Writer Lee Child blasts crime rival

LEE CHILD’S Jack Reacher novels have sold more than 100 million copies and been turned into Hollywood films starring Tom Cruise. They also inspired fellow writer David Baldacci, if Child is to be believed.

Speaking at the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival, British-born Child wryly told an audience that his U.S. rival ‘didn’t just steal my ideas — he stole my entire series!’

No doubt he was joking, even though the books do share remarkable similarities. While Child’s novels are about a tough ex-U.S. Army investigator who’s for ever getting into scrapes with bad guys, Baldacci’s are about John Puller, a tough U.S. military investigator for ever getting into scrapes with . . .