In the US he drives a supercharged Jaguar, which was built in Jaguar's Browns Lane plant, thirty yards from the hospital in which he was born. Lee has three homes-an apartment in Manhattan, a country house in the south of France, and whatever airplane cabin he happens to be in while traveling between the two. The first Jack Reacher movie, based on the novel One Shot and starring Tom Cruise and Rosamund Pike, was released in December 2012. Killing Floor was an immediate success and launched the series which has grown in sales and impact with every new installment. Always a voracious reader, he decided to see an opportunity where others might have seen a crisis and bought six dollars' worth of paper and pencils and sat down to write a book, Killing Floor, the first in the Jack Reacher series. But he was fired in 1995 at the age of 40 as a result of corporate restructuring. He went to law school in Sheffield, England, and after part-time work in the theater he joined Granada Television in Manchester for what turned out to be an eighteen-year career as a presentation director during British TV's 'golden age.' During his tenure his company made Brideshead Revisited, The Jewel in the Crown, Prime Suspect, and Cracker. By coincidence he won a scholarship to the same high school that JRR Tolkien had attended. Lee Child was born October 29th, 1954 in Coventry, England, but spent his formative years in the nearby city of Birmingham. All the while Reacher can’t stop thinking about the woman he once failed to save. But they’re facing a rough road, full of ruthless mobsters, Serbian thugs, close calls, double-crosses-and no backup if they’re caught. And though he’d rather work alone, Reacher is teamed with Casey Nice, a rookie analyst who keeps her cool with Zoloft. If anyone can stop Kott, it’s the man who beat him before: Reacher. And after fifteen years in prison, he’s out, unaccounted for, and likely drawing a bead on a G8 summit packed with enough world leaders to tempt any assassin. How many snipers can shoot from three-quarters of a mile with total confidence? Very few, but John Kott-an American marksman gone bad-is one of them.

The distance between the gunman and the target was exceptional. Someone has taken a shot at the president of France in the City of Light. This time, for the State Department and the CIA. Not completely, notes Jack Reacher-and sure enough, the retired military cop is soon pulled back into service. You can leave the army, but the army doesn’t leave you.

Personal by Lee Child