Books like Jack Reacher
Looking for a book like Jack Reacher?
Try Terminal Rage by A.M. Khalifa. If you like Lee Child’s Reacher novels, or the Reacher TV series, for a capable man with a past who walks into trouble and refuses to walk away, Alexander Blackwell is your next hero.
What they share
A man who stepped away
Reacher drifts from town to town with no fixed address. Blackwell has left the FBI and is hiding from his past on a tiny Caribbean island when the helicopter comes for him.
Pulled into someone else’s fight
Reacher never goes looking for trouble. Blackwell doesn’t either: a stranger seizes a Manhattan office tower and will talk to no one else.
Working it out under pressure
Reacher’s best moments are deductions. Blackwell has to work out who the hostage-taker really is, and why he asked for him by name, before the deadline runs out.
Where they differ
Listen rather than read? Like the recent Reacher audiobooks, Terminal Rage is narrated by Scott Brick. More on the audiobook.
Reacher settles things with his fists. Blackwell is a negotiator, so the fight is first a battle of nerves and words, before the story breaks out of the tower and across New York, Los Angeles, Sydney, Cairo, Rome, Naples and Anguilla.
A.M. Khalifa is an Egyptian writer based in Rome, raised in a diplomatic corps family across more than fifteen countries, and the only Egyptian writing commercial espionage fiction in English. More on that.
Terminal Rage received a starred review from Booklist, has sold more than 500,000 copies, and is narrated on audio by Scott Brick. It contains violence and sexual content, and is meant for adult readers.
More books like Jack Reacher
- Terminal Rage by A.M. Khalifa: a retired FBI negotiator, a Manhattan tower and a stranger who will only talk to him.
- Orphan X by Gregg Hurwitz: a former government assassin who now helps people in trouble.
- Zero Day by David Baldacci: the first John Puller novel, about an army criminal investigator.
- Rain Fall by Barry Eisler: the first John Rain novel, about a half-Japanese, half-American assassin in Tokyo.
Questions
What books are like Jack Reacher?
Terminal Rage by A.M. Khalifa is a good pick: a man with a past, pulled into a crisis he can’t walk away from. Readers of Lee Child also enjoy Gregg Hurwitz’s Orphan X, David Baldacci’s John Puller novels and Barry Eisler’s John Rain books.
Is there a thriller like Reacher narrated by Scott Brick?
Yes. Terminal Rage by A.M. Khalifa is narrated by Scott Brick, who also reads the recent Reacher novels by Lee Child and Andrew Child. It follows a retired FBI hostage negotiator pulled back in when a stranger seizes a Manhattan office tower, unabridged and about 10.5 hours long.
Is Terminal Rage like Jack Reacher?
In spirit: a lone, capable hero and a crisis that keeps escalating. Its hero is a former FBI hostage negotiator, and the story is an international espionage thriller.
Is Terminal Rage part of a series?
Yes. It is the first book in the series. The second, Terminal Deception, is coming soon.