Lee Child

Lee Child is the pen name of British author Jim Grant, who was born on October 29, 1954, in Coventry, England. He spent his formative years in Birmingham and won a scholarship to the same high school that JRR Tolkien had attended. After attending law school in Sheffield, England, Child began a successful career in television, working as a presentation director for Granada Television in Manchester for eighteen years. However, he was fired in 1995 due to corporate restructuring, which led him to try his hand at writing. He published his first novel, Killing Floor, the first book in the Jack Reacher series, in 1997, which became an immediate success.

Lee Child's Jack Reacher series has grown in sales and impact with every new installment. The series has sold over one hundred million copies and has consistently achieved the number-one slot on bestseller lists around the world. Two blockbusting Jack Reacher movies have been made so far, based on the novels "One Shot" and "Jack Reacher: Never Go Back." In 2019, Child was appointed CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours and was named Author of the Year at the British Book Awards.

Child's novels are known for their fast-paced, thrilling plots and complex, morally ambiguous characters. His writing style is clear and concise, making his books accessible to a wide audience. He has contributed to numerous short story collections, and his solo novels all feature Jack Reacher, with the exception of "Second Son" and "High Heat," which feature Reacher as a teenager. The series begins with "The Enemy," which takes place while Reacher is still in the Military, and continues in chronological order with "The Secret," "Night School," "The Affair," "Killing Floor," and the short stories "Second Son" and "High Heat." After these, the books should be read in the order they were published.