one of the MANY things I love about Jack Reacher novels

Lee Child has a deft way of writing about women. It's not an easy task, I'm convinced, for men to write about women in a way that doesn't focus somehow first on their sexuality.

Lee Child does it better than most.

Here's what reminded me of that today:

She wound down her window and looked straight at me, first my face, then a careful up-and-down, side-to-side appraisal all the way from my shoes to my hair, with nothing but frankness in her gaze. I stepped in closer to give her a better look, and to take a better look. She was more than flawless. She was spectacular. She had a revolver in a holster on her right hip, and next to it was a shotgun stuffed muzzle-down in a scabbard mounted between the seats. There was a big radio slung under the dash on the passenger side and a microphone on a curly wire in a clip near the steering wheel. The car was old and worn, almost certainly bought secondhand from a richer municipality.

So, you know a lot about this woman, without hearing a single thing about what she looks like. You know Reacher finds her very attractive. You know she's a cop. And you know she's armed. Any questions? Yea,  I didn't think so.