Fans of Lee Child know well that the muscular star of his bestselling novels, Jack Reacher, is a man of few words -- and a lot of action. Andy Martin shadows Child like a literary private eye in a yearlong investigation of what it takes to make fiction's hottest hero hit the page running. The result is an up-close-and-personal look into the world and ways of a storyteller's creative process as he undertakes the writing of the much anticipated twentieth Jack Reacher novel, Make Me. Fueled by copious mugs of black coffee, Lee Child squares off against the blank page (or, rather, computer screen), eager to follow his wandering imagination in search of a plot worthy of the rough and ready Reacher. While working in fits and starts, fine-tuning sentences, characters, twists and turns, Child plies Martin with anecdotes and insights about the life and times that shaped the man and his methods: from schoolyard scraps and dismal factory jobs to a successful TV production career and the life-changing decision to put pencil to paper. Then there's the chance encounter that transformed aspiring author James Grant into household name "Lee Child." And there are jaunts to writers' conventions, book signings, publishing powwows, chat shows, the Prado in Madrid, American diners, and English pubs. Jack Reacher may be a man of few words, but this book says it all about a certain tall man with a talent for coming out on top.