Jack Reacher and the Christmas Scorpion

Jack Reacher: Who is the military man turned drifter?

Jack Reacher is a tough former US military cop turned drifter who carries nothing but a cash card, a toothbrush and an unflinching sense of right and wrong.

When his clothes get dirty, he throws them away and buys cheap replacements. He has no phone, no permanent home, no family and no long-term romantic attachments.

His creator, Lee Child, 63, published his first Reacher novel, Killing Floor, in 1997 after being made redundant by Granada Television, the Manchester-based broadcaster where he worked for nearly 20 years.

Since then ‎Child, Coventry-born but now living in Manhattan, has written 22 Reacher books that have sold more than 100-million copies around the world — or one every nine seconds.

His latest novel, The Midnight Line, went straight to number one in the bestseller lists when it was published last month.