Author Lee Child (Jim Grant)

Wintertime in Oysterville when I’m between my own writing projects (and therefore not involved in research of one sort or another) is the perfect time for immersing myself in a glut of fiction. Right now I’m catching up with a couple of series I enjoy.

I’m just finishing Make Me by British author Lee Child. This is his twentieth novel featuring Jack Reacher, former Army M.P. I think I’ve read them all – but not for a while. For the past few months I’ve been on a Daniel Silva kick and have been immersed in the fourteen books in his Gabriel Allon series. Reacher and Allon couldn’t be more different, starting with their appearance and individual characteristics.

Reacher, at 6’5” and 230 to 250 pounds is a bit awkward, is a loner, and has distinctive personal habits. He doesn’t have a drivers’ license, Federal benefits (doesn’t want them), tax returns (doesn’t do them; he hasn’t filed taxes since he left the Army) or a home. He owns nothing more than the clothes on his back and a toothbrush. He wanders the United States.  Adventure and intrigue seem to find him wherever he is.

Daniel Silva

Allon, is a lithe, 5’9” art restorer, a spy, and an assassin. He lives in Israel when he isn’t living in England or Italy or Switzerland or, perhaps, traveling (for work) in the United States or Russia or Belgium or… He speaks a number of languages, has a variety of names, and is a friend of the Pope and of the U.S. President, among others. His personal life is complicated – an ex-wife and a current wife, both of whom he loves. He works as part of a tightly knit team of operatives.

Both characters are compelling but for very different reasons. Reacher appeals to my minimalist yearnings. I love it that he reduces almost every situation to mathematical possibilities – so different from any approach I would ever use. Allon, on the other hand, is a man of the world and is on the cutting edge of the political unrest in the Middle East. Though he and his situations are fictional, they offer a window of understanding to much of the recent (and complicated) news.

Authors Lee Child (a pseudonym) and Daniel Silva began their careers as novelists in 1997 and both have had great success. They are close in age — Child born in 1954 and Silva in 1960.  And, it’s probably just me, but I think that each of them looks like their protagonists – Silva, dark and intense; Child, thoughtful and independent. Or maybe I’m just reading something into those book jacket photos!