The Enemy (2004) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

show spoilers

Characters edit see section history

show spoilers

• Jack Reacher: twenty-nine year old, MP major in the 110th Special Unit; on temporary duty as Fort Bird's Provost Marshal's executive officer.
• Lieutenant Summer: a young female junior-grade MP assisting Jack Reacher on his investigation.
• Major Marshall: XII Corps staffer/driver on temporary detached duty.
• Colonel Willard: smart, vicious, petty, very corporate, good at office politics, exclusively interested in number one, and always knew which way the wind was blowing.
• Colonel Coomer: corporate face of Armor.
• Brigadier General Vassell: corporate face of Armor.
• Joe Pedantic Reacher: Jack Reacher's older brother.
• Josephine Moutier Reacher: Joe and Jack's mother; born in France.
• Lt. Col. Andrea Norton: Psy-Ops instructor; a psychosexual Ph.D who specializes in attacking an enemy's internal emotional security concerning his feelings of masculinity.
• General Kenneth Robert Kramer: arrogant Armored commander in Europe; this married two-star general is found dead in a seedy motel room near Fort Bird, N.C.
• Mrs. Kramer: General Kramer's wife; rich, from an old Virginia family.
• Rick Stockton: North Carolina deputy police chief.
• Colonel David C. Brubaker: Fort Bird's Special Forces CO
• Colonel Leon Garber: Jack Reacher's Commanding Officer, before Colonel Willard takes over command.
• Sam McGowan: Add a description of this character.
• Irwin
• Monsieur Lamonnier: Friend of Reacher and Joe's mother
• Sanchez
• Swan
• Pierre
• Beatrice: See Josephine Reacher spoiler
• Slavi Trifonov
• C. Carbone
• Calvin Franz: MP based in California who knows Reacher
• Clark
• Abelson
• Elena
• Simon
• Lindsay
• Charles de Gaulle: Former French President and name of the main Paris airport
• Sin
• Walter Reed
• Pickles
• Wavell

Quotes edit see section history

• “I'm French. You're American. There's a world of difference. An American gets sick, she's outraged. How dare that happen to her? She must have the fault corrected immediately, at once. But French people understand that first you live, and then you die. It's not an outrage. It's something that's been happening since the dawn of time.”

  Josephine Moutier Reacher

• “You die when it's your time.”

  Josephine Moutier Reacher

• “It's like walking out of a movie. Being made to walk out of a movie that you're really enjoying That's what worried me about it. I would never know how it turned out. I would never know what happened to you boys in the end, with your lives. I hated that part. But then I realized, obviously I'll walk out of the movie sooner or later. I mean, nobody lives forever. I'll never know how it turns out for you. I'll never know what happens with your lives. Not in the end.”

  Josephine Moutier Reacher

• “You've got the strength of two normal boys. . . . What are you going to do with this strength? . . . You're going to do the right thing.”

  Josephine Moutier Reacher

• “It's the new theory. They're copying private-sector doctrine. They think know-nothings are good because they're not invested in the status quo. They think they bring fresh perspectives.”

  Joe Reacher

• “This it the army, Summer. It ain't a quilting bee.”

  Jack Reacher

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• It's like walking out of a movie. Being made to walk out of a movie that you're really enjoying. That's what worried me about it. I would never know how it turned out.

  Highlighted by 62 Kindle customers

• I would never know what happened to you boys in the end, with your lives. I hated that part. But then I realized, obviously I'll walk out of the movie sooner or later. I mean, nobody lives forever. I'll never know how it turns out for you. I'll never know what happens with your lives. Not in the end. Not even under the best of circumstances. I realized that. Then it didn't seem to matter so much. It will always be an arbitrary date. It will always leave me wanting more.”

  Highlighted by 55 Kindle customers

• But French people understand that first you live, and then you die. It's not an outrage. It's something that's been happening since the dawn of time. It has to happen, don't you see? If people didn't die, the world would be an awfully crowded place by now.”

  Highlighted by 35 Kindle customers

• A person lives sixty years, does all kinds of things, knows all kinds of things, feels all kinds of things, and then it's over. Like it never happened at all.” “We'll always remember her.” “No, we'll remember parts of her. The parts she chose to share. The tip of the iceberg. The rest, only she knew about. Therefore the rest already doesn't exist. As of now.”

  Highlighted by 34 Kindle customers

• “You don't need me anymore,” she told us. “You're all grown up. My job is done. That's natural, and that's good. That's life. So let me go.”

  Highlighted by 29 Kindle customers

• At that moment I knew I would miss her forever. I felt empty. I had lost something I never knew I had.

  Highlighted by 28 Kindle customers

• The Reacher brothers' need for caffeine makes heroin addiction look like an amusing little take-it-or-leave-it sideline.

  Highlighted by 28 Kindle customers

• “Won't you miss us, Mom?” he asked. “Wrong question,” she said. “I'll be dead. I won't be missing anything. It's you that will be missing me. Like you miss your father. Like I miss him. Like I miss my father, and my mother, and my grandparents. It's a part of life, missing the dead.”

  Highlighted by 27 Kindle customers

• While coolness in disaster is the supreme proof of a commander's courage, energy in pursuit is the surest test of his strength of will. Wavell.

  Highlighted by 17 Kindle customers

• Defeat was not a big enough word. Armageddon would be better. The whole country had been smashed to powdered rubble by a juggernaut. The evidence would be there for all time, written in the architecture. And under the architecture. Every time the phone company dug a trench for a cable, they found skulls and bones and teacups and shells and rusted-out Panzerfausts.

  Highlighted by 8 Kindle customers

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Germany
• Paris
• Fort Bird, North Carolina
• Green Valley
• California
• Columbia
• Panama
• Virginia
• Washington D.c.
• Frankfurt
• Rock Creek
• Sperryville
• Korea
• Raleigh
• South Carolina
• Berlin
• Beretta
• West Point
• Jefferson Hotel
• Roissy
• Louisiana
• Alabama
• Middle East
• East Coast
• Cape Fear

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Series & Lists edit see section history

Preceded by Persuader, and followed by One Shot.

Preceded by Second Son.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Lee Child (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• Nero Award Winner (2005)
• Barry Award (2005: Best Novel)
• Dilys Award (Finalist, 2005)
• BookBrowse Awards (2005: Ruby Award)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: CPB Box no. 2333 vol. 7
• Dewey: 823.914

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Violence

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

• Lee Child: Author's website

More Books Like This edit see section history

Books with Additional Background Information edit see section history