Jack Reacher is a wanderer.
He is definitely not a spy. I have entered this series as an homage to my favorite non-spy character. He is in this compendium ONLY because I have loved these adventures for years and ... well, it's my compendium.
He has never been one and would never consider being one. He is a wanderer - a nomad who has no permanent address and no desire to get one. He likes to roam the country going wherever he chooses even if it means walking. He has an ATM card and the clothes on his back. When he needs more money, he finds a temporary job. When his clothes get dirty, he washes them a time or two and then goes into a discount store for new ones.
Reacher is a simple man with simple needs, or so he truly feels. He is also one of the best trained warriors and hunters the U.S. Army has produced. For over a dozen years, Reacher was an officer in Military Police. A graduate of West Point, he rose to the rank of Major before being busted back to Captain and working his way back up.
Standing 6'5, weighing just under 250 lbs, Reacher is a big man in dimension and in guts and in brains. He was one of the best investigators they had and could spot clues most would miss with his eyes that seemed always on the move. And when his investigations took him into harm's way, people who faced him soon learned just how dangerous he could be. The concept was simple to Reacher. If your job could take you up against high ranking officers, you had to have your facts in place before making a move. And if your job brought you against the elite in killing machines like the Green Berets and Rangers and Delta Force and Seals, if you were not tougher than they, you lost. Reacher did not like losing.
When the military started to downsize and Reacher saw his future in the military coming to an end, he decided to learn more about the country his Army father and then he had served. There were many parts of the land he had never seen, living so many years overseas. On his discharge, he started walking. He has not tired of it yet.
Jack Reacher is not a spy. Some would say he does not belong in this group and for many years he was not included. Too many people, though, have asked why he was not and finally he has been welcomed into the fold.
Reacher is not a spy. But what a spy he would have made!