You will want to read PAST TENSE twice. The first time will be simply for the enjoyment of it. The second time will be to appreciate how Lee Child melds two separate stories (actually two and a half) seamlessly into one while subtly building an atmospheric suspense that provides the catalyst for the book’s explosive conclusion, as Jack Reacher --- he of the multifaceted skill set --- seeks to explore some unvisited portions of his past and discovers far more than he expected.

PAST TENSE begins with Reacher, as he is known to do, embarking on a journey from Point A to Point B --- in this case, from Maine to California --- with a general but flexible itinerary, depending on the largesse of passing motorists. Early on in his travels, Reacher finds himself on a back road that offers a route to Laconia, New Hampshire, which is not too far from Boston and is where his father grew up. Reacher has nothing but time, so he figures that a day’s diversion will be worth the trip. He arrives in due course, on foot and traveling light.

"Child gives readers more than their money’s worth in PAST TENSE.... He slowly builds the suspense but does it so skillfully that one almost doesn’t notice (or care) that fisticuffs don’t occur until almost a quarter of the way into the book."

The next morning, though, he makes an interesting discovery --- the town has no record of a “Reacher” ever having lived there. It’s a small mystery, along the lines of what you might have found if Helen Fuller Orton had written mysteries for adults instead of children, but it’s a nagging one. He gets a couple of potential leads and stays in Laconia a bit longer. Reacher being Reacher, he becomes involved in a situation where interjection and a bit of rough justice are necessary. He quickly finds the police to be somewhat unhappy with him and a group of underworld characters feeling a bit homicidal towards him.

Meanwhile, Shorty Fleck and Patty Sundstrom are approaching the Laconia area in an ancient Honda, which is past serviceable and close to kissing them goodbye. They stop at a mom-and-pop hotel in the middle of nowhere, which turns out to be the worst possible somewhere that they could imagine. Readers know before the increasingly unhappy Canadian couple does that something is not right, as phone calls are made and mysterious strangers begin to assemble.

Of course, you anticipate that Fleck and Sundstrom will eventually intersect with Reacher, but watching how it all unfolds makes PAST TENSE the joy and wonder that it is. It’s so entertaining to learn how Reacher solves both his own potentially dangerous difficulty and that of our cousins to the north that we almost forget about the mystery that causes him to hang around Laconia to begin with. Child does not, though, resulting in Reacher learning just a bit more about who he is and where he comes from.

Child gives readers more than their money’s worth in PAST TENSE. There are two interdependent stories here, each reliant upon the other and of equal import and value. He slowly builds the suspense but does it so skillfully that one almost doesn’t notice (or care) that fisticuffs don’t occur until almost a quarter of the way into the book. However, the peace and tranquility one ordinarily finds in rustic New Hampshire doesn’t last long.

Along the way, Reacher proves that he is a brother --- he doesn’t step on another man’s game, so long as that game is honest --- while demonstrating the certain knowledge that the past is yesterday, tomorrow is the future, and today is a gift, which is why it is called the present. It doesn’t get any better than this.