<p>Before Jack Reacher . . . there was Mike Hammer<br><br>One night, a blonde jumps out in front of PI Mike Hammer''s car. She''s so scared he doesn''t have much choice but to give her a ride. At a police roadblock, he discovers she''s on the run from a sanatorium, but he passes her off as his wife. Other people besides the police are after the blonde, and these people play rough. Real rough.<br><br>The blonde turns out to be the star witness against some big-time mobsters. Mike has blundered into something unimaginably big, but the Feds don''t want him involved - and take his PI licence and gun.<br><br>For Mike, it''s a chance to strike a blow against evil on a grand scale. He discovers that something representing a great deal of money, and a lot of power, has gone missing, and that some people will go to any lengths to get it back . . .</p>