Lee Child - Jack Reacher's Rules

A classic confidence trick is where you drip, drip, drip the unimportant stuff but then hold back on the final installment.

Assess and evaluate.

Paranoia prefers triple bluffs to double bluffs.

Killers don’t stop at two murders. If they do more than one, they do more than two.

“People don’t look for complications. You hear hoofbeats, you look for horses, not zebras.”

“Something for nothing, that’s a foreign language.”

All good scam artists stick as close to the truth as possible.

There’s always something out of context, even before you know what the context ought to be.

Force yourself to think like they think.

“The whole of life is a gamble, from the very beginning to the very end.”

MIRANDA

The Miranda warning is used by U.S. police when questioning criminal suspects, to protect the individual from compelled self-incrimination, and to preserve the admissibility of the criminal’s statement in court. It originated in 1966 after Miranda vs. Arizona , when an Ernesto Arturo Miranda was deemed to have had his rights violated during his arrest.

• You have the right to remain silent.

• Anything you say or do can and will be held against you in a court of law.

• You have the right to speak to an attorney.

• If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you.

• Do you understand these rights as they have been read to you?

“Ernesto A. Miranda was a moron, you know that?” Deerfield said. “A couple of smokes short of a pack. He was a subnormal guy. He needed the protection. You subnormal? You a moron, Reacher?”

“Probably, to be putting up with this shit.”

THE SCIENCE OF … BURNING DOWN A BUILDING

Place books of matches under furniture in the center of the room.

Pile as much paper as you can find on top; lean a burning cigarette against the matches.

Retire, leaving the door open for a draft.

Brick buildings always burn well. The contents go up first, then the floors, ceiling, and roof, with the outer walls holding up and forming a tall chimney to enhance the air flow. When the walls finally collapse, the blast of sparks and embers will spread the fire farther.

Sometimes a whole city block can be taken out with one cigarette and one book of matches.

“I’m sleeping well … but I think that’s mostly because of the tranquilizers.”

Sleep when you can, because you never know when you’re going to sleep again.

Accept that you’ll never find a bed that will accommodate your feet as well as your head.

Careful, sleep can be a symptom of caffeine deprivation.

Sleep as much as you can, because tiredness causes more foul-ups than carelessness and stupidity put together.

If you go to sleep fully dressed, you’ll be ready for action when you wake.

You’ll feel safer sleeping with a handgun under your pillow.

“A medical man would say I passed out. I prefer to think I just went to sleep.”

“He set the clock in his head for two hours, and he breathed in once, and he breathed out once, and then he fell asleep, almost instantly.”

Tune in to your circadian rhythms to set your personal internal alarm clock.

Four o’clock in the morning is the best time to attack. In the Army they call it KGB time.

“Clocks in prisons are bizarre. Why measure hours and minutes when people think in years and decades?”

THINGS YOU’LL NEVER HEAR REACHER SAY

Any idea what the time is?

“He knew what time it was to within about twenty seconds. It was an old skill, born of many long wakeful nights on active service.

When you’re waiting for something to happen, you close your body down like a beach house in winter and you let your mind lock on to the steady pace of the passing seconds. It’s like suspended animation. It saves energy and it lifts the responsibility for your heartbeat away from your unconscious brain and passes it on to some kind of a hidden clock. Makes a huge black space for thinking in.

But it keeps you just awake enough to be ready for whatever you need to be ready for.

And it means you always know what time it is.”

“I’ve got no use for possessions. Travel light, travel far.”

Never carry a spare shirt.

Be on as few pieces of paper as it is possible for a human being to be.

“To fill a small bag means selecting, and choosing, and evaluating. Pretty soon I’d have a big bag, and then two or three. A month later I’d be like the rest of you.”

Never have a credit card, real estate, a driver’s license, a car, a wife, children, or an address.

Take one day at a time.

“I’m not a vagrant … I’m a hobo. Big difference.”

Always travel by road—you don’t need ID and can pay with cash.

“Carry a spare shirt and pretty soon you’re carrying spare pants. Then you need a suitcase. Next thing you know, you’ve got a house and a car and a savings plan and you’re filling out all kinds of forms.”

THINGS YOU’LL NEVER SEE REACHER DO

Buy a business-class airline ticket

WHAT TO DO IN THE FACE OF:

STUPIDITY

MISUNDERSTANDING

IMPERTINENT PERSONAL QUESTIONS

EMPTY THREATS

BAD GUYS WHO WON’T TAKE THE HINT AND BACK OFF

Shrug.

“Reacher said nothing.”

If in doubt, say nothing.

Keeping your mouth shut is a devastating weapon.

Your silence will make your opponent want to babble.

Say nothing, do nothing.

You need a reason for speech, but you need more for silence.

“Reacher made no reply. It was a technique he had perfected half a lifetime ago. Just stand absolutely still, don’t blink, say nothing. Wait for them to run through the possibilities. Wait for them to start worrying.”

BLIND BLAKE

This is the only known photograph of Blind Blake, whose life—and death—remain something of a mystery.

Born Arthur Blake in 1896 in (probably) Jacksonville, Florida, Blind Blake’s distinctive guitar playing sounded like a ragtime piano. Blind from birth, he is still regarded as the unrivaled master of ragtime blues finger-picking, who could play a complete band arrangement by himself. Between 1926 and 1932 he recorded more than eighty tracks for Paramount, which were big sellers in their day. After Paramount’s bankruptcy Blake became a heavy drinker and died, by accident or disease, at the age of thirty-eight. But there is also a story that he was murdered in Margrave, Georgia.