More and more of our favorite literary works are making the transition to film and television, with varying degrees of success. Prime Video’s take on the iconic Reacher books is only a few seasons in, but it already serves as an example of the genre’s very best.
Already approved for a third season, the action-packed adaptation boasts a stellar score on Rotten Tomatoes. Its first two seasons are almost universally popular, and — while the team behind the production certainly deserves plenty of credit — most of the recognition belongs to the books behind the critically acclaimed series. Lee Child’s Reacher books were hugely popular long before Amazon set its sights on the story, and the strong narrative elements sprinkled through the robust series are the core of what makes every Reacher story great.
Should Prime Video continue to dazzle with its adaptation, it could keep going for another handful of seasons. There are a full 26 books in the collection, after all — and that’s not counting the short stories — leaving Amazon with a huge number of options for future storylines, characters, and content.
How to read the Reacher books in order
You can enjoy the daunting library of Reacher books in pretty much any order that strikes your fancy, but the most streamlined way to read them is in order of release. Each entry works fine as a standalone, so feel free to skip stories here and there as you see fit, but if you want to join the ranks of true Reacher fans, here’s how to go about it.
- Killing Floor (1997)
- Die Trying (1998)
- Tripwire (1999)
- Running Blind (2000)
- Echo Burning (2001)
- Without Fail (2002)
- Persuader (2003)
- The Enemy (2004)
- One Shot (2005)
- The Hard Way (2006)
- Bad Luck and Trouble (2007)
- Nothing to Lose (2008)
- Gone Tomorrow (2009)
- 61 Hours (2010)
- Worth Dying For (2010)
- The Affair (2011)
- A Wanted Man (2012)
- Never Go Back (2013)
- Personal (2014)
- Make Me (2015)
- Night School (2016)
- The Midnight Line (2017)
- Past Tense (2018)
- Blue Moon (2019)
- The Sentinel (2020)
- Better Off Dead (2021)
- No Plan B (2022)
- The Secret (2023)
- In Too Deep (2024)
A series of short stories and novellas also include the character of Jack Reacher, for those looking to truly obsess over the man.
- Second Son (2011)
- Deep Down (2012)
- High Heat (2013)
- Not A Drill (2014)
- Small Wars (2015)
- The Christmas Scorpion (2017)
- Too Much Time (2018)
- The Fourth Man (2019)
So there you have it, more Jack Reacher than anyone could possibly need in their life. That said, these books are very silly fun, and to this day we’re obsessed with the size of the man’s “Thanksgiving turkey” hands.