Bad Luck and Trouble

infobox Book |
name = Bad Luck and Trouble
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = | author = Lee Child
country = United States
language = English
series = Jack Reacher
genre = Thriller novel
release_date = 2007
media_type = Print (Hardcover, Paperback)
preceded_by = The Hard Way
followed_by = Nothing to Lose

"Bad Luck and Trouble" is the eleventh book in the Jack Reacher series written by Lee Child.

Catchphrases

* "You "do not" mess with the Special Investigators."
* "From the big green machine [the army] to this."

Plot

Jack Reacher is alone, homeless and penniless, as usual. But the events of 9/11 means he now carries photo ID and an ATM card. His meticulous personality and old army instincts mean he still checks his bank balance regularly to avoid being ripped off.

When Frances Neagley (previously seen in Without Fail) sends him $1030.00, Reacher recognises the old army code 10:30, meaning urgent help is needed. He meets up with Neagley in California and they discover the death of Calvin Franz, one of the nine members of Reacher's old army investigation unit. Neagley tells him to put the old unit back together.

After tracking down two other members, David O'Donnell and Karla Dixon, Neagley and Reacher find that three of the other five members (excluding, of course, Calvin Franz) are missing. The other one, Stan Lowery, had been killed in a car accident years earlier.

They come to the conclusion that Franz called the others for help with a major problem, and assume that Franz left the remaining four out because they all resided too far away to get to him quickly (apart from Reacher, who is famously untraceable).

They discover that Franz's office has been trashed but decide that what the perpetrator was looking for was not found. Reacher and Neagley find Franz's flash memory stick and, with O'Donnell's help, crack the password, finding a set of bizarre numbers, which they conclude to be scores.

After several more investigations, including locating the flash memory sticks of the other three members, they realise that Franz was unlikely to be the person who actually called for help. Reacher decides that any of the other three, Manuel Orozco, Jorge Sanchez and Tony Swan, could have been the one calling for help.

Reacher goes to Tony Swan's workplace, gun manufacturer "New Age", in search of information, but is sent away with basically nothing by the HR manager, Margaret Berenson.

The investigations the four take on lead to a near assassination, and at frequent intervals as they begin to piece together the information they are told of the deaths of their colleagues. However, being told of the fourth death (Jorge Sanchez), they are told to meet Police Inspector Curtis Mauney (who has been skimming along the edges of the story until now) at the hospital, leading Reacher to conclude that Sanchez is not in fact dead, just severely injured. O'Donnell and Dixon go to the hospital and Reacher and Neagley go to find Margaret Berenson, after they realise that she has been lying to them.

They find that New Age has been producing state-of-the-art air missiles and pretending to destroy the prototypes, whilst sending them to a Syrian terrorist. Neagley and Reacher leave Berenson's house a whole lot wiser than when they came in.

O'Donnell and Dixon, however, are captured by Curtis Mauney's men in the hospital, and taken to New Age's Director, Allen Lamaison. Reacher and Neagley track him down, and kill Curtis Mauney (with a shot to the head).

Reacher stows away on the same helicopter as Lamaison and finds out that O'Donnell and Dixon are there too, tied up and about to be thrown off and killed the same way that Franz, Orozco, Sanchez and Swan were. Reacher confronts Lamaison just in time, kills his assistant and pushes Lamaison out of the helicopter once it is fully one mile above ground level. After the helicopter lands he kills the pilot, too.

The only thing left is the Syrian who has supposedly already bought the weapons, but Reacher concludes that there is no way of him knowing how to use them. The team find one of New Age's staff members who they believe is due to be teaching the Syrian to use the weapons.

Reacher poses as the worker briefly as the Syrian arrives, then, with the help of Neagley, ties the Syrian up and leaves him for the police to find him. Later, they each agree to split up a large sum of money obtained from the bad guys, and Reacher receives a deposit for several hundred thousand dollars in his savings account.

Notable Characters

* Jack Reacher
* Frances Neagley
* Dave O'Donnell
* Karla Dixon
* Calvin Franz
* Allen Lamaison
* Margaret Berenson (sometimes referred to as 'Dragon Lady')
* Curtis Mauney
* Azhari Mahmoud (The Syrian, also known as Adrian Mount, Alan Mason, Andrew MacBride, Anthony Matthews)

Notable Unseen Characters

* Tony Swan
* Manuel Orozco
* Jorge Sanchez
*Stan Lowery