Night School - Lee Child

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Night School

by
Lee Child

general information | review summaries | our review | links | about the author

Title:	Night School
Author:	Lee Child
Genre:	Novel
Written:	2016
Length:	369 pages
Availability:	Night School - US
	Night School - UK
	Night School - Canada
	Formation d'élite - France
	Der Ermittler - Deutschland
	Non sfidarmi - Italia
	Escuela nocturna - España

	from: Bookshop.org (US)

The twenty-first Jack Reacher novel

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Our Assessment:

B+ : an enjoyable thriller

See our review for fuller assessment.

Review Summaries
Source	Rating	Date	Reviewer
The NY Times	.	3/11/2016	Janet Maslin
Sunday Times	.	20/11/2016	John Dugdale
The Washington Post	.	1/11/2016	Patrick Anderson

From the Reviews:

"Mr. Child has embedded a 30-something Reacher in a spy story. It’s the old-fashioned kind. It requires teamwork and networks of operatives and in one instance a lamp moved on a windowsill to send a signal. The year is 1996 (.....) (W)hile it’s surprising to find him as part of a group in this book, the changeup works. Unlike most Reacher books, which start at breathless velocity and then wind up having to work through huge, empty action scenes later, this one gets better as it goes along. Its complexity pays off with a better than usual MacGuffin and real teamwork against a global enemy." - Janet Maslin, The New York Times

"Child’s work has become ever more gripping since he began stretching the formula, telling his modern-day knight errant’s backstory, giving him a girlfriend or taking him away from America. All three tweaks come together here, and another is added: Night School is the closest that Reacher has come to being a secret agent, making this expertly paced thriller an addictive combination of spy yarn, detective story and beat-’em-up fightfest." - John Dugdale, Sunday Times

"Reacher is unchanged in this 21st of his adventures: He wins all fights, charms all women and outsmarts all rivals, friend or foe. What makes Night School the best of the Reacher novels I’ve read is that Child has concocted a brilliant plot. (...) (T)he outcome makes sense and the writing is smart and surprising. This is one of the best thrillers you’ll read this year." - Patrick Anderson, The Washington Post

Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers. Similarly the illustrative quotes chosen here are merely those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review as a whole. We acknowledge (and remind and warn you) that they may, in fact, be entirely unrepresentative of the actual reviews by any other measure.

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The complete review's Review:

Night School is set way back in 1996. Jack Reacher is still in the army and among the worries the authorities have is Y2K -- as someone notes: "The Internet could be a big thing by the year 2000". It opens with Reacher getting a medal -- and being sent back to school. That's what he's told, anyway, and that's where the novel gets its title from, but it doesn't take Reacher long to realize that that is little more than a cover story: "it ain't school. That's for damn sure".
As he suspects when he meets the two others who have been sent to the same class, one agent from the FBI, one from the CIA:

     "This is not a school."
     "Then what is it ?"
     "It's a place where they send good agents fresh off a big win."

       That's quickly confirmed when the National Security Adviser -- "The president's top boy, whenever it came to things that might not end well" -- comes to address them in person. He doesn't stick around, but lets the trio know that his senior deputy, Marian Sinclair, speaks for him, and that what they're being tasked with is a big deal: "No effort is to be spared. You'll get everything you need".
       The reason for the representatives of three different agencies is a matter of jurisdiction: they're looking for an American, so it's up to the FBI if he's in the US and the CIA if he's still abroad, with Reacher thrown in the mix if he's a military man.
       The authorities have picked up news that this mystery-American is involved in a deal. A big, big deal: he's named his price, and it is a hundred million dollars. The authorities have no idea what he can offer in exchange for that much money -- one of the mysteries Reacher and his colleagues long puzzle over is what the hell it is he might be selling -- but the amount, and the willingness of the apparently jihadist group with links to Yemen, Afghanistan, and Saudi Arabia to fork that much over suggests it's something very significant.
       There was a meet in Hamburg, and so Reacher heads there to take up the trail, with trusted sidekick Sergeant Frances Neagley -- "The best soldier he had ever worked with" -- along to help him. It all looks like a needle-in-the haystack search: they don't know the American's identity, and they don't know what he's trying to sell. As Neagley observes: "A hundred million is a weird price point". They do have someone inside, though only on the very periphery, and he's a valuable asset so has to be handled very carefully so his cover doesn't get blown -- but it seems likely there will be another meeting with a messenger before the deal can go through.
       The American has been laying low, but gets a bit too talkative with a prostitute when they're in bed -- "They snuggled. She had been interested in him. She had been a good listener" -- and so he has a problem to deal with, which he does. And while he doesn't think he leaves any traces behind, well .....
       Local chief of detectives Griezman is the man put in charge of that case, and he's eager to get it quietly and quickly solved. Soon enough Griezman and Reacher are helping one another out -- though issues of jurisdiction and legality complicate matters some. Still, when it's clear that they're both looking for the same man they manage to combine their forces pretty well; too bad not everyone is completely on board, as some of their efforts are undermined by some with different ideologies and agendas.
       Even once they learn the identity of the American, a lot of questions remain -- but slowly they piece together the whole story, which also explains a lot of the American's unusual career-path and his actions to that point. Oh, yeah, and they finally learn what he's selling -- which adds to the urgency and stakes. Yet even when they seem to have all the answers and are hot on his trail, some other complications arise.
       It all makes for a pretty solid thriller -- with Reacher relying more on teamwork than usual, but still having an opportunity to strut his own stuff (and, for example, knock a few neo-Nazis around along the way) as well as enjoy a dalliance with Marian Sinclair (as Neagley remains just a friend and colleague). And while he has to make some difficult choices, and try to figure out and play the odds, he always does so with the usual swagger:

     "Are you always this confident ?"
     "I used to be."
     "What are you now ?"
     "Even more."

It's a bit fast and simple in some regards -- not to mention far-fetched in quite a few -- but Night School is good, quick thriller fun -- and, while (or perhaps because it's) not typical, is one of the better Reacher novels.

- M.A.Orthofer, 29 November 2025

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Links:

Night School:

Bantam publicity page
Bantam (UK) publicity page
Calmann-Lévy publicity page
Le Livre de Poche publicity page
Blanvalet publicity page
Longanesi publicity page
Blatt & Ríos publicity page

Reviews:

Lee Child:

Official site
How Jack Reacher Was Built by John Lanchester

Other books by Lee Child under review:

Other books of interest under review:

See Index of Mysteries and Thrillers
See Index of Contemporary British fiction
See Index of Series and Sequels under review

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About the Author:

British author Lee Child was born in 1954.

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