Copyright 2022 by David Benjamin. Published by Last Kid Books, Madison WI.

First, the usual disclaimer: David Benjamin is one of my best friends. But he is also a very talented author. I enjoy his books very much.

Benjamin’s work can’t be pigeon-holed. He can write romance, mystery and historical fiction. Choose Moose is a political novel. About a school board in Blackhawk WI. I can’t imagine a political novel smaller than that – a school board in a small town. But the unlikely protagonist is Henry Haddock, an 11-year-old sixth grader who becomes agitated when some popular teachers and programs – including art, Henry’s favorite class – are cut due to a budget crunch. He starts attending school board meetings and tries to ask some questions but is ignored by the school board’s chairman, the imperious “Scooter” McDuff. But Henry persists and learns about school committee procedures and meetings. He finds evidence that the school board has violated the state’s Open Meeting law, gets the local paper involved and general becomes a thorn in the side of McDuff.

He then starts to learn the importance of money in politics. In the case of Blackhawk, the town’s most prominent (i.e. richest) citizen, Paul Lamartine, is a staunch backer of both McDuff and the “Thundering Three Hundred,” Blackhawk’s famous marching band. Why was the band not cut along with the teachers? Because Lamartine’s daughter is in the band, of course.

This all seems wildly unfair to Henry. After his attempt to get three members of the school board recalled is thwarted he organizes opposition to those three in the next general election, enlisting, as candidates, former Town Attorney Charlie Mulcahy, a flamboyant gay man and a just-turned-18 high school sports star, “Moose” Fulton. These three become the “reform” candidates.

The local election of a small town’s school board is not, in global terms, important. But the vivid characters make this a very enjoyable tale of small town politics. I never lost interest.

7 out of 10.

Copyright 2022 by Lee Child and Andrew Child. Published by Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House, New York.

Andrew Child (born Andrew Grant) is the younger brother of Lee Child and is reportedly being groomed by Lee Child to take over the Jack Reacher franchise. This is the second book (of 3) resulting from this new collaboration and the 27th book in the Reacher series.

I usually avoid collaboration books. They are almost always the product of the lesser author with the more famous one providing his name to boost sales. In this case the “lesser author,” Andrew, is a successful author in his own right. But every author has his own style so the question is: how does collaboration change the series? In this case the style remains more-or-less intact. But not quite the same. And not quite as good. I normally can’t put down a Reacher book. I could put this one down. It seemed disjointed. Perhaps it was due to the collaboration. Or perhaps it was due to the plot.

This book is four separate stories that come together in the end. But only at the very end. The main story line has Reacher in Gerrardsville CO, to visit a museum. But he witnesses a murder – a woman being shoved in front of a bus. No one else saw the shove. He not only saw the shove but saw the shover steal the woman’s purse. He followed the murderer, confronted him in an alley, whipped his ass and was going through the purse when reinforcements arrived. Reacher never loses a battle, even when greatly outnumbered, but in this case a fire escape fell on him and he was knocked unconscious. When he regains consciousness the murderer and his accomplices have disappeared and so has the purse. But Reacher had seen enough in the purse – most importantly a note referencing a meeting to occur on the Friday following – that he resolved to figure out what was going on. And why the woman was murdered.

The second story involves the management of a for-profit prison corporation. It is clear that they are up to no good. And are concerned about Reacher sticking his nose into their business. They are determined to stop Reacher from attending the meeting. But it is unclear what they are up to or why Reacher poses a threat to them.

The third story is a 16-year-old orphan and runaway who is on a journey from L.A. to find his birth father. How does this relate to the Reacher plots? It is revealed with about 50 pages left in the book.

The fourth story is that of two men – an arsonist/assassin and his sidekick – who are on a vendetta to track down the people responsible for his son’s death on a ship off the North Carolina coast. How does this story connect to the others? It becomes clear only in the final two chapters.

The four stories are interwoven like a deck of cards being shuffled. I felt whiplashed, going from a runaway to an assassin to a prison management meeting. Keeping track of the varied characters was a challenge.

The body count in this book is relatively low for a Reacher book – about 10. The usual larger-than-life Reacher heroics (and vigilantism) are present and the plot is deep and twisted, as always. But it all seems a bit disjointed.

7 out of 10.

Copyright 2021 by David Baldacci, Published by Grand Central Publishing Co, New York.

#3 of 4 books by Baldacci featuring FBI agent Atlee Pine. John Puller – one of Baldacci’s biggest heroes – is also featured.

This is a book with two interwoven and interrelated plots – Atlee’s search for her twin sister who was violently abducted 30 years before and a mystery involving a fake cop, a young black man who was set up to take a murder rap and, eventually, blackmail involving powerful people. The nexus between Pine and Puller is a combination of the two – Pine thinks a drug dealer (or, more accurately, the drug dealer’s father) is involved in her sister’s abduction and Puller thinks that same drug dealer is involved in the big mystery. They team up. The book ends with resolution of the mystery but only a partial resolution of what happened to Pine’s missing sister.

The intertwined plotlines were often confusing. And keeping track of characters was sometimes daunting. The plots bordered on the absurd.

Not very satisfying. 5 out of 10. Probably the worse Baldacci book I have read.