Killing Floor (Jack Reacher, No. 1)
by Lee Child
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Book Summary Information
Author: Lee ChildEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-04-25
ISBN: 0515141429
Number of pages: 544
Publisher: Jove
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780515141429
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Killing Floor (Jack Reacher, No. 1)
Book Review: What A Drag! A Disappointing Drag!
Summary: 2 Stars
I had heard such good things about this novel. Someone even said it was the best in the series.
If this had been my introduction to the Jack Reacher series, I would have never picked up another.
Thank goodness I started with "Persuader" and followed it up with "Without Fail" and then "One Shot" and "The Hard Way" and "Die Trying" and "The Enemy." All easily worth a solid 5 stars. ("The Enemy" is definitely one of my top two Reacher stories. I wish Child would do more about Reacher's time in the army.)
It's only recently that I've started having trouble with various books in the series. Either the stories dragged, (I'm still trying to get beyond page 50 of "Echo Burning") or Jack is almost unrecognizable. (After "Tripwire" and Jack's endless mooning over Jodie, I'm almost afraid to start "Running Blind.")
So to counter this streak of bad luck I thought I'd go back to Reacher's start and read "The Killing Floor" which I had avoided given the story and it's connection with Reacher's brother whom I grew to like in "The Enemy."
The streak continues.
This novel dragged and dragged. Endless (dry) information about this small town in Georgia (?), some blues singer who I'm still not sure is real or fictional and the U.S. Currency system. As another reviewer mentioned, Child's exhaustive use of fragmented sentences, got, well, exhausting. I don't recall their use being so extensive and noticeable in the other novels. But maybe that's because I found those more entertaining.
For a while now, I've had the suspicion that Reacher might be a sociopath, or at least had such tendencies. This novel certainly sealed it for me. Or rather, the Reacher here is, but the level varies in the other novels. I found it disturbing that Reacher spent more time ruminating on how "perfect" and attractive Roscoe was than he did about the fate of his brother. It was almost like had to talk himself into being angry about Joe and the subsequent need to do something. I was never convinced that Jack really felt anger or much upset. (It certainly wasn't stronger than what he felt about Roscoe which was better depicted. Or even the touch of anger about being forced out of the army which was subtle but better done.)
The long and short of is I never connected with or believed in this Reacher. He could have been a stick figure for all the emotion and convincing motivation he had. (A horny stick figure apparently).
There are spurts of action sprinkled throughout the novel. It's too bad the reader has to wade through chapter after chapter to find them. (I'm disappointed enough to say read the section about Reacher's night in prison, skip ahead a hundred or so pages to his figuring out he's being tailed, then skip another hundred or so pages to his trip to NY and read to the end.)
I'm glad I read "Killing Floor" if for no other reason than to be able to say someday that I've read the complete Reacher collection, but needless to say it will not be on my repeat read list.
BTW, "Bad Luck and Trouble" was okay. Less plot more action (which is preferable to this.) Not one of the best, but was a good read overall. Great to see Negley in action. Still working my way to "Nothing to Lose" given the reviews it's received.
Summary of Killing Floor (Jack Reacher, No. 1)
Killing Floor is the first book in the internationally popular Jack Reacher series. It presents Reacher for the first time, as the tough ex-military cop of no fixed abode: a righter of wrongs, the perfect action hero. Jack Reacher jumps off a bus and walks fourteen miles down a country road into Margrave, Georgia. An arbitrary decision he's about to regret. Reacher is the only stranger in town on the day they have had their first homicide in thirty years.The cops arrest Reacher and the police chief turns eyewitness to place him at the scene. As nasty secrets leak out, and the body count mounts, one thing is for sure. They picked the wrong guy to take the fall.When Jack Reacher suddenly decides to ask a Greyhound bus driver to let him off near the town of Margrave, Georgia, he thinks it's because his brother once mentioned that the famed blues guitarist Blind Blake died there. But it doesn't take long for the footloose ex-military policeman to discover that there are plenty of strange--and very dangerous--things going on behind Margrave's manicured lawns and clean streets that demand his attention. This first thriller by a former television writer features some of the best-written scenes of action in recent memory, a crash course in currency and counterfeiting, and a hero who is just begging to be called on for an encore.
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