Lee Child: Jack Reacher author on stepping back from writing and having his brother take over the Jack Reacher novels - The Mike Hosking Breakfast

Jack Reacher has returned in yet another novel from Lee and Andrew Child. 

‘The Secret’ is the 28th book in the series and was released only a few months before the second season of the TV show is set to be released in December. 

Lee Child told Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking that this is the last of their transitional collaborations, after which Andrew will be taking over completely. 

He said that he made himself a promise years ago that his career wouldn’t end with a downwards slope. 

“I tried to remain as self-aware as I could,” Child told Hosking.  

“When was the moment that I was just running out of gas, running out of energy?” 

So while Lee Child is going to stop, his brother Andrew is taking over and keeping Jack Reacher alive. 

“The secret is really Andrew’s book and it’s very good, and that’s driving me crazy,” he said. 

“He could be better than me.”  

When it comes to the TV show, Child is an executive producer and consultant. 

“I don’t really want a role,” he confessed. 

“I truly believe the best thing to do is hand over the project and give them confidence to do it on their own, without me looking over their shoulders.”  

Child’s wound up being a “friend of the production”, as he puts it, as the showrunners would call him up and ask for his insight and input. 

Although he’s officially stepping back from writing Jack Reacher novels, he said it doesn’t feel like a huge step. 

“You learn very early on,” he told Hosking. “That the readers grab him, the readers fall in love with the character, and from that point onward, the reader owns Reacher.” 

“It fades away from you over time.” 

Child said he wanted to be decisive in avoiding that downward slope, saying that he’s glad he did it this way. 

“We’re going to get another ten, twelve, fifteen years of Reacher that I could not have done myself.” 

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