Lee Child was a passable British author when he decided to try his luck in the States. It was a fortuitous decision. While the US doesn't lack detective thriller writers, he proved better than most.
Though he early on assumed that American-English and British-English are interchangeable, he has been learning differently. While his expressions are now mainly American, his spelling remains British.
Child's literary creation is hugely popular. Jack Reacher, 6ft 5in tall, is a retired military police major. He hitchhikes to and from East Coast to West Coast, north to south, earning a living as a day labourer.
In cities, towns and hamlets, it's his luck to run into crimes. The vagrant is all too often treated by the local police as the prime suspect, only to be the one who solves the case.
Tom Cruise has been playing Jack Reacher on the big screen, though he's somewhat shorter in size. Otherwise, he does it well. Reacher is immensely strong, usually taking on more than one ruffian at a time.
The son of a US Marine, his brother Joe in military intelligence, our hero has a good head on his shoulders. His perceptions and gut feelings can't be faulted. His relationships with women are short-lived.
Lee Child certainly sells a lot of books. His own works, full length and short stories, are bestsellers. No Middle Name is comprised of 18 Jack Reacher short stories.
Not of equal length, Second Son, at 40 pages, is the longest. Set in 1974, it has the Reacher family stationed in Okinawa. A bit of excitement as Jack's mum has to fly to Paris to visit her dying father.
A top-secret code book is missing and dad, a marine captain, is held responsible. A bully is giving Jack a hard time. And the brothers have to take an IQ examination which will determine their futures.
The other stories have Jack Reacher trying to persuade an FBI turncoat to give himself up. For the rest, he outfights gangs and protects abused women, unless they are the killers.
A historical city
Invading Russia is a mistake, as three would-be conquerors learned in as many centuries -- Charles XII (Sweden) in the 18th century, Napoleon (France) in the 19th century and Hitler (Germany) in the 20th century.
Throughout history, the fate of the losers has been at the whim of the victors. Massacres and selling them into slavery were not uncommon. Then again, they may have been made useful. Which was Peter the Great's choice with the Swedish prisoners-of-war.
He had in mind to clear the swampy area at the western tip of Russia. He told the architects he wanted them to design a city like none other in Europe. Not completed in his lifetime, St Petersburg was named the capital.
The Neva River running through it, with wide avenues and theatres, museums and a fortress, the Romanov dynasty ruled from its palaces. St Petersburg was a tourist attraction. Alexandre Dumas' compliment was that Paris had best look to its laurels. All this and more is in Jonathan Miles' St Petersburg. Catherine the Great enjoyed her guardsmen there, Tsar Paul was assassinated there. Napoleon opted to take Moscow and left half the Grand Army in retreat.
Colonel Romanov (the actual military rank of Tsar Nicholas II) was at the Front when Tsarina Alexandra fell into the clutches of a Siberian monk who, unlike the doctors, was able to help the haemophiliac crown prince. Corrupt, he was assassinated.
The combination of Russia's losses during World War I and the shortage of food led to the forced abdication of the Romanovs in 1917. Followed by Lenin's kicking out of the provisional government, Bolshevism was to last 70 years.
In World War II, the Germans besieged the city (then known as Leningrad) for 900 days. They couldn't take it or starve it out.
The book contains glossy and plain photos, author's notes, a bibliography and index. Essentially, it's a cultural history.
A frequent visitor from the UK, fluent in Russian, Miles informs the reader of his regret that contemporary St Petersburg isn't getting the refurbishing it deserves.
