Better off Dead
- 353
- Pages
- about 6 h
- Reading time
- NYT bestseller · 8 weeks on the list, peaked at #1
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Our view
An aggressive, front-foot Jack Reacher drives “Better off Dead”, a thriller set in a desert border town. Told in the first person, it has Reacher helping a former soldier now with the FBI to look for her twin brother among people loyal to a feared boss. Some readers enjoy this variation on the series formula; others find the plot far-fetched and the clipped sentences unlike Reacher.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
Digging graves had not been part of my plans when I woke up that morning. Reacher goes where he wants, when he wants. That morning he was heading west, walking under the merciless desert sun—until he comes upon a curious scene. A Jeep has crashed into the only tree for miles around. A woman is slumped over the wheel. Dead? No, nothing is what it seems. The woman is Michaela Fenton, an army veteran turned FBI agent trying to find her twin brother, who might be mixed up with some dangerous people. Most of them would rather die than betray their terrifying leader, who has burrowed his influence deep into the nearby border town, a backwater that has seen better days. The mysterious Dendoncker rules from the shadows, out of sight and under the radar, keeping his dealings in the dark. He would know the fate of Fenton’s brother. Reacher is good at finding people who don’t want to be found, so he offers to help, despite feeling that Fenton is keeping secrets of her own. But a life hangs in the balance. Maybe more than one. But to bring Dendoncker down will be the riskiest job of Reacher's life. Failure is not an option, because in this kind of game, the loser is always better off dead.
Reading order · Jack Reacher
Full order & progress →- Killing FloorStart here
7.67.6 / 10 - Die Trying
7.57.5 / 10 - Tripwire
7.57.5 / 10 - Running Blind
7.67.6 / 10 - Echo Burning
7.67.6 / 10 - Without Fail
7.77.7 / 10 - Persuader
7.77.7 / 10 - The Enemy
7.87.8 / 10 - One Shot
8.08.0 / 10 - The Hard Way
7.87.8 / 10 - Bad Luck and Trouble
7.97.9 / 10 - Nothing to Lose
7.57.5 / 10 - Gone Tomorrow
7.97.9 / 10 - 61 Hours
7.87.8 / 10 - Worth Dying For
7.97.9 / 10 - The Affair
7.97.9 / 10 - A Wanted Man
7.77.7 / 10 - Never Go Back
7.77.7 / 10 - Personal
7.77.7 / 10 - Make Me
7.77.7 / 10 - Night School
7.77.7 / 10 - The Midnight Line
7.77.7 / 10 - Past Tense
7.87.8 / 10 - Blue Moon
7.67.6 / 10 - The Sentinel
7.67.6 / 10 - Better off DeadThis book
7.37.3 / 10 - No Plan B
7.67.6 / 10 - The Secret
7.67.6 / 10 - In Too Deep
7.57.5 / 10
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.0 across 138 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 48% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Thriller average of 7.6. That is how 7.3 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hardcover | 7.0 | 138 | 100% |
Frequently asked
How long is Better off Dead?
It has 353 pages — shorter than 71% of the ranked books in Thriller.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Thriller — with scores between 7.3 and 7.4, closest to this book.
