by Lesley Mason

Created on: March 14, 2011   Last Updated: March 15, 2011

South Dakota in the winter is not a pleasant place to be.  Words like "bleak" and "cold" cease to have any real meaning in the South Dakota winter.  Snow falls.  Ice forms.  Temperatures drop to minus 30.  And there's talk of a storm heading in from Wyoming.

Jack Reacher is used to hardship.  He grew up on marine bases and served in the army, before NOT serving, which is what he does now.  But he also travels light.  Very light.

He doesn't have a driving licence, or credit cards.  He doesn't pay tax – it's not entirely clear how he earns what he lives on.  He moves around. Constantly.  He doesn't have a bag or do laundry.  He buys clothes, wears them, until he needs not to then buys some more.

At the beginning of the 61 hours he has just bought a semi-legal ticket to ride a bus from a highway rest-stop out towards Mount Rushmore.  He's not planning to stop.  He's not going to have a choice.

A lawyer visits the prison in Bolton and takes instructions that are not coming directly from his client.  The lawyer is in trouble.  He knows it.  He is very nervous.  Not a good way to be driving on icy Dakota roads, where low lying bridges freeze before the main highway does.

The lawyer skids.  So does the bus driver.  The lawyer doesn't crash – not right then.  The bus isn't so lucky.  A number of elderly tourists and one ex-army wanderer find themselves stuck miles from anywhere in the dark, cold, night.

Meanwhile, in the nearest town – host of the newly built prison that the lawyer was returning from – Bolton police department have problems.   They have ordinary problems – a rapidly expanded department is full of old-timers and new-comers, a 'them and us' yet to build trust to work properly.  They have extraordinary problems, like a rapid response plan to trouble at the prison which will leave the town with no police cover at all.

In normal times, that might not matter, but right now they have a major witness-protection issue.  A retired librarian saw something she shouldn't have.  She has good eyesight, a clear memory, an intelligent mind.  She has the principles to stand up for what she believes in.  What she currently believes is that the bikers living out on the old army site (apparently abandoned 50 years ago and forgotten about by the military) shouldn't be holding the town to ransom, shouldn't

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