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    MatchUp
    MatchUp
    MatchUp
    Audiobook15 hours

    MatchUp

    Written by Lee Child, Val McDermid, Charlaine Harris and

    Narrated by Lee Child, Jay O. Sanders, Linda Emond and

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    About this audiobook

    This “highly recommended” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) collection edited by New York Times bestselling author Lee Child pairs the beloved characters of twenty-two internationally bestselling writers in “a must-read for fans of the thriller genre” (The Real Book Spy).

    The incredible follow-up to FaceOff features twenty-two of the world’s bestselling and critically acclaimed thriller writers pairing their series characters in an eleven-story anthology curated by the International Thriller Writers (ITW). MatchUp takes the never-before-seen bestseller pairings of FaceOff and adds a delicious new twist: gender. “Think Dancing With the Stars, but with mysteries” (Booklist) as eleven of the world’s best female thriller writers from Diana Gabaldon to Kathy Reichs to Charlaine Harris are paired with eleven of the world’s best male thriller writers, including John Sandford, C.J. Box, and Nelson DeMille, among others. “This box holds a chocolate or two that will be to everyone’s liking” (Kirkus Reviews).

    In these innovative stories, their beloved protagonists, Lee Coburn, Joe Pickett, and Jack Reacher—just to name a few—team up to unnerve and satisfy thriller fans worldwide. All of the contributors are ITW members, and the project is edited by ITW member and #1 New York Times bestselling author Lee Child. The lineup includes:

    Sandra Brown’s Lee Coburn vs. C. J. Box’s Joe Pickett
    Val McDermid’s Tony Hill vs. Peter James’s Roy Grace
    Kathy Reichs’s Temperance Brennan vs. Lee Child’s Jack Reacher
    Diana Gabaldon’s Jamie Fraser vs. Steve Berry’s Cotton Malone
    Gayle Lynds’s Liz Sansborough vs. David Morrell’s Rambo
    Karin Slaughter’s Jeffrey Tolliver vs. Michael Koryta’s Joe Pritchard
    Charlaine Harris’s Harper Connelly vs. Andrew Gross’s Ty Hauck
    Lisa Jackson’s Regan Pescoli vs. John Sandford’s Virgil Flower
    Lara Adrian’s Lucan Thorne vs. Christopher Rice’s Lilliane
    Lisa Scottoline’s Bennie Rosato vs. Nelson DeMille’s John Corey
    J.A. Jance’s Ali Reynolds vs. Eric Van Lustbader’s Bravo Shaw
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateJun 13, 2017
    ISBN9781508233893
    Author

    Lee Child

    Lee Child, previously a television director, union organizer, theater technician, and law student, was fired and on the dole when he hatched a harebrained scheme to write a bestselling novel, thus saving his family from ruin. Killing Floor went on to win worldwide acclaim. The Midnight Line, is his twenty-second Reacher novel. The hero of his series, Jack Reacher, besides being fictional, is a kindhearted soul who allows Lee lots of spare time for reading, listening to music, and watching Yankees and Aston Villa games. Lee was born in England but now lives in New York City and leaves the island of Manhattan only when required to by forces beyond his control. Visit Lee online at LeeChild.com for more information about the novels, short stories, and the movies Jack Reacher and Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, starring Tom Cruise. Lee can also be found on Facebook: LeeChildOfficial, Twitter: @LeeChildReacher, and YouTube: LeeChildJackReacher.

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    Reviews for MatchUp

    4/5

    140 ratings16 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Amazing! I loved reading about my favorite characters in the same story!

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Great collection of short stores. Suspense ! Enjoyed almost every one .
    • 3/5
      I enjoyed the collaborations of the authors in this anthology. As is usual in an anthology, I really enjoyed some short stories and others, not so much. Still, if you're a fan of suspense, it's a good read.
    • 3/5
      An anthology is always fun to wet your reading appetite. A nice selection of authors, some I've heard of and some I have not, and some that I will investigate further.
    • 3/5
      Most were enjoyable, several I skipped.
    • 3/5
      I wanted to like this collection as much as I did The Copper Bracelet or individual books by the contributing authors. I have enjoyed other mystery writer collections. The stories generally did not keep my interest, including the Child/Reichs and Box/Brown which I expected to enjoy because I like the individual characters and the writers' other books. I give this selection 3 stars.
    • 5/5
      I'm leaving the cover of Matchup a little larger this time so you can see the wealth of authors who contributed to this compilation. But if you look again, you'll see that they are paired - pairings that you wouldn't expect to see. For in Matchup, two well known authors have take their signature characters and co-written a short story featuring the two. Lee Child is the editor and he provides a small commentary before each story, giving some background on the authors as well as the collaboration.I have read many of these authors and it was nice to see familiar characters again, but a few were new to me. Matchup was a great way to get idea of who these characters were. Some of the pairings had me wondering how in the world two quite different leads would work together. Diana Gabaldon and Steve Berry? Sandra Brown and C.J. Box? Well, the answer is - really well. The stories are clever, fun to read and satisfying. I enjoy short story collections as you can pick them up and down, easily (and satisfyingly) finishing a story at a short sitting.I chose to listen to Matchup and I'm so glad I did. There are a number of narrators as well. I had listened to some of them before, but a few were new to me. This was also a great opportunity to discover some new audio book readers.It's really hard to pull out favourite stories, as I did truly enjoy them all. But if pressed I would say Lee Child and Kathy Reichs were a favourite. Tempe bossing Reacher around was great fun. And I also really liked Karin Slaughter and Michael Koryta. Koryta was new to me, but I am going to pick up one of his Joe Pritchard books after this introduction. Slaughter gives us a look at a young Jeffery Tolliver that was fun. I am a huge fan of both Peter James and Val McDermid. Having both Tony Hill and Roy Grace on the same case was wonderful.I really enjoyed Matchup and hope we can see another collection such as this
    • 4/5
      Fabulous compilation of great suspense authors working together to produce a volume of action-packed short stories and intrigue. Definitely both fast and fun, especially since the authors used their most famous characters in the short story setting. Some characters whom I might like to explore in the future are Jamie Fraser, Cotton Malone and Harper Connelly, possibly also Lucan Thorne and Lilliane Williams.
    • 3/5
      MatchUp (edited by Lee Childs) is a collection of 11 short stories written by boy/girl pairs of prolific and well-known thriller/mystery writers. It would be fair to say that none of these stories are going to win any short-story awards. BUT, it was entertaining to see writing pairs like Sandra Brown & C.J. Box and Peter James & Val McDermid have a lot of fun with their characters and to know they were writing situations in which they normally would not have involved their characters. A couple of the standout stories for me were those written by Kathy Reichs & Lee Child and Charlaine Harris & Andrew Gross, the first because it did actually have a twist I was not expecting and the second because of the pairing of a woman with supernatural abilities with a (charming) skeptic.

      I definitely enjoyed the most those stories that involved characters I was already familiar, and I did add a few books to my to-read list from authors that I’d never heard of and/or would like to read more from. But, mostly this was a so-so read with no real surprises and not very stellar short stories. I tend to recommend collections like this to customers who have finished a series they really love and who are looking for another series to start. This would be a great collection for that purpose. I would completely pass this up if I was someone unfamiliar with the writers involved - it definitely would not be worth picking up if that was the case.

      (A review copy of this book was provided by the publisher.)
    • 4/5
      A fine collection of good, with many excellent, short stories. A challenging premise: to pair proven authors, into female/male teams, to write a story that features their characters and maintain their usual modes of operation. Great introduction to some writers, previously not noted, that I will add to my wish list.
    • 4/5
      An enjoyable read. It was interesting to be introduced to a few authors I was not familiar with - and their primary characters. The collection seemed rather light-hearted and at times even whimsical. No one author or story really stands out as being stronger than the rest - all were good.
    • 5/5
      Twenty-two top thriller writers pair up to bring their well-known characters together in eleven exciting, edge-of-your-seat short stories. Who could resist Jack Reacher teaming up with Temperance Brennan, or Regan Pescoli joining forces with Virgil Flowers, or Ali Reynolds collaborating with Bravo Shaw? Lee Child, who edited this book of masterful tales, offers a brief introduction to each story as he reveals some details about how each pair of authors brought their characters together to create their unique story. It’s a not-to-be-missed thriller-fest.Highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      MATCHUP, edited by Lee Child, is what happens when you ask 11 of this countries' best thriller writers to pen short stories for a collection. Just a little bit of, "I've seen that done to death", but to make it a bit more interesting, these 11 are paired up with members of the opposite sex who are also aces in the thriller writing department. The icing is they both bring their lead characters into the stories. The results are wonderful, short yet complex tales. And where else is there a chance for these long standing characters to meet each other.This happens 11 times over and just as I read what I thought would be my favorite in the collection, another one comes along to put me back on the edge of my seat.Fun and fulfilling, writers as diverse as J. A. Jance, John Sandford, Gayle Lynds and Peter James, as well as 18 other members of the International Thriller Writers, give us their best characters in great settings that play to the strengths of all concerned.So just how does Cotton Malone figure into one of Diana Gabaldon's stories? And why would Jack Reacher find Temperance in his life? And Joe Pickett, who is becoming a favorite of mine, shows up with a runaway horse and a gun pointed at him. By Lee Coburn no less.The downside of this collection is that you meet authors, and characters, you probably haven't read before. So there goes your reading lists and lots of time you might have been using to cut the grass or train the puppy to sit and stay.Okay, it is a downside with nothing but silver linings.
    • 5/5
      I have not read the first one, FaceOff, but I plan to now. This book was great! I do love short stories, and this group of short stories are written by some of the finest mystery writers today. Lee Child, John Sandford, Kathy Reichs, and many others, some I had not heard of. Two authors paired up (one male and one female) and wrote the short stories basically together. So each story has some of each authors writing in them. The stories were great. I hope they do this again. It was nice to read a few a day and just enjoy them. I highly recommend this book by so many great authors.
    • 4/5
      I love these collections. Some days it’s so hard to find time to block out the rest of the world & disappear into a great book. With these shorties, you can spend 20 minutes in your favourite hiding spot & enjoy a complete story from some of the best known thriller writers.Each is a collaboration between 2 authors & there are some interesting pairs here. There are 11 tales in all, representing a diverse range of sub genres…..contemporary, historical, paranormal, romance & pure crime. Everyone will have their personal favs so I won’t review them all. Instead, here are some random thoughts & my top 3 picks.If you read thrillers at all you’re going to recognize these iconic characters who have become just as famous as their creators. Dr.Temperance Brennan, Cotton Malone, Reacher, Carol Jordan & Roy Grace are just a few. But I bet you didn’t expect to run across John Rambo (yes, THAT Rambo…). Even that F**kin’ Flowers puts down his fishing rod long enough to get in on the action. And for every reader who swoons when Jamie Fraser walks by, kilt a-swinging….well, nuff said.My picks were “Faking a Murderer” starring Dr. Temperance Brennan & Jack Reacher; “Deserves to be Dead” featuring Virgil Flowers & Regan Pescoli; and “Short Story” with Joe Pritchard & a young Jeffrey Tolliver.As with all collections, some of the collaborations are more successful than others but the list of winners will vary from reader to reader. As much as I enjoy catching up with “old friends”, this is also a great way to try on a new-to-you author & maybe find another series to add to your groaning TBR pile.
    • 5/5
      MATCHUP:EDITED BY LEE CHILD takes the best of the best when it comes to mystery/thriller/suspense authors (male & female) and matches them together to come up with some really great short stories. Each writer has taken their time out of creating their individual series to create these short stories for us, the reader. I sailed thru this book because of my love of each of these stories. Long enough to develop the plots well but short enough to be in this book. A must read for any mystery lover.I recieved this book free from netgalley in exchange for an open and honest review.