I used to read Lee Child’s Jack Reacher books when I traveled, burning through a paperback on a long flight.

Post-pandemic, I don’t find myself in planes that often anymore, but I need still need my regular fix of preposterous action, hard-boiled mystery, and glorious tough guy nonsense. So the world of Reacher, built around a hulking former U.S. Army cop who travels the country as a homeless drifter and solves crimes/snaps necks along the way, now lives in my ears.

I’ve gone full audiobook. Child’s famous “frictionless” prose is ideal gym listening — you don’t need to concentrate too hard when you’re on the treadmill, as the plotting is designed to go down real easy. Jack Reacher books are written to be enjoyed effortlessly by a wide audience, after all. Even a listener who is struggling through mile three of that daily jog can enjoy every twist and turn.

One side effect of bingeing Jack Reacher audiobooks over the past few months — besides annoying my wife with constant recaps of how many arms Reacher has broken — is that I’ve found my favorite Jack Reacher actor.

And it’s not Tom Cruise, who played the character in two feature films, and it’s not Alan Ritchson, who embodies him in the Prime Video streaming series “Reacher.” It’s legendary audiobook narrator Dick Hill, an actor of quietly startling range who brings to life everything that makes this character so beloved.

The true voice of Jack Reacher

Paramount

This isn’t a slight against Cruise (underrated; he’s too small, yes, but he nails the attitude) or Ritchson (so physically perfect for the role that one imagines he was grown in a lab for the part). I like ’em both.

But after having Hill’s deep voice in my ears for dozens of hours, letting him guide me through a labyrinth of dark conspiracies and busted kneecaps, it’s clear who owns the role. Even Child himself has credited Dick Hill’s audiobook performances for creating legions of additional Jack Reacher fans.

Hell, I’d go as far as to say a Jack Reacher book read by Dick Hill is the ideal Jack Reacher experience — more than reading the novels, more than seeing the films, and more than binge-watching the TV series.

Dick Hill isn’t the only reader to take on the Jack Reacher series (the more recent books have been narrated by Scott Brick and a few of the early novels are read by Johnathan McClain), but his command of character and pacing is unreal.

Listening to Dick Hill made me wonder … is one of my favorite actors of all time an audiobook reader? His “Reacher voice,” a Clint Eastwood-tinged growl that fits the laconic character to a T, is burned into my brain.

It’s great stuff during all of the Reacher books, but it’s especially great stuff during the handful of novels written in the first person, where you truly feel like you’re having the events relayed to you by Reacher himself. (The fact that Hill works overtime to give every speaking character a unique voice showcases an astonishing range, but I could listen to his Reacher voice go through the phone book.)

An audiobook legend

Prime Video

Dick Hill narrated over 1,000 audiobooks across a stunning career, taking on numerous genres but finding himself a go-to voice for propulsive thriller novels that needed a natural tough guy edge. He died in late 2022 at the age of 74 in Lansing, Michigan, where he was a longtime member of the local theater scene.

I know I’ll eventually run out of Jack Reacher books read by Dick Hill, and I hope to like the newest readers. But I also know that I plan to dive into the work of Dick Hill beyond the Reacher books. Maybe by next audiobook gym binge will be Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch books, which Hill also read.

I think it says something about Hill as an actor, not just a reader, that I plan to follow his work just as much as I plan to follow the writers whose work he brought to life. Audiobook readers are, by design, intended to be invisible. Their work brings another artist to life.

The writer is supposed to be the star. But the work of Dick Hill proves that audiobook narration is an art form, a full-on performance, and that the talented folks working in this corner of the industry deserve the same respect we give actors who appear on the big and small screens.

I spoke about this on today’s episode of the /Film Daily podcast, which you can listen to below:

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