Persuader (novel)

Jack Reacher is working unofficially with the Drug Enforcement Administration to bring down Zachary Beck, suspected of smuggling drugs under the pretext of trading in rugs, and safely retrieve an undercover DEA agent. They stage a kidnapping of Zachary's son, Richard, and have Reacher "rescue" the boy from the kidnappers to gain the confidence of the family and lead him to their residence. After being rescued, a frightened Richard places his trust in Reacher and asks him to take him back home.

Reacher gains access to Beck and gradually gains his confidence by working as a hired gun and bodyguard. While working undercover he has to eliminate a few of Beck's minions to prevent them from exposing him. The DEA, on finding that they were mistaken about the nature of the business Zachary was involved in (it is gun-running, not drugs), tries to pull Reacher out.

Reacher refuses to step back as his primary motivation in getting involved at all in this off-the-books operation is to have another go at Francis Xavier Quinn, a former Military Intelligence agent who, ten years before, had brutally mutilated and murdered Reacher's colleague Dominique Kohl. Reacher had assumed he had killed Quinn at their last encounter but found that to be incorrect after running into Quinn in public. It is ten years later and Quinn is Zachary Beck's boss in a lucrative international gun-running enterprise. It is revealed that Zachary was forced into working for Quinn and his family was tormented by bodyguards appointed by Quinn.

Despite a number of cliff-hanging set-backs, Reacher manages to free the undercover DEA agent and finally eliminate Quinn.

• Dominique Kohl, 29, was a Sergeant First Class on the way up and assigned to Reacher's unit when he was a Captain in the Army. She appears in Persuader, where Reacher remembers the events that led to her death ten years earlier. Kohl is mentioned again in Personal, when Reacher partners with a woman who reminds him of Kohl.
• Susan Duffy is a DEA agent in Persuader. She is Reacher's accomplice throughout the novel and they have a brief relationship.

Leslie Doran of The Denver Post said that the novel had a "gripping and suspenseful opening" and that "for returning Reacher fans...beginning scenes will cause extra suspense".[2] Patrick Anderson of The Washington Post described it as "a skillful blend of sex, violence, sadism, weaponry, spies, smuggling, revenge, deception, suspense and nonstop action", though he also notes that the novel has "several premises that are hard to swallow".[3] After a short description of how quickly he read through the earlier books in the series after reading Persuader, Dale Jones of The Gazette simply stated "You might say I liked it".[4]

• Persuader information page on Lee Child's official website.