NEW DELHI: The "lucky coincidence" of having a writer brother saved Lee Child's bestselling 'Jack Reacher' book series from facing an imminent end, says the celebrated British author who wouldn't have allowed anyone else to take forward the story of the much-loved action hero.
Child in 2020 announced passing the baton of his acclaimed series, including 26 books and a short story collection, to his younger brother Andrew Child.
The book series, whose last few installments -- "The Sentinel", "Better Off Dead" and the recently out "No Plan B" -- have been co-written by the duo, will be eventually taken over by Andrew.
"I felt I was getting older, a little tired, running out of energy and running out of ideas. So the Jack Reacher series would have really come to an end. The fact that it lives on is purely due to the very lucky coincidence that I have a younger brother who is also a thriller writer," 68-year-old Child told PTI.
The book series chronicles the adventures of Jack Reacher, a former military policeman, who roams the United States taking odd jobs, investigating suspicious and frequently dangerous situations.
It has been translated into over 40 languages.
Andrew, 54, who has written several crime thrillers himself, was the one and only choice of Child for the job.
His reason: "wanted someone very similar to me and brothers are 50 per cent identical in terms of their DNA".
"You need some internal madness and craziness that just powers the character and that is where you need the person who is very similar to you in terms of personality, DNA, responses, reactions. So you need to find someone with the same human characteristics and brothers are obviously perfect for that," Child explained.
Happy with Child's decision of choosing him for this "huge responsibility", Andrew called getting to work with his brother as the "best experience" ever.
"Sometimes I have to pinch myself whether it is for real. It is wonderful. Talking about Reacher, what is he gonna do, how is he gonna deal with this villain or how is he gonna get out of this situation that stuff is just fun," said Andrew, who is also the author of popular thriller series including "David Trevellyan'', "Cooper Devereaux" and "Paul Mcgrath''.
The book series was adapted into a movie in 2012, starring Hollywood superstar Tom Cruise, and now a web series, starring actor Alan Ritchson, but it is the latter that is favoured by Child -- courtesy the luxury of time.
"Here, the running time, which was eight hours of content, meant we could tell the story of the book accurately. If this long form narrative TV had been around 20 years ago, nobody would have chosen feature films. I personally would have always gone for this TV series because of the luxury of time," he said.
The first season, currently available on Amazon Prime, is based on Child's first book "Killing Floor".