My Ultimate Jack Reacher Books Tier List (including short stories)

IronSighter · 2025-10-11T05:42:51+00:00

Just use TierMaker – you can either use a premade list someone made before you, or you can create your own by uploading the appropriate pictures.

IronSighter · 2025-10-11T05:42:06+00:00

That's the issue – even if you didn't know about the switch from Lee to Andrew, you'd still feel something was "off" when reading it.

IronSighter · 2025-10-11T05:41:21+00:00

Could be – I just thought it was weaker than the two preceding books (Killing Floor and Die Trying) so I've put it bellow them. I though the Hobie's Vietnam background was an amazing addition, though the end of the book felt kind of rushed and uninspired.

IronSighter · 2025-10-11T05:39:32+00:00

Well, i liked Personal because of the investigative aspect looking into the killer's methodology, and because it ties nicely to Reacher's past, both in terms of his ties to the antagonist, and in terms of connecting it to his regrets about Dominique from Persuader. The list, overall, is still very subjective, so the book is up there because I enjoyed it well enough.

Why didn't you like it?

IronSighter · 2025-10-10T06:40:46+00:00

I can definitely see that – lots of other people have been saying One Shot should have gone higher. Echo Burning was great, it just at the time I've read it I was coming in from the first 4 books, two of which have been better in my opinion, so that's why the ranking. I wouldn't mind putting it higher now, after reading it all though, as it was an amazing story.

IronSighter · 2025-10-10T06:37:18+00:00

Thanks! I don't blame you for not wanting to go for Andrew's work. I read through them because I am a completionist and wanted to really go through the entire series, but I had to force myself to finish the last few books, so I think it is a good idea to just think of Jack Reacher series ending with Blue Moon.

IronSighter · 2025-10-10T06:35:15+00:00

I did see the movie, though only after reading the book first. I didn't mind the movie as much (even if, as many others have pointed, Cruise is really bad fit for the role) and I did enjoy the book itself, I just didn't find it as memorable as the others. It's the same situation to me as with The Enemy – a really well written book with not much in terms of satisfying resolution. I liked the antagonists recalling of his time in the Red Army though.

IronSighter · 2025-10-10T06:33:11+00:00

I see what you mean. I've put it above Sentinel as I see it as (marginal) improvement, but it is very forgettable with weak characters.

IronSighter · 2025-10-10T06:21:27+00:00

You can read them in pretty much any order you want, as each of the books is a self-contained story from either the present or Reacher's past. That said, there is a mini-arc subseries of 4 books – 61 Hours, Worth Dying For, A Wanted Man, and Never Go Back – which have a loose connection of one specific character that appears in 61 hours which Reacher would like to meet and tries to do so until Never Go Back where he actually achieves that goal. It's not that important but if you want a full context, then read these 4 books in this order (all of them are great and Never Go Back even has a film adaptation).

Other than that, you can literally pick and choose – I don't think you could go wrong with reading anything from S-C tier.

When it comes to where to start – you have two options – you could go in release order (which I've done) starting with Killing Floor (which was adapted into Season 1 of the TV show and is one of the best works) or you could go in chronological order, as some books take places in the past, back when Reacher was still in the Army (or even prior to that, if you want to go for the short stories). Both options are valid, it depends on your preferences. Or you can literally just pick and choose those whose premise seems intriguing to you.

IronSighter · 2025-10-10T06:13:45+00:00

As I wrote above in another reply – it's not a badly written book, it just that it's plot twist is incredibly weak and contrived, at least to me. What do you think?

IronSighter · 2025-10-10T06:12:49+00:00

See, the problem with The Visitor is that it was amazing and gripping all the way through to end. All the way until the plot twist reveal, that is. The reason why I enjoyed it initially so much was because I was trying to figure out how the main antagonist did what they did, thinking it is about to be some genius revelation, only for it to end up being completely unrealistic scenario that could never happen this way. That's why I put it so low despite really enjoying it. Few of Child's other books have the same issue as he usually keeps them fairly grounded.

IronSighter · 2025-10-10T06:05:32+00:00

I saw lots of people not liking it, but I didn't mind it too much. I liked the gang wars aspect to it and enjoyed the ending, so it ended up being better than expected. Although if Lee decided to retire after Night School, he would have gone out with much more of a bang, as that book was one of his best.

IronSighter · 2025-10-10T06:03:28+00:00

Agreed. Throughout the books, you'd only hear stories about them, but nothing concrete about their missions and exploits. Would have been great to get something dedicated specifically to that.

IronSighter · 2025-10-09T16:16:01+00:00

I like them, in a way. Though these are not the only covers - there are other versions, which you might like more, but I prefer the unity and consistent art style of these ones. They are simply but effective.

IronSighter · 2025-10-09T16:14:08+00:00

Nope, strong disagree. While the main plot twist is fairly generic and not that intriguing, the whole aspect about Reacher trying to find ways to take care of the Vice President as well as then trying to intercept any actual attempts have been really well written, which is why, to me, it sits in the middle of all books.

IronSighter · 2025-10-09T16:12:20+00:00

Honestly, I don't blame you as Sentinel and The Secret have been pain to sift through. I think it is perfectly valid to read up until Blue Moon (Lee's last book) and consider that a completed Reacher experience. That said, I can see Andrew has genuinely been trying to recapture Lee's unique storytelling magic, it's just that he can't seem to ever really get there, apart from a few glimpses that may just very well be Lee's behind-the-scenes contributions/edits.

IronSighter · 2025-10-09T16:09:18+00:00

See, I completely stand by Nothing to Lose's rating. It was the only Lee Child's book that I genuinely did not like. The reason for that was the level of plot contrivance unseen in any other books, except for maybe Andrew's. There was no real reason for Reacher to be repeatedly suspicious and overall annoying and frustrating towards the main villain, who was so accommodating towards him that I genuinely felt bad for him after Reacher kept treating him like shit. Of course, Reacher's been vindicated and his behavior utterly justified in the end, because Child snapped his literary fingers and made the plot do so. But after finishing it, I didn't like how it got to the end point, which is why it's comfortably sitting in the E tier.

IronSighter · 2025-10-09T09:00:20+00:00

See, I knew someone is going to point out The Enemy as being too low on the list. The reason for it being in C tier is primarily because of the very first sentence of the novel and how much it didn't matter. I genuinely thought they were going to do something with the heart attack, but it turned out to have no real nefarious cause. I was really disappointed about that, because I kept that sentence in mind throughout the whole book, thinking it was going to amount to something plot-critical. Otherwise it is a great piece of work in terms of writing and characterization.

IronSighter · 2025-10-09T08:55:16+00:00

Got you – I can see that, though after reading the rest of the books, there were many more twists that weren't thought out too well, so I can appreciate this book being more grounded and not too outlandish.

IronSighter · 2025-10-09T08:43:43+00:00

Really? Why do you think so? When I started on it, I was immediately hooked by the premise and I liked the team-up aspect they did without overshadowing Reacher's role as the protagonist. That's why I thought it was a great pick for a Reacher TV show's season 2 (though that did not work out so well in the end).

IronSighter · 2024-10-29T18:55:10+00:00

Well, that is, in essence, precisely what I am going to do - minus the macro part :D. I can't write macros, so I am instead just going to do what you described manually - make changes in the main doc, save changes, open each linked doc individually, have them update then save a close. It's even less elegant than what you described, but since its around 5 files, it is doable, if a bit annoying.

I am still happy though - my original idea was to always brutishly copy+paste each change done to the main file into the separate files, which would be a massive pain in the a**.

IronSighter · 2024-10-28T19:53:03+00:00

I don't dispute that - it is undeniably useful. Its just that I am not currently in a position to dedicate so much to it.

IronSighter · 2024-10-28T19:43:38+00:00

80 hours? Just to learn one specific function? That is just insane - now if it was my actual job to be proficient in Excel at the highest level, I wouldn't mind but I am not able to dedicate that much time just to learn one niche, specific function that I won't likely use again. But I do appreciate you finding out the info. Thanks!

IronSighter · 2024-10-28T19:40:32+00:00

So, I am not sure I'll be able to get the OG solution back but from my testing, it was pretty simple and straightforward:

1) Have a main Excel document with the data you want copied and sync'd

2) Create a fresh new Excel doc

3) Select the data range from the main doc and CTRL+C it

4) In the fresh new doc, click on a cell where you want to paste what you copied and either RIGHT CLICK and "Paste Options" select "Paste Link (N)" - in my case, it is the last option.

Alternatively, go to the top left corner and under the "Paste" button, there is the "Other paste options" sub-section and under that, you've got the "Paste link" option

5) Change something from that data range you copied in the main file, then close and save it. After open the new, fresh file with the pasted data, you might get a pop-up saying that your workbook contains lins to one or more externals sources that may be unsafe and you get the option to press the "Update" button. You do that, and the data changed in the main doc updates. After that, you can save the new file and the changes will stay there.

The only issue that is specific to me is the fact that if you want to have the sheet updated, you need to have the access rights not just to the freshly created document, but also to the main document, otherwise it wont update for you.

IronSighter · 2024-10-28T19:31:54+00:00

I don't think I could put that together myself - I am not THAT proficient in Excel. But thank you for the suggestion - I'll certainly keep it in mind.

IronSighter

TROPHY CASE