61 Hours
Lee Child
 Set in the town of Bolton, South Dakota, Reacher begins his latest adventure on a wrecked senior citizen tour bus after a near-miss with another motorist leaves the bus spinning on the icy road and trapped in a snowy bank. Immersed in a snowy, frozen landscape, Reacher works with local law enforcement to help the fragile victims. Hours later, Reacher learns Bolton is not like most towns. Beside its freezing, snowy climate, the town plays host to one of the largest prisons in the U.S., making the town and its law enforcement subject to the needs and demands of the gigantic correctional facility. At the same time, a band of outlaw bikers, settled outside the town, are on edge after their leader is arrested on drug charges. As the biker awaits trial, protecting Janet Salter, the only witness to the biker's drug transaction, becomes a top priority, and Reacher agrees to aid local law enforcement to help protect the elderly Salter. Throughout the story, brutal enemies, both foreign and domestic, are encountered. The foreign criminal from Mexico is named Plato, and the bad cop in Bolton is Chief Holland, who murders his deputy chief, Andrew Peterson; a crooked lawyer; and the witness Salter. Reacher finds help from one of his successors, Susan Turner, the current leader of the elite 110th Special Investigations Unit (Reacher's old command), while interesting new details of his past come to light, such as how a dent appeared in his desk (from injuring a corrupt general), and of how Reacher caught the attention of military command because of his childhood behavior patterns. The ending leaves the reader guessing as to the conclusion. We do not learn how Reacher manages to escape an underground facility filled with fuel by Plato's henchmen before it ignites. A brief description of how he survives the conflagration appears in the next Reacher novel, Worth Dying For.