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The Secret cover art

The Secret

By: Lee Child,Andrew Child
Narrated by: Jeff Harding
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Publisher's Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

Chicago. 1992. A hospital patient wakes to find two strangers by his bed.

They show him a list of names and ask a simple but impossible question. Minutes later he falls to his death from his twelfth-floor window - a fall which generates some unexpected attention.

That attention comes from the Secretary of Defense, who calls for an inter-agency task force to investigate. Jack Reacher, recently demoted from Major, is assigned as the Army's representative. If he gets a result, great. If not, he's a convenient fall guy.

Reacher may be an exceptional military investigator, but office politics aren't what gets him up in the morning. As he races to identify a cold-blooded killer and uncover a secret that stretches back 23 years, he must navigate around his new partners.

Will Reacher bring the bad guys to justice the official way...or his way?

Although the Jack Reacher novels can be listened to in any order, The Secret is the 28th book in the internationally bestselling series.

©2023 Lee Child and Andrew Child (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Critic Reviews

'There's only one Jack Reacher. Accept no substitutes.' MICK HERRON

'Jack Reacher is today's James Bond, a thriller hero we can't get enough of.' KEN FOLLETT

What listeners say about The Secret

Average Customer Ratings
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

I really wasn’t I love with this Reacher novel

Liked the story line a bit drawn out for me not as exciting as past reacher novels

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Top Book

I really enjoyed listen to this audio book
great twists and turns right up to the end of the book.

Awesome job from Lee and Andrew Child

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

convoluted plot so many characters

A couple of chics with attitude and fighting skills are out trying to find the mastermind behind their dads death. 7 of the eight scientists are killed by these chics and Reacher is trying to stop them. I am not saying don't read this book, its just that it is not up to Lee Child's standard. As usual Jeff Harding's performance is flawless and saves the book somewhat.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Always exciting !

Never a dull moment .... well written, fast paced and well read too. Looking forward to the next one ...

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
  • Jo
  • 28-11-2023

Average

I’ve got every Jack Reacher book on my bookshelf but this is the first Reacher audiobook I’ve listened to. Maybe I should have stuck with the voice I imagined all of these years because the voice here was just too harsh to listen to for all of that time. The narration was ok but I found the female voices kind of cringe.

I haven’t picked up a Reacher book for a while so hadn’t realised how dated the tone is in terms of gender stereotypes: the big intimidating male who never breaks v the female who cries in his arms for hours.

Shallow characterisation for that female also. And for everyone really.

I just didn’t enjoy this one. Maybe because it is about his past whereas I prefer the ones where he is constantly travelling and we get those incredible descriptions of small towns in the US.

I don’t know what it was but I won’t be buying another Reacher audiobook.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

A bit Scetchy

The story seemed rushed and not the same as the earlier books. Passable but not fantastic.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Not one of the better Reachers

Pretty bland and predictable. Not the usual standard of Reacher stuff. It was a bit of a battle

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

I had to stop listening

This was my first Reacher audiobook. I found it difficult to get into a listening rhythm because the narration was so jarring. I stopped 30 odd minutes in.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Voice tough to listen to

Voice tough to listen to. Gave up not far into the story, will avoid in future

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

I was hoping this would be better…

Sorry, but this was another tedious plot that is a shadow of the old Jack Reacher.

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  • Benjamin Levy
  • 02-11-2023

Meh. Mediocre. Mostly boring.

Not the best Reacher story. A little too predictable. I bought this one to get me through a long-flight and at that low standard it mostly did the job.

Having said that, the narrator did a truly awful job. Someone else noted that it sounded as though he were reading every sentence from a list and that is true. A list of stomach viruses that you're trying to avoid.

And the "voices", the voices! I would much prefer it he hadn't try to act out the voices. The women all sound exactly the same, like badly designed AI voices, heard through a teeny speaker that's been scratched. The men weren't much better, either.

Actors like to say that "if it ain't on the page it ain't on the stage," and that is largely true. But even this dog's breakfast of a book deserved a better reading.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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  • Filip Eskilsson
  • 06-11-2023

Not as good as they used to be...

Lee Child must start to run out of ideas and lost his touch. Would recommend read all other Reacher books before picking this one.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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  • Gail
  • 06-11-2023

A different Reacher

Where is the old Reacher. This one is a bit of a woke one. I still liked it as I am a Reacher tragic but bring back the real Reacher please.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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  • Stanno
  • 05-11-2023

Formulaic and predictable

I’ve read or listened to all of the Reacher books and I was entertained to a degree.

This is no Killing Floor statement read and found it sub par compared to others in the series.

It’s ok.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Anthea
  • 04-11-2023

Fantastic

As with all Jack Reacher, he is the ideal man from a justice perspective and a dream of a such a good person

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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  • Lupus
  • 30-10-2023

This was a tough nail to finish

Read/heard all of the others, looked forward to this. Initial 2-3h the narrator read every sentence as it was from a list, emphasizing the last word. Not to my liking. Almost gave up in the book, and now I wished I had.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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  • Nisse-nada
  • 27-10-2023

Were is Reacher.

A realy good story. I looking for more of Reachers fights.
But a realy good tempo in this book as in all Recher books.
You don't want to stop reading / listening.

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  • Anonymous User
  • 27-10-2023

an improvement

easily andrews best effort so far. still middling compared to reacher books generally though. still heavier on dialogue and easy to discern the difference between lee and andrews writing. not one of jeff hardings best reads either, didn't love the choices for character voices

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    3 out of 5 stars
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  • Griff
  • 27-10-2023

Meh… I think Reacher is done for…

Having been an avid Reacher reader I’m now not so excited when a new book comes out and this is why; bang-average plot, obvious twist, not much of the old Reacher style - I feel a bit like I’m being milked :o)

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10 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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  • christopher
  • 27-10-2023

Too disjointed

Seems almost like 3 separate stories. Very disjointed. I think it’s obvious the ideas reservoir has run dry. Excellent performance by Jeff Harding as always.

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7 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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  • Jacqui
  • 27-10-2023

Very poor shadow of the original

Sadly the last two, in my opinion, have definitely been below par. Coupled with the dire, monotone voice of the worst narrator, I had to keep going back and re listen because I kept zoning out. Such a shame but I think this will be my last one

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4 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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  • Juliet
  • 26-10-2023

Much better

Things are looking up in brothers' dual authorship. Jeff Harding is again a brilliant narrator.

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4 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Ron
  • 04-11-2023

Great

I thought this was up to the normal standard. The person who criticised the narrator obviously hasn’t listened to previous novels. I always look for Jeff Harding.

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3 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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  • Chris elleray
  • 27-10-2023

Short and less captivating but still good

Very short for a reacher book. Good performance by Jeff Harding as narrator as usual. However story seemed a little disjointed. Love the reacher series and look forward to the new releases just could of done with more action. Think if the action had been there would of packed the book out to a normal length. Liked the last two brothers collaborations just this let it down a little. But hay ho still a fan and you can’t win them all.

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  • C O'Donovan
  • 17-11-2023

A really good one!

Really enjoyed this, was easy to follow and had a good storyline. I would recommend.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • tl
  • 05-11-2023

Step back into the past

Brilliant Jack Reacher conclusion. I really enjoyed this book. It felt like the earlier ones. Well done Lee and Andrew

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    4 out of 5 stars
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  • Amazon Customer
  • 04-11-2023

Still has The Secret sauce.

Jeff Harding's performance is perfect as always. The story itself? It's a little short and a little too straight forward. No mystery to figure out and the inevitable twist felt like an after thought, but overall it was another very enjoyable book.

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  • ms j griffiths
  • 04-11-2023

Short but good

Jack Reacher back as an MP - protagonists and antagonists female - all good- when will we see more movies (not the Tom Cruise ones)

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