The Christmas Scorpion: A Jack Reacher Story Kindle Edition

When a tale is advertised as a short story, and priced accordingly, it is probably not fair to be overly harsh. I suppose the story is more than a teaser and serves a purpose. I think the publisher is trying to attract new readers.In that sense, “The Christmas Scorpion” by Lee Child might have been a huge success, except for my point at the end of this review.POV: Third person.BLUSH FACTOR: No worries here. No profanities.SUSPENSE: Some suspense. Not edge-of-the-seat though.THE WRITING: The best writing is the first two and last three pages. Which is not to say the writing throughout isn’t good. I just more enjoy information and description that paints a picture for me, tied together with some, but not overly much, dialogue to bridge the descriptive segments.CHARACTER: Some character development, but, not much.ExcerptDue to the length of this story, I am posting an extremely short excerpt.‘…Her accent was from somewhere in England.“I don’t have a phone,” Reacher said. “Sorry.”The woman didn’t answer.“Comms failures happen all the time,” Reacher said. “Nothing you can do about it, soldier.”“Are you from Fort Irwin?”“Is that where you’re headed?”“We’re supposed to be there now,” she said.“Who are you?”“You first,” she said.“Right now I’m nobody. Once upon a time I was 110th MP.”“Really?”“For my sins.”The woman turned back and said, “Tony, come here.”The guy got up and came over, just the same, tall and lithe. But no smile.The woman said to him, “This gentleman was in the 110th…’Child, Lee. The Christmas Scorpion: A Jack Reacher Story (pp. 6-7). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.BOTTOM LINEFor a two dollar short story, this is worth the money. I think it unfair to post harsh reviews for a product that is advertised as being what it turns out to be. The real value of this short story, though, is for those who have never read a Lee Child novel. They can get a decent glimpse of his skill. Hopefully, the above excerpt will help a few readers decide.Four stars out of five. Why four? Twenty-some pages that is so heavily short, one-line dialogue as this story tends to exaggerate the length of time one will be reading the tale.I am striving to produce reviews that help you find books that you want, or avoid books that you wish to avoid. With your help, my improvement will help you and me improve book reviews on Amazon. Together, you and I can build a great customer review process that helps everybody. Will you join me? It is people such as you who have helped me improve over the years. I'm still learning, and I have a great deal yet to learn. With your help, I'll improve every day.One request: Be respectful and courteous in your comments and emails to me. I will do likewise with you.Thank you so much for indicating if this review helped you, or for your comment.

Whether it’s a full-length novel or a one-breath read, like The Christmas Scorpion, Jack Reacher is always good! This story is too short to build bigger suspense. I experienced it more like an atmosphere-building short mystery.Bernard Jan

Not up to Lees standardsNot a reacher fable at allMost expensive book on Amazon on a CB per page badist

Five stars worthy, although the readers will be disappointed in the length, or lack thereof, when we follow Reacher and his long arm of enforcement!Storylines are short, but entertaining enough to maintain your interest! Too, the characters were critical to the success of an outstanding, short but sweet, series of events!Definitely recommend this short series of ongoing excitement to everyone, as the Author knows how to keep his readers turning pages to see how Reacher will survive!!!😄

Fggttr vbbgyhg Vic gfguibvaeesc ,Lohan mojito buddies are going out to eat at the church today so I can bring the kids

Am re-reading all the Jack Reacher series in order. This is a short story and deals with Reacher going to California in the winter to be warm and there's a freak snowstorm that dumps 3 feet of snow. When a British Defense Minister and an American Goverment official are scheduled to meet and the trailing car gets de-railed and Reacher meets up with some British soldiers he's recruited to help them. How he goes about helping them and discovering who the Christmas Scorpion is makes for a great story.

Not enough Reacher in this one. Ended too quickly. Could have been beefed up a little bit to complicate the plot

A quick, fun read that has Reacher a step ahead as usual even at the end. Worth the read, because, after all, it is Reacher we're talking about here.

I can’t give a Zero star review. But if I could I would. Usually Reacher short stories are very good. However, this “book” was a total con. Only 42% of Kindle edition of the book was this the story — which wasn’t even a very good one. The rest was an extract from his next Reacher book.So basically you pay £1.49 for about 24 pages. I’m surprised that Lee Child needs to stoop this low!At least it give me a chance to read the extract of the next book out later this month. I haven’t preordered it as I usually do as I’ve been disappointed by the last couple. Maybe after reading the extract it will be enough to make me not bother to contribute further to Child’s retirement fund.

What a total ripoff. 10 minutes for a slow reader.If this was a real book, then no one would buy it. Amazon con us into thinking it is a longer book than it is by adding the first chapter that has already been pre-viewed in Child's previous book. Don't buy. This is a con 1.49p wasted.The "short" story is very weak and not worth reading. 40% of this book is a story about Jack in snow in the southern States. Suddenly realising that the oldies are the villains. Difficult to point a bad story so hear is a review that's nearly as long as the story. Who would pay me £1.49 since it's almost as interesting as the book. Repeat...Don't Buy.

As the other reviewers have written, this is blatantly taking the proverbial. A total rip off. It's not the cost, it's the principle. Reacher fans like myself wait with high anticipation for the next book to be released and clear time to read it.When junk like this arrives it's disappointing and irritating. I can't believe that Lee Child has written this, it's banal.Then to add insult to injury, there's three chapters of what appears to be an excellent story, but one that most of us Reacher fans will already have ordered anyway. It ends on a cliffhanger and we've got to wait another month to discover what happens next.Well, we're the fools here, for every million copies sold, there's £1.5 million going to Child and his publishing team.Enjoy the cash Lee.

I'm a great Reacher fan and have read all of Lee Childs' books but this was so disappointing. Barely any story and all summed up in just a few sentences. All that was missing was "and they all lived happily ever after".Not up to the usual Lee Child standard. It took me around 20 minutes to read, so not even a short story really. Very Disappointing.

Not only were my husband and I ("Big Fans", by the way, of Child's Reacher books) appalled by the extra-short shortness of this story, we made some negative comments about the plot and wondered about the various reasons why Lee Childs would have even bothered to submit such drivel to a publisher. Probaably because they think some trusting ex-readers of Mr. Child will think everything he does will be good. Now, I feel like I want to re-read some of our collection of Annie Proulx...... short, but excellently written, complete short stories, which actually have a beginning, middle, and an ending.