Despite changes, Jack Reacher stays the good course

“The Sentinel,” by Lee Child and Andrew Child (Delacorte Press)

The cover of “The Sentinel,” the 25th thriller in the wildly popular Jack Reacher series, declares that it was written by Lee Child and Andrew Child, but no one by either name actually wrote the book.

But Reacher, the mythic avenger who wanders the back roads of America like a modern day Lone Ranger, is too popular to fade away, so Lee Grant (aka Child), has turned the series over to his younger brother Andrew Grant, the author of nine thrillers published under his real name.

It is Andrew who wrote most of “The Sentinel,” but because the names “Child” and “Reacher” are forever bound together, he adopted the penname Andrew Child to carry the series into the future.

The change in authors is subtle but detectable. For one thing, the technologically averse Reacher has acquired a cell phone. For another, the hero has become a bit chatty, talking more with other characters and telling readers more about his thinking, including how he maps out hand-to-hand combat in advance with thugs who outnumber him.

The story begins when Reacher wanders into the little town of Pleasantville, Tennessee. There, Rusty Rutherford, a nerdy IT manager, is being blamed for a cyber-attack that wiped out the town’s computer data. After rescuing Rutherford from a kidnapping attempt, Reacher gradually discovers that the seemingly isolated attack is part of a conspiracy to undermine the coming national election. Despite the change in authors, the writing remains tight and the non-stop action is as propulsive as ever.