Jack Reacher Officially Returns With a Major Reunion in New ‘Chain Reaction’ Excerpt [Exclusive]
Chris is a Senior News Writer for Collider. He can be found in an IMAX screen, with his eyes watering and his ears bleeding for his own pleasure. He joined the news team in 2022 and accidentally fell upwards into a senior position despite his best efforts.
For reasons unknown, he enjoys analyzing box office receipts, giant sharks, and has become known as the go-to man for all things Bosch, Mission: Impossible and Christopher Nolan in Collider's news division. Recently, he found himself yeehawing along to the Dutton saga on the Yellowstone Ranch.
He is proficient in sarcasm, wit, Photoshop and working unfeasibly long hours. Amongst his passions sit the likes of the history of the Walt Disney Company, the construction of theme parks, steam trains and binge-watching Gilmore Girls with a coffee that is just hot enough to scald him.
His obsession with the Apple TV+ series Silo is the subject of mockery within the Senior News channel, where his feelings about Taylor Sheridan's work are enough to make his fellow writers roll their eyes.
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Jack Reacher isn't exactly known for putting down roots. For nearly three decades, the former military police officer has wandered across America, carrying little more than the clothes on his back, a toothbrush, and an uncanny ability to find himself in the middle of someone else's problems. But while Reacher rarely looks back, there are a handful of people from his past who have managed to leave a lasting impression. In his next adventure, one of the most important people in his life is officially making a long-awaited return.
Collider is delighted to exclusively reveal an excerpt from Chain Reaction, the latest installment in the bestselling thriller series created by Lee Child, which arrives on October 20, 2026. Written by Child alongside his brother Andrew Child, the novel reunites Reacher with Susan Turner, the former commanding officer of the 110th Military Police Special Investigations Unit, whose relationship with the wandering hero was central to the events of Never Go Back. Turner has come a long way since their last encounter, having risen through the ranks to become a general, but her reunion with Reacher isn't simply an opportunity to catch up over breakfast.
Our exclusive excerpt finds Reacher arriving at a familiar diner, where Turner is waiting for him. Their conversation begins with the sort of easy familiarity that comes from a shared history, with the pair reflecting on their time together, their respective lives, and the paths they've taken since going their separate ways. There's even a little romantic tension still bubbling beneath the surface, although neither is particularly inclined to admit it outright.
However, Turner has more pressing matters on her mind. She's now in charge of G-99 Section, a powerful new military investigative organization reporting directly to the Army's Chief of Staff, and she's facing a problem that requires Reacher's particular talents. It's the beginning of a mystery that will take the pair into a dangerous world of artificial intelligence, corporate espionage, and a conspiracy with potentially enormous consequences.
Collider Exclusive · Taylor Sheridan Universe Quiz
Which Taylor Sheridan
Show Do You Belong In?
Yellowstone · Landman · Tulsa King · Mayor of Kingstown
Four worlds. All of them brutal, complicated, and built on power, loyalty, and the price of survival. Taylor Sheridan doesn't write heroes — he writes people who do what they have to do and live with the cost. Ten questions will reveal which one of his worlds you were made for.
🤠Yellowstone
🛢️Landman
👑Tulsa King
⚖️Mayor of Kingstown
01
Where does your power come from? In Sheridan's world, everyone has leverage. The question is what kind.
02
Who do you put first, no matter what? Loyalty in Sheridan's universe is always absolute — and always costly.
03
Someone crosses a line. How do you respond? Every Sheridan protagonist has a line. What matters is what happens after it's crossed.
04
Where do you feel most in your element? Sheridan's worlds are as much about place as they are about people.
05
How do you feel about operating in the grey? Nobody in a Sheridan show has clean hands. The question is how they carry the dirt.
06
What are you actually fighting to hold onto? Every Sheridan character is fighting a war. The real question is what they're defending.
07
How do you lead? Authority in Sheridan's world is never given — it's established, maintained, and constantly tested.
08
Someone new arrives and tries to change how things work. Your reaction? Every Sheridan show has an outsider disrupting an established order. Sometimes that outsider is you.
09
What has your position cost you? Nobody gets to where these characters are without paying for it. The bill is always personal.
10
When it's over, what do you want people to say? Sheridan's characters all know the ending is coming. The question is what they leave behind.
Sheridan Has Spoken You Belong In…
The show that claimed the most of your answers is the world you were built for. If two tied, both are shown — you're complicated enough to straddle two Sheridan universes.
🤠 Yellowstone
🛢️ Landman
👑 Tulsa King
⚖️ Mayor of Kingstown
You are a Dutton — or you might as well be. You understand that some things are worth protecting at any cost, and that the modern world's indifference to history, to land, to legacy, is not something you're willing to accept quietly. You lead from the front, you carry your family's weight without complaint, and when someone threatens what's yours, you don't escalate — you finish it. You're not cruel. But you are absolute. In Yellowstone's world, that combination of ferocity and loyalty doesn't make you a villain. It makes you the only thing standing between everything that matters and everyone who wants to take it.
You thrive in the chaos of high-stakes negotiation, where the money is enormous, the margins are thin, and the wrong word in the wrong room can cost everyone everything. You're a fixer — the person called when a situation is already on fire and needs someone with the nerve to walk into it. West Texas oil country rewards exactly what you are: sharp, adaptable, unsentimental, and absolutely clear-eyed about what people want and what they'll do to get it. You're not naive enough to think this world is fair. You're smart enough to be the one deciding who it's fair to.
You are a Dwight Manfredi — someone who has served their time, paid their dues, and arrived somewhere unexpected with nothing but their reputation and their wits. You adapt without losing yourself. You build loyalty through respect rather than fear, though you're not above reminding people that the two aren't mutually exclusive. Tulsa King is for people who are still standing when everyone assumed they'd be finished — who find, in an unfamiliar place, that they're more capable than the world gave them credit for. You don't need a throne. You build one, wherever you happen to land.
You carry the weight of a system that is broken by design, and you do it anyway — because someone has to, and because you're the only one positioned to do it without the whole thing collapsing. Mike McLusky's world is for people who are comfortable operating where there are no good options, only less catastrophic ones. You speak every language: law enforcement, criminal, political, human. That fluency makes you invaluable and it makes you a target. You've made your peace with both. Mayor of Kingstown belongs to people who understand that keeping the peace is not the same as being at peace — and who do the job regardless.
Jack Reacher Is Back, but Some Things Never Change
One of the most appealing aspects of Chain Reaction is the return of a familiar relationship that allows readers to see a different side of Reacher, because Turner knows him better than most, and their reunion provides a reminder that beneath his fridge-like exterior and uncompromising moral code is a man capable of affection, loyalty, and someone who does enjoy the occasional cuddle. The novel also places Reacher in unfamiliar territory, pitting his old-school investigative instincts against a world increasingly dominated by technology. Fortunately, as readers have discovered time and again, Reacher doesn't necessarily need to understand every technological advancement to recognize when something doesn't add up. Sometimes, the simplest solution is still the best one for this guy.
Chain Reaction marks Andrew Child's first solo outing as the principal writer of the series, following his previous collaborations with Lee Child, and continues the adventures of one of fiction's most enduring action heroes. With Turner back in the picture and a new mystery demanding Reacher's attention, there's plenty for longtime readers to look forward to.
Read Collider's exclusive excerpt from Chain Reaction below. The novel arrives October 20, 2026. You can explore the Reacher novels and more with a free trial of Audible.
'Chain Reaction' by Lee Child and Andrew Child
The diner was still there. It looked more or less the same. A little older, a little cleaner. It had a new aluminum kitchen chimney, taller and wider than the old one. Maybe a new city ordnance, or an insur-ance requirement. The lot had been blacktopped, and parking spaces had been outlined with thick white paint. About a third of them were occupied, some by battered low-rent civilian vehicles, some by the kind of weird European models troops brought back from Germany, and one by an unmarked Dodge Charger, metallic blue paint waxed within an inch of its life, alloy wheels clean enough to eat off. The general’s ride, for sure. She was early.
He went inside. There was a line of booths at the windows on his left, which L-shaped to the right at the back of the room, and ran on out of sight. The counter followed the same geometry. Most of the patrons were at the counter, all men, hip to hip on the stools, talking morning talk, in low morning voices.
Reacher checked the booths, looking for a woman alone in a four-top. Didn’t see one. Not on the left. He walked through the room, in the lane between the booths and the counter, dodging exiting customers and busy waitresses, all the way to the back of the room, where the L-shape turned right. He scanned the new line of booths ahead of him.
He saw a woman sitting alone. She was an inch or two above aver-age height, small-boned and slender, dark hair pulled back, skin the color of honey, deep brown eyes, intelligence in her face, plus determination, and maybe a little mischief too.
He knew her.
He had met her. More than that. They had spent a lot of time to-gether. Quality time. He remembered it fondly. Not all of it easy. Not their fault. Complications had gotten in the way. But parts of it had been spectacular. Truly. And it had ended well enough. As well as these things can. It had started one random day when he called his old office number, from memory, years after leaving, looking for some off-the-record information. A real Hail Mary. His old phone, on his old desk. She had answered it, because at that time she was his generations-later successor as commanding officer of the 110th MP.
Major Susan Turner, back then. Now General Turner, apparently.
She saw him. She looked him up and down, and her gaze came to rest on his face, and she smiled. She still looked good. A little older, but it suited her. She was in blue jeans and a black T-shirt. They suited her too. He smiled back. He slid in, across the vinyl bench, opposite her.
“Hello, Reacher,” she said.
Her voice was just the same. A little low, a little husky, as intimate and inviting as ever.
“Hello, Turner,” he said. “Or should I say ma’am, and salute?” She smiled again.
“Three promotions since I saw you last,” she said. “Living the dream. How have you been?”
“Living the dream too,” he said. “My version, anyway. No promotions involved.”
“You’re still on the road.” A statement, not a question. “You’re still in the army.”
“I like it.”
“I did too,” Reacher said. “Mostly, I guess. But being on the road is better. You should have come with me. I wish you had.”
A waitress stopped by. She already had a jug of coffee in her hand. She filled their mugs. Turner ordered an omelet. Reacher ordered pancakes, syrup, bacon, toast, and two fried eggs.
Turner said, “Thank you.” Reacher said, “For what?”
“I owe you my first promotion.” “How so?”
“You know how. I was falsely accused, and you helped me prove it. They couldn’t ignore me after that.”
“No, you deserved it, whatever else happened. You ran a good unit. No doubt you got even better. Hence the next two promotions. They had nothing to do with me.”
“Living the dream,” she said again.
“Are you going to tell me about the new command?” “Tell me about yourself first.”
“Nothing to tell. What you see is what you get. I haven’t changed much.”
“Are you happy?”
“Always. I go where I want. I have what I need. How many people can say that?”
“Still alone? Not met the right woman yet?”
“I meet them all the time. But I don’t club them on the head and drag them away by the hair. Obviously it’s got to be their decision. And they always decide no. I’m not what they’re looking for.”
Turner said nothing.
The waitress came back with the food. She refilled Reacher’s coffee and left. Turner speared a decorous forkful of omelet. Reacher poured syrup and cut a layered inch of egg white, bacon, and pancake.
He said, “Found the right guy yet?”
“Three or four possibilities,” she said. “But no keepers.”
“Not what you were looking for?”
“Maybe my expectations were unrealistic.”
“It’s good to see you, Turner.”
“Likewise, Reacher, very much so.”
“You went to a lot of trouble.”
“A little.”
“Why now?”
She said, “We’ll talk about that later.”
“Later than what?”
“After you get the background.”
He nodded.
He said, “So tell me about the new command.”
“It’s a whole new thing,” she said. “The best of the Criminal Investigation Division, the best of counterintelligence command, and the best of the uniformed MP Corps all merged together and floated free. Effectively it’s a separate law enforcement operation inside the army. Like the army’s own FBI. It’s the best of the best, like fantasy football. In that regard it still feels exactly like the 110th, except now it’s a hundred times bigger and a thousand times more versatile. And it has a new name.”
“Which the chief you sent wouldn’t say.”
“My orders. Not just for you. I don’t want names and faces tied to the unit. I don’t want my people recognized. Better that way.”
“I won’t tell anyone,” Reacher said.
“The new name is CSA G-99 Section.”
“Catchy,” Reacher said. Then he paused a beat.
“CSA?” he said. “The Chief of Staff of the Army?” “I report directly to him.”
“Thereby insulating you from interference and guaranteeing your independence.”
“That’s the plan.”
“But also tying you to heavy-duty politics. Because the Chief of Staff is all wrapped up with the National Security Council, and the national security adviser, and the cabinet, and the president himself. Who just gave him his own private FBI. You OK with that?”
“So far,” she said. “It means people take my calls real quick. Like your bank, for instance.”
“Where’s your office?”
“In the Pentagon. D-ring.”
“A short step away from the folks with the outside windows. You do know, right?”
“Of course I know.”
“Say it out loud for me.”
“I’m independent of everyone except him. And he’s political.”
“You OK with that?” he asked again.
“So far,” she said again.
“Why the call to my bank?”
“Maybe I miss you.”
“Why so much on that particular day?”
“I need your help,” she said. “I have a problem.”
Adapted from Chain Reaction by Lee Child and Andrew Child. Copyright © 2026 by Lee Child and Andrew Child. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
- Release Date
- February 3, 2022
- Network
- Prime Video
- Showrunner
- Nick Santora
- Directors
- Omar Madha, Carol Banker, Julian Holmes, Lin Oeding, M.J. Bassett, Norberto Barba, Stephen Surjik, Thomas Vincent
- Writers
- Cait Duffy
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.