I.

BAD LUCK AND TROUBLE

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TABLE OF CONTENT
I. II. III. IV. Title of the book Background information about the book Background information about the author Elements of literature A. What is the main idea of the book read? B. Where and when the story took place? C. What are the series of incidents that made up the story? 1. Introduction 2. Initial or first event 3. Conflicts 4. Climax 5. Falling action 6. Conclusion D. Who are the persons who took part on the action or in the story? How did they behave in the story? What are their characteristics? a. Major characters b. Minor characters V. Implications A. What are the social relevance of the book read or its influence from its milieu? B. Does it stimulate and enhance your intellectual faculty? C. Give your evaluation of the book/story.

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II.

Background information about the book

Bad Luck and Trouble is the eleventh book in the Jack

Reacher series written by Lee Child. It was first published in Great Britain in 2007 by Bantam Press, a division of Transworld Publishers. Lee Child began the plot on June 25, 2005, when he remembered that it was ten years to the day he had been fired from a previous job, leading to the why and how he became a writer. He then thought about old colleagues, workmates, buddies, that he went through a lot with, and wondered where they all were, what were they doing, were they doing well or struggling, were they happy, what did they look like, and leading to full nostalgia. Feelings that high school, college, old jobs, old towns moved away from, that everyone shares. He decided to make the next Reacher book about a reunion, "among a bunch of old colleagues that he hadn't seen for ten years, people that he loved fiercely and respected deeply. Regular Reacher readers will know that he's a pretty self-confident guy, but I wanted him to wobble just a little this time, to compare his choices with theirs, to measure himself against them." Reacher's old friend tells him in the novel's beginning to "put the old unit back together".

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III.

Background information about the author

Jim Grant (born 29 October 1954), better known by his pen name Lee Child, is a British thriller writer.[1] His first novel, Killing Floor, won the Anthony Award for Best First Novel. Each of Child's novels follows the adventures of a former American military policeman, Jack Reacher, who wanders the United States. Though Grant was born in Coventry, England, his parents moved him and his three brothers to Handsworth Wood in Birmingham when he was four years old, so that the boys could get a better education. Grant attended Cherry Orchard Primary School in Handsworth Wood until the age of 11. He attended King Edward's School, Birmingham, also the alma mater of J. R. R. Tolkien and Enoch Powell. His father was a civil servant and his younger brother, Andrew Grant, is also a thriller novelist. Grant was elected president of the Mystery Writers of America in 2009. In 2012, his novel One Shot was adapted into Jack Reacher; an American thriller film starring Tom Cruise. Grant has a cameo appearance as a police desk sergeant in the film.

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IV.

Elements of Literature

A. What is the main idea of the book read?

They wanted to give justice to their former team-mate who has been thrown in a helicopter from 3000ft. above Californian dessert. They have a slogan You do not mess with the Special Investigators. They always watched each others backs. And Jack Reacher has to put the old unit back together.

B. Where and when the story took place?

The story began seventeen days after Calvin Franz has been thrown in the helicopter. Most of the scenes took place in Los Angeles.

C. What are the series of incidents that made up the story?

(Introduction)
September 11th changed Reachers drifter lifestyle in one particular way. As well as his folding toothbrush, he now carries photo ID. Yet he is still as close to untraceable as a human being in America can get. So when a member of his old Army unit fines a way to get a message to him, he knows it must be deadly serious: I want you to put the old unit back together.

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(Initial/First Event)
The man was called Calvin Franz and the helicopter was a Bell 222. Franz had two broken legs, so he had to be loaded on board strapped to a stretcher. He had thrown out of a corporate helicopter from 3,000 feet above the California desert. Seventeen days after that, Reacher is roaming alone with no objectives, no phone, no address, just the clothes he's wearing and his ATM card, when he sees an anonymous deposit to his bank account. Reacher automatically analyses the amount, using his math obsession and investigative skills. Also obsessed with math, Frances Neagley is the sender of $1,030.00, which Reacher recognizes as their old army code, 1030, for urgent help needed. He meets up with Neagley in California and they discover the death of Calvin Franz, one of nine members of their elite team of exarmy investigators, who are being hunted down one by one. After getting no reply from anyone else, their suspicions rise and Neagley convinces him to put the old unit back together. Reacher and Neagley find that three of the other five members are missing, while Stan Lowery had a fatal car accident years earlier. They conclude Franz called the others for help with a major problem but left out the remaining four that resided too far away to get to him quickly, apart from Reacher, who is famously untraceable. Reacher and Neagley visit Franz's widow and child, Angela and Charlie. Angela is not surprised to see them and says that Franz told her all about the team, which made her feel like he had been married before, to them. Reacher notes if people were lucky like the team, they became family, but Franz got even luckier with her and Charlie, with Angela replying "but his luck ran out". The visit produces no useful information about Franz's death, but Angela gives them Franz's office keys, which Reacher and Neagley find gutted and trashed. They realize the perpetrators didn't find what they were looking for and that Franz kept his home life completely separate from his business, leading Franz to mail any dangerous computer data to himself, with triple backup of refreshed computer USB flash drives on rotating days. They find his flash memory sticks in his business post-office box and try unsuccessfully to crack the password. More information on the other team members shows that Franz was unlikely to be the one who called for help. Reacher and Neagley go to Tony Swan's workplace, defence contractor New Age in search of information, but are sent away with basically

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nothing by the HRmanager, Margaret Berenson except that Swan had been unemployed by them three weeks prior. They meet David O'Donnell at their hotel, making three of the team alive. O'Donnell cracks the password to Franz's flash drives and the team reviews a set of bizarre numbers which they conclude to be scores, and an unfamiliar name "Adrian Mount" with four aliases. The trio then go to Swan's home for more clues. Following Reacher and his team is an unmarked car, which they trap to discourage the driver. After roughing him up they find out the driver is an LA County Deputy named Thomas Brant, but outside of his jurisdiction inOrange County, CA. The team decides to ditch their rental car for a new one and run into Karla Dixon. With four of the team now alive, they proceed to source money, cars and weapons. Except for Reacher, all the team members have "moved onward and upward" from the military, making Reacher reconsider his drifting. He is happy for the others' successes but feels as if he is "treading water while the rest are swimming". Putting aside conflicting reactions at seeing his team again, Reacher focuses on the three missing members, Manuel Orozco, Jorge Sanchez and Tony Swan, and which one was in a situation so bad they couldn't handle it on their own and called for help.

(Conflict)
Unsurprised, Reacher is visited by Brant and his boss, Curtis Mauney, an LA County Sheriff. But Reacher is surprised when Mauney tells him that Reacher and his team are bait, for whoever killed Franz and caused Swan, Sanchez and Orozco to be reported missing. Mauney's LA sheriffs and Las Vegas police frequently work together and recent information had linked the dead and the missing with Reacher's team. Neagley gets a response regarding Swan's company New Age from Diana Bond, a staffer for a guy on the House Defense Committee, that Reacher and his team distrust, but they pressure Diana for confidential information on New Age and its military contracts. Mauney later contacts the team with information on Jorge Sanchez's death and Vegas police evidence on Adrian Mount with three aliases, one less than Franz had. Sanchez and Orozco were partners in a Las Vegas casino security firm and the team drives to Las Vegas for clues and answers on Sanchez and the still missing Orozco. Reacher and his team seek out the major casino security directors about the possibility of Sanchez and Orozco being involved in a large scale internal multi-casino thief network and are told about Sanchez's girlfriend, who leads them to Orozco's wife and children.
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An assassination attempt is made on Reacher and his team but they kill the assassin and take his car, which Reacher recalls from their LA hotel. Reacher uses the cell phone in the car to return-dial the last number on the call list, telling the man who answers that his assassin failed, the team knows he is behind their unit's dead members and they are coming for him.

(CLIMAX)
From Las Vegas they are told to meet Mauney at the hospital, leading Reacher to conclude that Sanchez is not dead, just severely injured. O'Donnell and Dixon go to the hospital and Reacher and Neagley go to find Margaret Berenson, after they realize that she has been lying to them. They find that New Age has been producing state of the art air missiles and pretending to destroy the prototypes, while selling them to foreign terrorists. Neagley and Reacher leave Berenson's house after finding out Berenson is being blackmailed with harm to her son, and arranging a safe hiding place for them. O'Donnell and Dixon are captured by Mauney's men in the hospital and taken to New Age's Director, Allen Lamaison. Reacher and Neagley track Mauney down, take his suitcase containing the terrorists' payment of $65 million, and kill him.

(Falling Action/Denoument)
At the second New Age complex, Reacher stows away on the same helicopter as Lamaison, where he finds O'Donnell and Dixon tied up and about to be thrown off and killed the same way that Franz, Orozco, Sanchez and Swan were. Reacher confronts Lamaison just in time, kills his assistant and pushes Lamaison out of the helicopter once it is fully one mile above ground level. After the helicopter lands Reacher asks the pilot if he flew for each of the murders and after confirmation, Reacher kills the pilot also.

(Conclusion)
The last part is the terrorist weapons buyer, who Reacher concludes does not know how to use them. The team finds the one New Age staff engineer capable of teaching the terrorist how to use the weapons, and who is being threatened with his daughter's torture. Reacher poses as the engineer briefly as the terrorist arrives, then he and Neagley tie the terrorist up, leaving him for the special military police to find him. Later, the four team members agree to set up trust funds for the murdered team members' loved ones, with a
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donation to PETA for Tony Swan's only family, his dog Maisi, and split the remaining money obtained from the bad guys. Reacher eventually receives a deposit for over $100,000 in his account, automatically analyses it, and thinks the amount is just a boring plain number. He feels disappointed and let down by Dixon, the money manager of the group. But the detailed report shows multiple deposits, "101810.18. 10012 ... Military police radio code for mission accomplished, twice over. 1018, 1018 ... second deposit was her zip code: 10012. Greenwich Village. Where she lived."

D. Who are the persons who took part on the action or in the story? How did they behave in the story? What are their characteristics?

MAJOR CHARACTERS
Jack Reacher He is highly skilled in fighting, enhanced indepth and military knowledge. He has experience and skills from various martial arts, although he is not an expert in particular style. He mentally plans his fights using physical in scientific calculating method. He left home at 18, graduated from West Point. Performed 13 years of Army service, demoted from Major to Captain in 1990, mustered out with the rank of Major in 1997. Since leaving the Army, Reacher has been a drifter. He wanders throughout the U.S. because he was accustomed to being told where to go and what to do for every day of his life from military childhood to military adulthood. He also felt he never got to know his own country, having spent much of his youth living overseas on military bases and at West Point. He usually travels by hitchhiking or bus. As a drifter, the only possessions he carries are money, a foldable toothbrush and after 9/11, an expired passport and an ATM debit card.
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Francess Neagley She is of medium height, slim, and has dark hair and eyes. Shes late thirties. Shes partner with a successful private security firm, and former Army Master Sergeant and Military Policeman. She spends large amounts of time in the gym and has a purely platonic relationship with Reacher, not liking to be touched. Her demeanor suggests that she could be considered a female counterpart to Reacher. Rarely impressed, Reacher describes her as sometimes scary. Dave ODonnell He is a member of Jack Reachers old unit. He is tall, fair, handsome, like a stockbroker. . .carries an army blade in one pocket and a pair of ceramic brassknuckles in the other. The ceramic knuckles are made from a composite stronger than steel, harder than brass and gets past any metal detector. He is meticulous, doesnt mind paperwork, and is usually underestimated because he looks like a white-collar office worker. Karla Dixon She is a forensic accountant; formerly a Major in the Army and part of Reachers Special Investigators Unit, which he formed and led in the 90s. They are reunited in in Bad Luck and Trouble and secretly rekindle an affair, which they regret not starting back in the Army. She is described as dark, very pretty, comparative small and slim. She is extremely good with numbers and shares Reachers fascination with mathematics.

MINOR CHARACTERS
Calvin Franz He was the man that thrown in the helicopter. He has two broken legs and found dead in the California dessert. He is the husband of Angela Franz and the father of little Charlie. He was a member of Reachers old unit.

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Allen Lamaison He was forty-nine years old. He was a bulky thick-necked man with dark lank eyes and a mouth too small for his jaw. His personal information was in the next street and showed he had done twenty years inside the LAPD, the last twelve in Robbery-Homicide. Margaret Berenson About forty year old, brown hair stylish cut, slim. She was in tailored black pant suit and a white blouse. She looked swift and efficient and had an open and welcoming expression on her face. Azhari Mahmoud He is a dark-hair forty year old man. He is a terrorist weapons buyer. He uses aliases such as Adrian Mount, Alan Mason, Andrew McBride and Anthony Matthews. Angela Franz Shes the wife of Calvin Franz. She was a tall woman, white blonde, blue-eyed like a Scandinavian, and thin. Curtis Mauney The boss of Thomas Brant. LAs Country Sheriff. Stan Lowrey Hes also a member of the old unit but hes already dead a year ago because of a car accident in Montana. Tony Swan He is an assistant director of corporate security for a defense manufacturer in Southern California. Hes a short, wide-man, almost cubic in shape. Swan is affable, good-humored and intelligent. Manuel Orozco and Jorge Sanchez They runs a security business together, casinos and hotels. Both men were mavericks, lean, fast, leathery and impatient.

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V.
A.

IMPLICATIONS

What are the social relevance of the book read or its influence from its milieu?

As well as the old unit did, they always watched each others back. This book shows the unity of friends and they treat each other as families. Reacher always protects his members. He will always be there for his friends no matter what happens. We can apply it in our lives like what Reacher did.

B.

Does it stimulate and enhance your intellectual faculty?

While reading the book, I have encountered a lot of unfamiliar word. I search it in the dictionary and get its meaning. Therefore it enhanced my vocabulary. It also helped me to improve my reading skills. I learned a lesson in the story that I can apply to my daily life.

C.

Give your evaluation of the book/story.

I had very high expectations for this book but unfortunately the book didn't meet all of them. The book was alright but not as good as I had expected. The character that I found most interesting was Jack Reacher because of his smart, strategic thinking and his action packed personality. My favorite quote from the book was "were not going to lose another two. Not while I live and breathe." I like this quote because it makes you think how much this means to Jack Reacher and as an audience you think that it means as much as it does to him as it does to you.

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