I’m excited to welcome you today to my stop on the blog tour for authorised biography The Reacher Guy by Heather Martin. Thank you to Anne Cater and Little Brown for giving me the opportunity to read and review this outstanding book.
About the book:
Lee Child is the enigmatic powerhouse behind the phenomenally successful Jack Reacher novels. With devoted fans across the globe, and over a hundred million copies of his books sold in more than forty languages, he is that rarity, a writer who is both critically acclaimed and adored by readers. And yet curiously little has been written about the man himself.
The Reacher Guy shows us for the first time the young man behind the invention of Jack Reacher. Through parallels drawn between Child and his literary creation, it tells the story of how a lost and lonely boy from Birmingham with a ferocious appetite for reading grew up to become a high-flying TV executive, before coming full circle and establishing himself as an internationally bestselling author.
Heather Martin explores Child’s lifelong fascination with America – and shows how the Reacher novels fed and fuelled this obsession. Drawing on exclusive correspondence and conversations with Child over a number of years, she forensically pieces together his life, from Northern Ireland and County Durham to New York and Hollywood. This is the definitive account of the man behind one of the most iconic series of our times.
About the author:
Heather Martin (author photo; Brian Aris) was born in West Australia. She grew up in Aix-en-Provence, Paris, and Perth, where she would fall asleep to the sound of the Indian Ocean. She left Australia for England to become a classical guitarist but found herself singing with a Venezuelan folk group and learning to speak Spanish instead. She read Languages at Cambridge, where she also did a PhD in comparative literature, and has held teaching and research positions at Cambridge, Hull, King’s College London, and most recently, the Graduate Center, City University New York. Heather is a long-time Reacher fan. While waiting to get her hands on the next in the series, she once read a Lee Child book in Spanish and wound up writing to the author about the fate of his character in translation. ‘The Reacher Guy’ is her first biography.
Lee Child comments: “I met Heather Martin some years ago, and we started talking about why people love telling and hearing stories. To get more depth and detail we started talking about why I do. Eventually I said, ‘If you want to really get to the bottom of it, you’re going to have to write my biography.’ So she did. It was a fun and illuminating process. I had forgotten a lot, and it was fascinating to be reminded. Now it all makes sense.”
My Review:
The Reacher Guy by Heather Martin is the fascinating biography of critically acclaimed author and Jack Reacher creator Lee Child. It is a well researched and rare insight into the man behind the words. It tells the story of a lost and lonely voracious reader from Birmingham who grew up to be a high flying TV executive, before coming full circle and reinventing himself as an internationally best selling author.
The Reacher Guy is the story of Lee Child, who began life as James ’Jim’ Dover Grant. Jim grew up in Birmingham before moving to Sheffield during his student days. Carving a life out for himself as a successful TV executive, Jim then changed direction and became Lee Child, a critically acclaimed and much loved author.
Heather Martin has done a fabulous job of bringing the story of this interesting man to life, a man whose own life is every bit as interesting as the character he created.
This is a biography unlike any I’ve ever read before, reading almost like fiction at times even though I know it isn’t. The author has somehow managed to get inside Lee Child’s head, building a picture of a multilayered man who has led a rich and varied life that is as fascinating as any story he could write.
I loved The Reacher Guy. Although a long book it kept me thoroughly entertained from beginning to end. Well researched and beautifully written, we really do get to look behind the curtain at one of our most prolific and well loved authors.
Perfect for any fan of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series, this is an outstanding biography and one that once started I did not want to put down. The Reacher Guy is a richly detailed and engaging read that I would highly recommend.
Simply superb!
The Reacher Guy by Heather Child is available to purchase now:
Check out what these other wonderful bloggers have to say about this book:
Cal Turner Reviews 
Thanks for the blog tour support x
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