This short story by Karin Slaughter and Lee Child first saw life as an e-book tale in May 2019. It documents a momentous meeting between Child’s Jack Reacher and Slaughter’s Will Trent, which explains why someone apparently thought it would be a good idea to publish the piece as a physical book months after its digital appearance. The trade paperback, like the e-book, contains a short story of 79 pages, as well as excerpts from the authors’ latest novels: Child’s BLUE MOON and Slaughter’s THE LAST WIDOW.

"CLEANING THE GOLD does have an enigmatic and haunting ending... [C]ompletists interested in either character should find it worth reading."

CLEANING THE GOLD is an intriguing concept, but the execution is mixed. It is perhaps an epilogue to KILLING FLOOR, which marked Reacher’s first appearance over two decades ago. In our present, Will Trent is dispatched on an undercover assignment to arrest a suspect in a cold murder case. The name of the subject: Jack Reacher. Reacher is working at Fort Knox as a temporary hire for the annual task of cleaning the gold. Trent is going in cold, with no one at Fort Knox knowing who he is or why he is there. The same is true of Reacher, who is working undercover in order to get the goods on a loan shark operation that is victimizing the soldiers on base and their families. Both men size each other up while finding themselves on the same side of the fence.

The description of Fort Knox and the nuggets about its operation are quite interesting, but they somewhat hijack the book. The overall story will possibly leave fans of both Reacher and Trent dissatisfied. Those who come for Reacher will be disappointed that there isn’t more of him in it. As for Trent enthusiasts, he seems, at least to me, to be woefully outclassed by Reacher in a tale that plays to Reacher’s strengths rather than those skills being balanced by Trent’s own. I would hope that those drawn to the book by either Reacher or Trent will find enough attraction in both characters’ opposite number to read some of Child’s or Slaughter’s other work, which is superb.

CLEANING THE GOLD does have an enigmatic and haunting ending, which makes one wonder if the issue raised will be resolved, or at least explained, in future novels set in Reacher’s and/or Trent’s respective worlds. We can only hope. At the end of the day, this book may not serve as a compelling introduction to either Reacher or Trent, but completists interested in either character should find it worth reading.