Safe Enough

And Other Stories

By: Lee Child

Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini

Twenty crime stories by the creator of Jack Reacher, never before collected

For the past twenty years, Lee Child has been one of the bestselling authors in the world, thanks to the popularity of his iconic and instantly recognizable hero Jack Reacher. But even at the height of Reacher's fame, Child's short story writing was not confined to the series; throughout the course of his career, he published tales about a range of characters on both sides of the law, including assassins, a body guard, CIA and FBI agents, gangsters, and more. Meticulously plotted and packed with Child's trademark action and suspense, this collection shows the author's mastery of the short form.

In "Ten Keys," a drug-dealing hit man feels that he must unburden his fears and guilt to a stranger. A rookie cop in "Normal in Every Way" is assigned to the department's file room, where he makes connections to historic dates that could lead to solving crimes. A methodical bodyguard quits his job when he's outsmarted. A military mission is planned to perfection. A potential worker for the Manhattan Project is carefully surveilled by an FBI agent. A killer preys on other killers. Taken together, these stories are a riotous calamity of criminals and crime fighters; individually, they are expertly crafted, piercing tales that hit hard enough to leave a mark.

©2024 Otto Penzler (compilation); copyright 2024 by Lee Child (introduction); all individual stories are copyright of Lee Child (P)2024 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Mystery endings

Love the Mystery endings. I did not
guess any. Except I anticipated “what would reacher do”

unsatisfying

these shorts are too short and end in a very disatisfying manner. I'm glad that Mr. Child had fun writing them. I can't say the same about reading them.

nice 5 hours for the most part

the short series were all pretty good. Not the usual standard of Reacher novels. I appreciated the ones with numbers, figures and equations, like Reacher uses. It was a pleasant 5 hours.

Interesting

Pretty Good. Every story sounded like it could be a piece of a larger novel. Enjoyed 80%

No Jack Reacher

I just didn’t get it all the time I thought it was going somewhere but it never did. So so disappointed. I am wondering at the end of the trail do you just phone it in?I wasted a credit on this. I wasn’t really expecting Jack R, but I was curious. Major disappointment!

Very disappointed

Not what I would expect from Lee Child, a bunch of 15-20 minute stories.

Not Jack Reacher

In the introduction, Lee Child said he was encouraged to write short stories after his first published novel. I’m not sure if this was a compilation of previously written short stories, but I suspect it is. The publisher was wrong. Lee Child should stick with his Reacher series of novels. I have read 3 or 4 longer Reacher short stories that I enjoyed. I have listened to all of the novels. I thought for some reason that Safe Enough was a compilation of Reacher stories. I was disappointed when it was . Many of the stories left me hanging, as if they were unfinished. Since I listened, I don’t have a table of contents to refer to particular stories. I didn’t like the characters. The performance was stronger than the stories, but I unfortunately compared it to the readers of the novels. I don’t think I have ever rated and reviewed anything that I thought was less than excellent, but this disappointed me so much that I felt I needed to change my policy.

Disappointed in this collection of short stories.

Very disappointed in this group of Lee Child short stories. Not what I expected from one of my favorite authors.

Stick to Reacher

I can’t even believe this is the same guy who wrote the Jack Reacher books. I have eclectic literary tastes but these stories weren’t worth the time I listened to three. I just thought they might get better. So in my opinion is: DON’T BOTHER

No plots

This was terrible. Save your money. Stories end an you don't even know it. A waste of time and money.