It used to be, the hardcover came out, then about a year later the paperback would, as regular as clockwork, end of story. Nowadays, the hardcover comes out, and the no-cover electronic edition probably comes out at the same time, along with the audiobook, and the poor forgotten paperback is like a little lost puppy that just sort of pops up out of nowhere and licks your cheek and all of a sudden you remember that, oh, yeah, there are puppies.

Lee Child’s The Affair, , a wonderful thriller, just came out in paperback. Once that would have been a major event. Paperback reprints are suffering the most from this new e-book competition. The good news is that this particular book, another entry in Child’s Jack Reacher series, is not set within the Reacher canon’s usual chronology. It doesn’t really matter when you read it, or in what way. The Affair is Reacher’s origin story, which means that if you’re already a fan of the series, you learn a lot about how and why Reacher became the way he is. One of the things I like about the Reacher books is that they usually combine a good mystery with the thriller. There’s a lot of action (and Lee Child is soooo good at action), and there’s an exciting plot. A lot of thrillers just throw a lot of action at you or so many plot twists and turns that after a while you just don’t care anymore. Not Lee Child. You’re with Jack Reacher all the way.

If I had to recommend a starter book for the Reacher series, this would be the one. I assure you that if you do pick this one up first, or any of them for that matter, you won’t stop till you’ve read them all.