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'...

Jack Reacher zit in een Greyhoundbus en kijkt naar een slapende oudere man die een dikke envelop met contant geld uit zijn zak heeft hangen. Wanneer een overvaller een poging waagt, schiet Reacher te hulp. De oude man is hem dankbaar maar weigert Reachers aanbod om hem thuis te brengen. Hij is kwetsbaar, bang en zit duidelijk in grote problemen. Elders in de stad strijden twee meedogenloze, rivaliserende criminele bendes om de macht. Hebben ze de controle over de oude man en diens leven? Zal ...

Reacher had no idea where he was. No idea how he had got there. But someone must have brought him. And shackled him. And whoever had done those things was going to rue the day. That was for damn sure.

Jack Reacher wakes up, alone, in the dark, handcuffed to a makeshift bed. His right arm has suffered some major damage. His few possessions are gone. He has no memory of getting there.

The last thing Reacher can recall is the car he hitched a ride in getting run off the road. The driver was killed.

His captors assume Reacher was the driver's accomplice and patch up his wounds as they plan to make him ta...