned nothing and carried nothing. Physically he was a big man, but he cast a small shadow and left very little in his wake.”
Lee Child fans take note--“Past Tense” came out a few months ago. Give us a call at 512-393-8213 if you’d like us to place a reserve for you.
