Past Tense

Jack Reacher intends to take an amazing road journey across America, from Maine to California, by following the October sun. He is not successful. He spots a sign for the town where his father was born on a rural road in the middle of the New England woods, a place he has never visited. He asks himself, what's one more day? He chooses to go around.

Nearby, at precisely the same time, an automobile breaks down. In an attempt to sell a treasure, two young Canadians are travelling to New York City. They find themselves marooned in an isolated hotel in the middle of nowhere. It's an odd place, yet that's all that exists.

Reacher inquires about the old family house at the municipal clerk's office the next morning. He's been informed that the community has never had a Reacher resident. He is aware that his father never returned. He now questions if he was really there at all.

And so starts another thrilling, suspenseful journey for Reacher. It's possible for the past to have been worse than the present. That's beyond a doubt.