Jack Reacher is a series of novels, novellas and short stories by British author Jim Grant under the pen name Lee Child. The book series chronicles the adventures of Jack Reacher, a former major in the United States Army Military Police Corps now a drifter, roaming the United States taking odd jobs and investigating suspicious and frequently dangerous situations, some of which are of a personal nature. The Reacher series has maintained a schedule of one book per year, except for 2010, when two installments were published. As of November 2025, the series includes 30 books and a short story collection.
The settings for many of the novels are in the United States of America, ranging from major metropolitan areas like New York City, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., to small rural towns in the Midwestern United States and Southern United States. Reacher's travels outside the United States include rural England (The Hard Way, Maybe They Have a Tradition), London (Personal), Hamburg (Night School), and Paris (The Enemy and Personal).
Some of the novels have been adapted for the screen; the character was portrayed by Tom Cruise in a 2012 film (One Shot) and a 2016 sequel (Never Go Back), as well as Alan Ritchson in a streaming television series (from Killing Floor, Bad Luck and Trouble, Persuader, Gone Tomorrow, Make Me), which premiered on Amazon Prime Video in 2022.
Novel series Series no. Chrono. order Title ISBN Date of publication POV Summary 1 5 Killing Floor March 1997 1st Jack Reacher gets off a Greyhound bus in the fictional town of Margrave, Georgia, because he remembers that a blues musician named Blind Blake was interred there. Shortly after his arrival he is arrested in a local diner for murder. As he fights to prove his innocence Reacher learns the unidentified murder victim is his brother Joe, a Federal Government Agent working a case.
Though the first published novel, it is the fifth one in terms of the in-story chronology."Publication Order of Jack Reacher Books". Book Series in Order. Retrieved 3 January 2017.
This novel was adapted for the first season of the 2022 series, Reacher, starring Alan Ritchson in the titular role. 2 6 Die Trying July 1998 3rd Just as Reacher helps Holly Johnson, an attractive young woman struggling with her crutches on a Chicago street, they are both kidnapped at gunpoint. Reacher and the woman are thrown into a dark van and taken 2,000 miles across the United States, completely unaware why they were kidnapped and where they are going. Finding themselves trapped in a seemingly remote place, they must work together to find the answers. 3 7 Tripwire July 1999 3rd Reacher is in Key West, digging pools by hand and moonlighting as a bouncer for a topless bar. He discovers the body of a New York investigator hired by "Mrs. Jacob" to find him. He finds out that she is attorney Jodie Garber, daughter of General Leon Garber, Reacher's recently deceased mentor and surrogate father in the Army. She wants his help investigating her father's last project, a search on behalf of the elderly parents of their military MIA son. Having inherited a house and gained a steady girlfriend, Reacher contemplates a sedentary life as he and Jodie find themselves hunted by a psychopath businessman and military criminal crippled in the Vietnam War, who has a shadowy business and other secrets to protect. 4 8 The Visitor (UK)Running Blind (US) April 2000 2nd / 3rd Two women are found dead in their own homes—in baths filled with Army-issue camouflage paint, their bodies completely unmarked. Jack Reacher knew them, and he knows that they both left the Army under dubious circumstances, both victims of sexual harassment. Reacher is under suspicion and arrested. As a former US military policeman, a loner and a drifter, he matches the psychological criminal profile prepared by FBI Special Agent Julia Lamarr. When another woman is killed the same way while Reacher is under surveillance, he is released but pressured into helping the murder investigation. He has to find out what they have in common and why someone would kill more. 5 9 Echo Burning April 2001 3rd Reacher hitches a ride in Texas. Carmen, the driver, is a mother of a young girl and is trapped in an abusive marriage. She requests Reacher's help. After some deliberation Reacher consents. However, at her remote ranch in Echo County Reacher encounters lies, prejudice and hatred climaxing in Carmen being arrested for the murder of her husband. With Carmen's true motives cast into doubt, Reacher finds himself investigating the truth. 6 10 Without Fail April 2002 3rd Reacher arrives in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and is intercepted by Mary Ellen (M. E.) Froelich, a beautiful Secret Service agent. She has a special request: that Reacher tell her the various ways, were he an actual assassin, in which he could kill the vice-president; being made aware of any such methods would help her considerably in tightening her security detail in order to protect the Vice-president's life. He accepts the challenge, enlisting old colleague Frances Neagley to help carry out the mission. Suspicious and threatening letters have been sent to the vice-president and intercepted by his protective team. Together, they attempt to find those responsible. 7 11 Persuader April 2003 1st Walking along the street, Reacher sees Francis Xavier Quinn, a man who should be dead, as he was responsible for the murder of two of Reacher's colleagues ten years ago. Now a chance encounter outside Boston's Symphony Hall shows Reacher that Quinn got away with murder. Reacher teams up with the DEA to penetrate a smuggling ring to get back at Quinn.
This novel was adapted for the third season of the 2022 series, Reacher. 8 1 The Enemy April 2004 1st On New Year's Day, 1990, in a North Carolina motel, a two-star general is found dead, suspected to have suffered a heart attack while engaging in coitus with a prostitute. Within minutes, Reacher is ordered to contain the situation to prevent embarrassment to the US Army. But matters escalate when Reacher discovers the general's briefcase is missing and is tasked with recovering an important agenda that it had contained. This is the first novel chronologically. 9 12 One Shot April 2005 3rd In an innocent heartland city, five murders are committed by an expert sniper. The police quickly identify and arrest a suspect, James Barr, and build a slam-dunk case with iron-clad evidence. But the accused man claims he's innocent and says, "Get Jack Reacher." Reacher himself sees the news report and turns up in the city. Barr's defense attorney is relieved, but Reacher has come to bury Barr. Shocked by the request of the accused, Reacher sets out to confirm for himself the absolute certainty of the man's guilt, but comes up with more than he bargained for.
This novel was adapted for the screen in 2012 as Jack Reacher, with Tom Cruise in the title role. In the Reacher TV series continuity, the events of One Shot are implied to have occurred between seasons 1 and 2. 10 13 The Hard Way May 2006 3rd After witnessing an exchange of $1,000,000. Jack Reacher is hired by the underhanded director of a private military company to rescue his wife and stepchild, who appear to have been kidnapped. Reacher, enlisting the help of an ex-FBI private investigator, uncovers clues that might lead to a rescue, learning about the director's mysterious past in the process. The investigation leads him to the truth, and ultimately engage in a gun battle on a farm in Norfolk, England. The novel is set primarily in New York City. 11 14 Bad Luck and Trouble April 2007 3rd When someone makes a small anonymous deposit into Reacher's bank account, it triggers his fixation for maths and his investigative instincts. Reacher deduces that the deposit is a signal only the eight former members of his elite team of army investigators would use. Obsessed with math like Reacher, Frances Neagley locates him because of the brutal death of one of their own. They race to reunite with the survivors of their old team and raise the living, bury the dead, and connect the dots in a mystery that grows more complex with more murders. With the lives of those Reacher considers family at stake, his usual emotionless demeanor breaks and he says of the killers, "They are dead men walking." The team falls into their old roles and routines with ease, their motto still their sacred rule: You do not mess with the Special Investigators.
This novel was adapted for the second season of the 2022 series, Reacher. 12 15 Nothing to Lose March 2008 3rd Traveling from the town of Hope, Colorado to the neighboring town of Despair, Reacher finds that he is an unwelcome visitor, which fuels his curiosity. Reacher decides to investigate the mystery behind the town's unwelcoming disposition towards visitors, unraveling in the process the secrets of Thurman, a powerful businessman who has employed the majority of the population of Despair to work in his recycling factory. 13 16 Gone Tomorrow April 2009 1st During a late night subway ride with four other passengers, Reacher becomes troubled by one of his fellow passengers. Checking against his mental list for suicide bombers, he comes to the conclusion that the fourth is one. He is puzzled with her choice of timing and place, as it is not crowded; on the contrary the subway was exceedingly empty. He reasons with her, but she shoots herself; thereby proving Reacher wrong when he concluded she was a bomber. His determination to discover why she killed herself forms the plot of the story.
This novel was adapted for the fourth season of the 2022 series, Reacher. 14 17 61 Hours March 2010 3rd In South Dakota, a tourist bus crashes during a savage snow storm with Jack Reacher in it. Reacher gets caught up in a hunt for a murderer and the protection of a key witness. 15 18 Worth Dying For September 2010 3rd Reacher arrives late one night in a rural Nebraska town. In the town's fading motel bar he overhears a drunk doctor's refusal to attend a victim of domestic abuse. Reacher intervenes, getting the doctor to attend to the victim while breaking the nose of the husband responsible for the abuse. It turns out that the husband is the scion of the powerful and rich Duncan clan, which maintains authority in that part of Nebraska. Reacher's intervention causes him to end up embroiled in a smuggling ring and an unsolved disappearance from twenty-five years prior. 16 4 The Affair 27 September 2011 1st March 1997. Six months before the events of Killing Floor. Jack Reacher is still in the army, and there is big trouble in a small town in Mississippi, where a soldier's girlfriend is found with her throat cut from ear to ear. Reacher must determine whether the killer is local, or from nearby Fort Kelham, a large base used by elite Army Rangers. Reacher's orders are to go undercover, keep his distance, and monitor the investigation. The army's official investigation and Reacher's undercover search point to different suspects, which puts pressure on Reacher, who must decide whether to speak out.