Bibliography

Lee Child (sole authorship only) Novels

  1. All published by Penguin Random House
  2. Killing Floor, 1997
  3. Die Trying, 1998
  4. Tripwire, 1999
  5. The Visitor/Running Blind, 2000
  6. Echo Burning, 2001
  7. Without Fail, 2002
  8. Persuader, 2003
  9. The Enemy, 2004
  10. One Shot, 2005
  11. The Hard Way, 2006
  12. Bad Luck and Trouble, 2007
  13. Nothing to Lose, 2008
  14. Gone Tomorrow, 2009
  15. 61 Hours, 2010
  16. Worth Dying For, 2010
  17. The Affair, 2011
  18. A Wanted Man, 2012
  19. Never Go Back, 2013
  20. Personal, 2014
  21. Make Me, 2015
  22. Night School, 2016
  23. The Midnight Line, 2017
  24. Past Tense, 2018
  25. Blue Moon, 2019

Novellas and Short Stories

  1. Featuring Jack Reacher:
  2. Published by Penguin Random House
  3. Second Son, 2011
  4. Deep Down, 2012
  5. High Heat, 2013
  6. Not a Drill, 2014
  7. Small Wars, 2015
  8. No Middle Name: The Complete Collected Short Stories, 2017
  9. The Fourth Man (Random House Australia), 2018
  1. ‘James Penney’s New Identity’, Fresh Blood, ed. Mike Ripley and Maxim Jakubowski (Do-Not-Press, 1999)
  2. ‘Guy Walks into a Bar’, New York Times (6 June 2009)
  3. ‘Everyone Talks’, Esquire (June/July 2012)
  4. ‘No Room at the Motel’, Stylist (December 2014)
  5. ‘The Picture of the Lonely Diner’, Manhattan Mayhem, ed. Mary Higgins Clark (Quirk, 2015)
  6. ‘Maybe They Have a Tradition’, Country Life (December 2016)
  7. ‘Too Much Time’, No Middle Name: The Complete Collected Short Stories (Bantam, 2017)
  8. ‘The Christmas Scorpion’, Mail on Sunday (December 2017)
  9. ‘Smile’, Invisible Blood, ed. Maxim Jakubowski (Titan, 2019)

Other:

  1. ‘Ten Keys’, The Cocaine Chronicles, ed. Gary Phillips and Jervey Tervalon (Akashic, 2005)
  2. ‘The Greatest Trick of All’, Greatest Hits, ed. Robert Randisi (Carroll & Graf, 2005)
  3. ‘Safe Enough’, Death Do Us Part, ed. Harlan Coben (Little, Brown/Back Bay Books, 2006)
  4. ‘The .50 Solution’, Bloodlines, ed. Jason Starr and Maggie Estep (Vintage, 2006)
  5. ‘Public Transportation’, Phoenix Noir, ed. Patrick Millikin (Akashic, 2009)
  6. ‘Grit in My Eye’, Woman & Home (April 2010)
  7. ‘Me and Mr Rafferty’, The Dark End of the Street, ed. Jonathan Santlofer and S. J. Rozan (Bloomsbury USA, 2010)
  8. ‘Section 7 (a) (Operational)’, Agents of Treachery, ed. Otto Penzler (Vintage, 2010)
  9. ‘The Bodyguard’, First Thrills, ed. Lee Child (Forge, 2010)
  10. ‘Addicted to Sweetness’, The Rich and the Dead, ed. Nelson DeMille (Grand Central, 2011)
  11. ‘The Bone-Headed League’, A Study in Sherlock (Bantam, 2011)
  12. ‘The Hollywood I Remember’, Vengeance, ed. Lee Child (Mulholland, 2012)
  13. ‘I Heard a Romantic Story’, Love is Murder, ed. Sandra Brown (Mira, 2013)
  14. ‘My First Drug Trial’, The Marijuana Chronicles, ed. Jonathan Santlofer (Akashic, 2013)
  15. ‘Wet With Rain’, Belfast Noir, ed. Adrian McKinty and Stuart Neville (Akashic, 2015)
  16. ‘The Truth About What Happened’, In Sunlight or in Shadow, ed. Lawrence Block (Pegasus, 2016)
  17. ‘My Rules’, Speaking of Work (Xerox, 2017)
  18. ‘Pierre, Lucien & Me’, Alive in Shape and Color, ed. Lawrence Block (Pegasus, 2017)
  19. ‘New Blank Document’, It Occurs to Me that I am America, ed. Jonathan Santlofer (Touchstone, 2018)
  20. ‘Shorty and the Briefcase’, Ten Year Stretch, ed. Martin Edwards and Adrian Muller (Poisoned Pen Press/No Exit Press, 2018)
  21. ‘Dying for a Cigarette’, The Nicotine Chronicles, ed. Lee Child (Akashic, 2020)

Selected Non-fiction

  1. ‘Jack Reacher’, The Lineup, ed. Otto Penzler (Little, Brown/Back Bay Books, 2009)
  2. ‘Living with Music: A Playlist’, New York Times (20 May 2009)
  3. ‘Theseus and the Minotaur’, Thrillers: 100 Must Reads, ed. David Morrell and Hank Wagner (Oceanview Publishing, 2010)
  4. ‘Why Anyone Can Write American’, Daily Mail (30 January 2010)
  5. ‘Speech Day 2010’, King Edward’s Gazette (2011)
  6. ‘Ian Fleming: The Empire Strikes Back’, Daily Mail (29 September 2012)
  7. ‘So Real You Can Sense the Artifice’, Wall Street Journal (5 October 2012)
  8. ‘A Simple Way to Create Suspense’, New York Times (8 December 2012)
  9. ‘By the Book’, New York Times (20 December 2012)
  10. ‘Paul McCartney, Action Hero’, Wall Street Journal (30 August 2013)
  11. ‘Give Me Cowans Over Cruise’, Aston Villa matchday programme (16 January 2016)
  12. ‘The Frightening Power of Fiction’, New Yorker (9 May 2016)
  13. ‘No. 1 in America’, New York Times (7 October 2016)
  14. ‘We’ll Be Done Soon, and the Planet Will Recover’, New Statesman (12 June 2017)
  15. ‘The Fortune Cookie’, Anatomy of Innocence: Testimonies of the Wrongfully Convicted (Liveright, 2017)
  16. ‘Lee Child on Birmingham’, Guardian (8 September 2018)
  17. The Hero (TLS Books, 2019)
  18. ‘Lee Child’, Dear NHS: 100 Stories to Say Thank You, ed. Adam Kay (Orion, 2020)

Selected Secondary Literature

This biography is largely based on my many interviews with Lee Child and others, his own introductions to the collectors’ editions of his novels produced to date by the Mysterious Bookshop, his introductions to the Transworld editions of the novels of John D. MacDonald (branded in the style of the Reacher books), and on events at which I have heard him speak, in particular: New York’s ThrillerFest 2016 and 2017, St Hilda’s Mystery & Crime Conference 2016, Sheffield’s Off the Shelf festival 2017, Harrogate’s Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival 2017 and 2018, and Bristol’s CrimeFest 2018. I have drawn extensively on his private archive, held at the University of East Anglia, on back numbers of the Chronicle and Gazette from the archive of King Edward’s School, Birmingham, and on the blogs, reviews and interviews collected (and until 2020 accessible) on his official website: www.leechild.com.

Not all sources below are cited but all those that are have been listed, with the exception of podcasts and broadcast interviews, which are referenced in the text (and in numerous cases no longer accessible).

  1. Barber, John, ‘First Impressions: “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, RSC, August 1970’, Independent (1 February 2008; first published in the Daily Telegraph)
  2. Barnes, Clive, ‘Theater: Historic Staging of “Dream”’, New York Times (28 August 1970)
  3. Beahm, George, The Jack Reacher Field Manual: An Unofficial Companion to Lee Child’s Novels (BenBella Books, 2016)
  4. Beckett, Samuel, Waiting for Godot (Grove Press, 1954)
  5. Bidinotto, Robert, ‘An Interview with Lee Child: Parts 1, 2 & 3’, The Vigilante Author (13, 14, 17 October 2011)
  6. Bishop, Rob, Euros & Villans (E & T Publishing, 2018)
  7. —, ‘Reach for a Villa Thriller’, AVFC Official (2011)
  8. Borges, Jorge Luis, Obras completas (Emecé, 1976)
  9. Brook, Peter, The Empty Space (Penguin, 2008; first published 1968)
  10. Brown, Josie, ‘Digging Up the Past’, The Big Thrill (31 October 2018)
  11. Clinton, Bill, ‘By the Book’, New York Times (13 June 2018)
  12. Coe, Jonathan, Middle England, (Penguin, 2018)
  13. —, The Rotters’ Club (Viking, 2001)
  14. Crampton, Robert, ‘Lee Child Talks Jack Reacher, Tom Cruise and New Book The Hero’, The Times (23 November 2019)
  15. Darnford-Slater, John, Commando: Memoirs of a Fighting Commando in World War Two (Greenhill, 1991)
  16. Dawber, Tony, ‘A Spellbinding Thriller’, Lancaster Guardian (4 July 1997)
  17. Day, Peter, ‘The Rise and Fall of Britain’s Steel Industry’, BBC News (22 May 2016)
  18. Drabble, Margaret, ‘Books that Made Me’, Guardian (18 January 2019)
  19. Ewing, Sarah, ‘Lee Child: Me and My Motor’, Sunday Times (15 July 2018)
  20. Fitzwalter, Raymond, The Dream that Died: The Rise and Fall of ITV (Matador, 2008)
  21. Gapper, John, ‘Lunch with the FT: Lee Child’, Financial Times (15 July 2011)
  22. Gekoski, Rick, ‘Why I Love Lee Child’s Jack Reacher Novels’, Guardian (24 August 2019)
  23. Gladwell, Malcolm, ‘The Lawless Pleasures of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher Novels’, New Yorker (9 September 2015)
  24. Graham, Natalie, ‘Writer Had Thrilling Escape from Debt’, Sunday Times (26 May 2002)
  25. Haythorne, Jodie, ‘Lee Is Set to Make a Killing’, Lancaster Guardian (2 May 1997)
  26. Heathcote, Charlotte, ‘Moral Code Behind Lee Child’s Success’, Express (30 October 2011)
  27. Heisler, Todd, ‘Lee Child and the Macho of Minimalism’, New York Times (1 September 2013)
  28. Higgins, Charlotte, ‘Fearless, Free and Feminist: The Enduring Appeal of Jack Reacher’, Guardian (18 October 2019)
  29. Inglis, Simon, ‘Last Rites for the Holy Trinity’, Guardian (13 May 2000)
  30. —, Villa Park: 100 Years (Sports Projects Ltd, 1997)
  31. Jordan, Jon, ‘Interview with Tasha Alexander and Andrew Grant’, Crimespree, no. 48 (August/September 2012)
  32. Karim, Ali, ‘The Persuasive Lee Child’, January (May 2003)
  33. Keates, Nancy, ‘Reacher’s Minimalist Roost’, Wall Street Journal (7 May 2010)
  34. Lanchester, John, ‘How Jack Reacher Was Built’, New Yorker (7 November 2016)
  35. Leith, Sam, ‘Looking Up to Jack Reacher’, Times Literary Supplement (13 July 2018)
  36. Levin, Martin, ‘Q&A: Lee Child’, Globe and Mail (30 September 2011)
  37. Lodge, David, Nice Work (Secker & Warburg, 1988)
  38. Martin, Andy, ‘Lee Child: Adventures of an Over-Reacher’, Independent (3 December 2010)
  39. —, ‘Lee Child on Jack Reacher: How the Best-selling Author Writes His Mysteries’, Independent (5 January 2015)
  40. —, ‘The Man with No Plot’, The Conversation (27 November 2015)
  41. ---, ‘Nothing to Lose by Lee Child’, Independent (2 April 2008)
  42. —, ‘The Professor on Lee Child’s Shoulder’, New York Times (22 November 2015)
  43. —, Reacher Said Nothing: Lee Child and the Making of Make Me (Penguin Random House, 2015; Polity Press, 2020)
  44. —, With Child: Lee Child and the Readers of Jack Reacher (Polity Press, 2019)
  45. Maslin, Janet, ‘Action Hero Travels Light and Often Takes the Bus’, New York Times (9 June 2005)
  46. —, ‘Brothers in Crime Writing: The Tyro and the Veteran’, New York Times (13 May 2009)
  47. —, ‘A Gentler Jack Reacher Emerges in Lee Child’s Latest Novel’, New York Times (8 November 2017)
  48. —, ‘Jack Reacher Is Still Restless: But His Creator Has Settled Down’, New York Times (23 October 2019)
  49. —, ‘Tough Guy at the Border of Hope and Despair’, New York Times (2 June 2008)
  50. McGrath, Charles, ‘Creating a Don Quixote of the Cheap Motel Circuit’, New York Times (3 June 2008)
  51. Mendelsohn, Daniel, An Odyssey: A Father, A Son and An Epic (William Collins, 2017)
  52. Meyer, Mary, ‘Crime Writer Gets a Kick from Renoir’, Sunday Times (20 April 2008)
  53. Monsarrat, Nicholas, The White Rajah (Cassel & Company Ltd, 1961)
  54. Nash, Graham, Wild Tales (Crown Archetype, 2013)
  55. Nelson, Victoria, ‘The Non-attachment Virtue’, Times Literary Supplement (7 December 2018)
  56. Odell, Michael, ‘This Pencil Changes Lives’, Esquire (October 2012)
  57. O’Donnell, Paraic, ‘End of the Real Jack Reacher?’, Irish Times (20 January 2020)
  58. Oney, Steve, ‘Lee Child’, Playboy (October 2012)
  59. Parker, James, ‘Jack Reacher Still Won’t Quit’, Atlantic (December 2018)
  60. Persaud, Joy, ‘If I Ruled the World: Lee Child’, Reader’s Digest (July 2018)
  61. Poole, Steven, ‘Haruki Murakami’, Guardian (13 September 2014)
  62. —, ‘Personal by Lee Child Review’, Guardian (4 September 2014)
  63. Rubinstein, Mark, ‘The Emotional Contract of Jack Reacher, CrimeReads (30 April 2018)
  64. Sanderson, Caroline, ‘Lee Child on Jack Reacher’, Penguin (27 November 2018)
  65. Sexton, David, ‘Clash of the Titans – Lee Child vs Ian McEwan’, Evening Standard (31 March 2010)
  66. Sheehan, Jacqueline, ‘Lee Child and Paul Doiron’, Writer (22 April 2019)
  67. Sherez, Stav, ‘Five Reasons Why the Jack Reacher Novels Are Brilliant’, Spectator (19 October 2016)
  68. Simpson, Dave, ‘Made of Steel: How South Yorkshire Became the British Indie Heartland’, Guardian (2 February 2018)
  69. Smith, Emma, This is Shakespeare (Pelican, 2019)
  70. Solnit, Rebecca, ‘Flight’, in The Faraway Nearby (Viking, 2013)
  71. —, ‘Grandmother Spider’, in Men Explain Things to Me (Haymarket, 2014)
  72. Standish, David, ‘Kurt Vonnegut’, Playboy (July 1973)
  73. Stasio, Marilyn, ‘Crime’, New York Times (22 July 2001)
  74. Styron, William, Sophie’s Choice (Random House, 1979)
  75. Sutherland, Amy, ‘Lee Child Reads “Anything”’, Boston Globe (29 August 2015)
  76. Tayler, Christopher, ‘I Just Hate the Big Guy’, London Review of Books (4 February 2016)
  77. Trott, Anthony, No Place for Fop or Idler: The Story of King Edward’s School, Birmingham (James & James, 1992)
  78. Upton, Chris, ‘A Lost Masterpiece: Birmingham’s Original King Edward’s School’, Birmingham Post (4 March 2011)
  79. Vinjamuri, David, ‘The Strongest Brand in Publishing Is…’, Forbes (4 March 2014)
  80. Weiner, Rex, ‘Lee Child’, High Times (22 November 2017)
  81. Wouk, Herman, War and Remembrance (Little, Brown and Company 1978)
  82. —, The Winds of War (Little, Brown and Company, 1971)
  83. Wray, Daniel Dylan, ‘Sheffield’s Sound Map Helps Reveal the City’s Aural Character’, Guardian (25 October 2013)
  84. Wright, Abbe, ‘A Conversation with Andrew Grant and Lee Child’, Read It Forward (2019)
  85. Zephaniah, Benjamin, ‘Seven Deadly Sins of Football: Villa Fans, Violence and Me’ (Guardian, 17 May 2009)

Additional credits

  1. The poem ‘Canal-Side in Birmingham’ by Andy Forbes is reproduced by kind permission of the author.
  2. Quotations from Martin Bell, David Liddiment, Jude Kelly and Tony Brill are taken from Fitzwalter.
  3. The song ‘Nature Boy’, first released in 1948 by Nat King Cole for Capitol Records, was written by eden ahbez [sic].