How Jack Reacher Gave Lee Child Tremendous Freedom as an Author

Jack Reacher lives outside boundaries, but you can’t formulate his character

Open a Jack Reacher novel and you’re going to find him in a variety of places:

None of his locations are expected — and that’s what you learn to expect.

Jack Reacher made it easy (hardly) for author Lee Child who developed an anti-James Bond hero in the late 20th to early 21st centuries.

Reacher doesn’t use the latest technology. Doesn’t own anything except the clothes he wears. Doesn’t live anywhere permanently and while he’s brilliant in deduction and anticipates both criminals and police, he’s an ex-military who works outside the bounds of the law.

Brilliant move by Child.

But don’t try to copy him. Create your own memorable characters and find the freedom they need to live and think independently. Like Michael Connelly did with famed LAPD Detective Harry Bosch.

We’ve developed Detective Tom Stone, his partner Jake Sharpe and Detective Brian Kilbraide quite the opposite of Jack Reacher. Stone is much more on the Harry Bosch side of crime-fighting, yet goes on quite different adventures.

They fight crime with friends and family. They’re part of a community in the neighborhoods around Los Angeles like Burbank, Van Nuys and the Panorama City area.

They live within the bounds of the Los Angeles Police Department and have plenty of personal attachments throughout each of the six novels (five published and one due to be published in late September).

In our sixth novel, Detective Brian Kilbraide is taken out of the LAPD and compelled by a government Black…

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