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Killing Floor (Jack Reacher #1)

4.01 of 5 stars 4.01 · rating details · 58,170 ratings · 3,472 reviews

Welcome to Margrave, Georgia—but don't get too attached to the townsfolk, who are either in on a giant conspiracy, or hurtling toward violent deaths, or both.

There's not much of a welcome for Jack Reacher, a casualty of the Army's peace dividend who's drifted into town idly looking for traces of a long dead black jazzman. Not only do the local cops arrest him for murder, b...more

ebook, 360 pages

Published April 25th 2006 by Jove Books (first published 1997)

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Feb 28, 2011 Kemper rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: crime-mystery, craptacular, thriller

This reads like an '80s action movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.

A big tough ex-military guy drifts into a small town and is sucked into uncovering a vast criminal conspiracy through completely unbelievable coincidences. - Check.

Hero has a cool, manly sounding name: Jack Reacher. - Check

Hero is quickly given a personal grudge against the villains. - Check

Bad dialogue. - Check.

Stereotypical villains including corrupt businessmen and politicians. - Check.

Hero finds a few trustworthy allies, but...more

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Dec 20, 2011 Stephen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1990-1999, mystery, crime, hardboiled-and-noir, kings-of-badassia, audiobook

Jack Reacher is a walking, talking, 6’5” prescription-strength laxative guaranteed to cause scumbags to soil their skivvies. As hardboiled protagonists go, this guy is loaded with awesome and I was well and truly won over by the end of Lee Child's debut novel.

Reacher’s a former military police officer who is cucumber cool and carries himself with a calm, quiet stoicism that reminded me a lot of Shadow from Neil Gaiman’s American Gods(another favorite character of mine). In typical hardboiled fa...more

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Jun 13, 2013 Mike (the Paladin) rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: skimmed, thriller

I tried reading some of the Jack Reacher books some years ago and don't have any clear idea of them except that I wasn't blown away and didn't follow up the series.

I still feel the same way really. I got interested in the story here right away. It's well set up and the lead in get's your mind involved. There are some odd things even there. It seems to me that jack with his background and experience (which is made a big deal of and plays heavily into the story) at the very beginning could have d...more I tried reading some of the Jack Reacher books some years ago and don't have any clear idea of them except that I wasn't blown away and didn't follow up the series.

I still feel the same way really. I got interested in the story here right away. It's well set up and the lead in get's your mind involved. There are some odd things even there. It seems to me that jack with his background and experience (which is made a big deal of and plays heavily into the story) at the very beginning could have done things that would made things go a bit smoother. He seems to aggravate the situation before he does anything to start handling it...still not a big thing and I suppose it's supposed to be "character building".

Throughout the story I don't think that the Reacher story stayed "coherent" if you get my meaning. He's not a character who stays true to himself...at least not yet. His views tend to have a wide spread and I'm never sure where's he's coming from in the "ideological" realm. He moves from responsible to selfish and back. He's violent but then get's almost passive. He may settle in and explain this over the length of the series...so, maybe just my take.

The plot here is good (and we have the sub plot that sort of ties in) and it's well written. I just think that there's more "book" here than there is plot. The book begins to drag and run on a bit.

Also there are a few gratuitous sex scenes that really add nothing to the novel (except of course for gratuitous sex which is sometimes a goal in itself and I suppose is a big draw for some readers...look what happened to Laurell K. Hamilton's books...and they seem to sell "a bunch").

I just (again) found the story beginning to drag (at least for me) and there was a feeling of "finally" when I got to the end. Don't know if I'll pick any more up or not... I don't plan to for now.

So, pretty good book with a descent story and a popular character that I think is still growing here. Not enthused don't hate it...a little "blah" for me.

Maybe you should see what you think. (less)

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Apr 25, 2013 Gunner McGrath rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: thriller

I could not read this. The prose is terrible. Commas are rare. Periods are abundant. It's hard to read. I got through one chapter. I checked later books. They are the same. I had heard good things. I cannot get past this. I am not exaggerating. It's actually worse than this. These are all sentences. Full sentences. Not fragments. There we go. It's like this. Reading a Reacher novel. I considered powering through. But I don't want to waste my time.

I bought the whole series for $1 a piece. I regr...more

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Nov 29, 2011 Jane Stewart rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-suspense-thriller, 5-star-other

4 ½ stars. Rambo, Dirty Harry, with a hint of Sherlock Holmes – fun, exciting, suspense, escape.

STORY BRIEF:
This is the first book in the Jack Reacher series, sixteen books so far. It’s told in first person by Jack. He was a homicide investigator in the military police for thirteen years, hunting trained killers gone bad. He had to be able to outthink them and fight them. He retired as a major six months ago at age 36. Now Jack just wants to wander, living off his severance pay, buying cheap clo...more 4 ½ stars. Rambo, Dirty Harry, with a hint of Sherlock Holmes – fun, exciting, suspense, escape.

STORY BRIEF:
This is the first book in the Jack Reacher series, sixteen books so far. It’s told in first person by Jack. He was a homicide investigator in the military police for thirteen years, hunting trained killers gone bad. He had to be able to outthink them and fight them. He retired as a major six months ago at age 36. Now Jack just wants to wander, living off his severance pay, buying cheap clothes he can throw away rather than wash, no ID, no Driver’s License, no credit cards, using cash, being anonymous. He travels by bus and train.

Jack gets off the bus and walks into the small town of Margrave, Georgia, out of curiosity about a singer who lived there sixty years ago. Someone was killed around the time Jack arrived. The local cops arrest Jack for questioning. In the next few days the police chief is killed and someone else disappears. Jack begins investigating. Multiple attempts are made to kill Jack.

REVIEWER’S OPINION:
Wow! This was good! When Jack hears the details about the first murder, his analysis was amazing. I was pulled in and didn’t want to stop reading for almost the entire book. I can’t wait to keep going with this series. The plotting is great. No one is being stupid or incompetent – well, maybe a little by some of the bad guys who are not as competent as Jack. Jack is put into circumstances where I think how is he going to survive? But he does neat things and survives and wins. I loved what he did when he was wrongly put into the section of a prison with the worst of convicted murderers. I like seeing revenge and justice for bad guys. So I liked seeing Jack hurt or kill them without worrying about their civil rights. Cops can’t do that.

Roscoe is a female police officer. She and Jack fall for each other so there is a touch of romance and several sex scenes. The sex scenes are told not shown.

There were some gruesome torture scenes that might bother some readers, but they are described after the fact, not shown, which may help a little.

LOGIC AND COINCIDENCE COMMENTS:
Some reviewers complained that the author wasn’t technically accurate about weapons, procedures, and other things. I don’t care about that. This is fiction. I don’t require “fiction” to educate me. If it’s entertaining with good action, I’m happy to accept “technical fiction.” I do agree some things were too coincidental. Jack’s ability to guess someone’s alias and location was too far-fetched for me. Even Sherlock Holmes couldn’t have done that. But the rest was such a good ride I didn’t mind.

Jack did not have a Driver’s License, but he spent a lot of time driving someone else’s car. The local cops didn’t mention it, apparently since he was helping them. He also took a flight to New York. I don’t know if the airlines required ID back in 1997, before 9/11, but I guess it doesn’t matter because this is fiction. Anyway, it unsettled me at first, but I became more comfortable with it in subsequent books. He drives and flies frequently without an ID in subsequent books.

NARRATOR:
The narrator Dick Hill was great. He has an amazing range. He did a deep black male voice so well that I thought it was another actor. And his female voices were fine.

DATA:
Unabridged audiobook reading time: 14 hrs and 48 mins. Swearing language: mild, as far as I can recall. Sexual language: none. Number of sex scenes: 7 told not shown. Setting: 1997 mostly Margrave, Georgia, with a few scenes in Atlanta, Alabama, Mississippi, and New York. Book copyright: 1997. Genre: mystery suspense thriller. Ending: Very feel good, a winning feeling, bad guys got it.(less)

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Dec 05, 2012 Anne Toronto1 rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: xrate

The title "Killing Floor" may have a couple meanings, one the prison level where our innocent hero faces a painful end. X-rated. A cop's smile leads to a bedroom invite. Foreign counterfeiters gruesomely obliterate leads, always one bloody grisly (and gristly) step ahead of our guy. He's a killer, but like Schwarzenegger in True Lies, only the bad guys, avoids collateral damage of bystanders. Every loose end is tied off, including solution to decades-old needless murder that first intrigued Jack...more The title "Killing Floor" may have a couple meanings, one the prison level where our innocent hero faces a painful end. X-rated. A cop's smile leads to a bedroom invite. Foreign counterfeiters gruesomely obliterate leads, always one bloody grisly (and gristly) step ahead of our guy. He's a killer, but like Schwarzenegger in True Lies, only the bad guys, avoids collateral damage of bystanders. Every loose end is tied off, including solution to decades-old needless murder that first intrigued Jack to stop in Margrave. Ten days to stop the villains, or die.

US Treasury chief Joe left close-in-childhood ex-Army brother Jack, clues, starting with a too-shiny Southern town, where a senile barber claims $1,000 week income from no customers. My first read, one of the traitors was such a shock, this time I recognized the double-dealer right away. I kept reading, maybe dreamt a warning, because Jack is a good guy. He knows it. We know it. Still surprises. I know the ending will be bittersweet, but I want that relief of beating the Sunday deadline, when the Coastguard cannot stop the smugglers. Even knowing part of the solution, recognizing clues sooner, I enjoy Child's writing.

How does Jack get around without income or owning a car in rural America? or take down superior forces? I'm never impatient with details or research, even technical money-printing, conveyed with action using all senses. Smell less, two points are exceptional for their rarity - meadow wildflower blossoms p492, used money stink p506. This series would be prime TV-film, possibly because Child wrote for British TV. He says he chose rural America setting for pioneer spirit possibilities.
Globe interview

Without belaboring guilty introspection, we share Jack's feelings. "I'd lost something I never knew I'd had." p381 "Waiting is a skill like anything else." p401 Even black humor - "a relentless downpour ... drier to stay in the pool". He admits not knowing how to do laundry p414.

We can count on Jack to do what is right. "Up on that plateau where you just did whatever needed doing. I knew that place. I lived there." p470.

Sequel preview "Die Trying" sounds like another fast hard read.

Typo
p533 Beretta gun "But he hadn't like it much" should be "liked".
ISBN 9780515141429, so posted here, but differs. Jove 2008 Pb.
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Sep 24, 2011 Lisa (Harmonybites) rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: No One

Recommended to Lisa (Harmonybites) by: The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Ultimate Reading List

Shelves: contemporary, crime, fiction, mystery, novels, suspense, ultimate-reading-list

I disliked this novel, maybe because I'm missing a Y chromosome. First, the style of the prose and voice of the first person narrator, Jack Reacher, really irked me. The style reminded me of irritatingly faux Hemingway. Spare, choppy with lots of short declarative sentences and sentence fragments. Here's a sample paragraph from fairly early on that's typical:

I stayed leaning up on the bars, motionless. Baker signaled Hubble to walk with him around the far side of the squad room. Toward the rosew...more I disliked this novel, maybe because I'm missing a Y chromosome. First, the style of the prose and voice of the first person narrator, Jack Reacher, really irked me. The style reminded me of irritatingly faux Hemingway. Spare, choppy with lots of short declarative sentences and sentence fragments. Here's a sample paragraph from fairly early on that's typical:

I stayed leaning up on the bars, motionless. Baker signaled Hubble to walk with him around the far side of the squad room. Toward the rosewood office in back. As Hubble rounded the end of the reception desk, I saw his feet. Tan boat shoes. No socks. The two men walked out of sight into the office. The door closed. The desk sergeant left his post and went outside to part Baker's cruiser.

It's pretty much all like that--unvarying and that style doesn't wear well. Imagery? Great description? Actual sentence: It was about as distinctive as the most distinctive thing you could ever think of. The other problem I had with the voice (and character) was that, as the blurb from Jeffrey Deaver put it, Jack Reacher is one of those "tough guy heroes." The kind that has not a trace of a sense of humor and all the affect of a Vulcan purged of all emotion at Gol. The kind of guy that has the first pretty woman in view have the hots for him and sleep with him within two days of meeting him (almost all of which he spent in jail) even though she's a police officer who met him when taking his prints, he's been living like a vagrant and he's a murder suspect. The kind who kills with his own hands without a ripple of remorse or queasiness. And the violent streak got worse as the novel went along--at first it was justifiable self defense, even if ruthless and brutal. (In an early encounter Reacher gouges out an eye.) But it eventually became Mike Hammer-like cold-blooded murders--only justifiable to fans of Death Wish.

The part I did like was that Reacher is a former military policeman who has a Sherlock Holmes touch about him at times. Such as when he dazzles Detective Finley with deductions about his background. (Except, please, there's no such thing as "Harvard tones." There's a Boston accent among natives of the area, but that's different. Child supposedly has a British background, so maybe superimposing Oxford in his mind unto Harvard explains that piece of bizarreness.) It was also entertaining how even when he had been arrested for murder and was being questioned, Reacher was treating Finley more like a colleague investigating the murder with him than his interrogator. That had a kind of cool about it I appreciated in the beginning.

But coincidences pile up (two brothers who haven't met in years cross paths by chance in a small Georgia town they had never before visited even though one is based in D.C. and the other is a drifter criss-crossing the country), plot holes yawn as wide as canyons (a treasury agent is investigating a case that threatens the United States economy; he's reported killed and it's ignored by the Feds), implausibilities stack (Reacher, a West Point graduate who reached the rank of major by 36 has been involuntarily demobilized out of the army because of budget cuts) and as mentioned above, Reacher begins to kill in a way that would make Rambo proud, giving me testosterone poisoning. So, unless someone tells me this series or author got way, way better, this will be my last Lee Child novel. Hell, to be honest, after this experience no matter what anyone tells me this will be my last Lee Child novel.(less)

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Apr 15, 2010 Eric_W rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mysteries-and-thrillers

In The Killing Floor, Jack Reacher, the itinerant ex-homicide investigator for the military, becomes too much of a vigilante for my taste. There is also a series a coincidences that stretch credulity. The beginning will definitely hold your interest, however.

Minding his own business while having breakfast, Reacher is arrested in a small town in Georgia and accused of a particularly vicious murder. Jack was arrested because he had been seen walking down the road near the industrial site where the...more

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Aug 08, 2011 Lady Danielle aka The Book Huntress rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Fans of action suspense with tough heroes

Shelves: tough-as-nails-heroes, action-adventure, part-of-a-series, thriller-suspense, owned-copy, scary-sexy-cool-dangerous-hero, corrupt-officials, southern-setting, small-town-slice-of-life, character-grieving-loved-one, 2011-reading, hero-i-loved, favorite-or-autobuy-author

Are you having a bad day?
Do you need an Action Pick-You Up?
Do you sometimes wish that the bad guys would get exactly what they deserve?
Then I have a quick solution. Read a Jack Reacher novel!

Jack Reacher is the kind of guy who will kick some serious butt in the most brutal fashion, and it ain't pretty. I admit that I wince when I see someone die violently on tv and in movies. But I love action movies. Yeah, I know it makes no sense. Killing Floor is the kind of book that I would love to see as...more

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May 28, 2008 Catherine rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I had seen these books listed in a few 'guilty pleasure' booklists. The beginning of the book promised a lot of momentum (its protagonist, Jack Reacher, is being placed under arrest)and the pacing of its plot and development of its characters kept me reading. However, I am pretty certain I'm not going to read any further in this series. It's mostly because I found myself quite unsettled by the book's brutal revenge scenes and the way Jack cooly exalted in fulfilling that whole "take them out bef...more

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Mar 15, 2008 Gina rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Right from the beginning, I was hooked! How can you possibly put a book down when the main character is arrested for murder in the first chapter? LOL, I don't know anyone who could. I liked this! Written in the first person, I felt like I was seeing everything through Jack's eyes. His opinions and his takes on his surroundings and the predicament he found himself in was different from what I've read before. It was weird how I knew exactly who the bad guys were, including one no one would ever su...more

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Sep 03, 2012 Barb Middleton rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: adult, mystery

I used to peel through adult hard-boiled detective stories like oranges before entering the children's lit world. Now my hard-boiled detectives come in the form of geckos and cuteness such as Chet Gecko and Nate the Great. Ruby Redfort reminded me of what I was missing so when my friend, Angela, plopped this book with tough-guy Jack Reacher on my desk and said in her down-under accent, "Yah gonna love Jack," I was ready for some fast-paced escapism. Giddy-up Ange. Jack is a hoot.

Jack Reacher doe...more I used to peel through adult hard-boiled detective stories like oranges before entering the children's lit world. Now my hard-boiled detectives come in the form of geckos and cuteness such as Chet Gecko and Nate the Great. Ruby Redfort reminded me of what I was missing so when my friend, Angela, plopped this book with tough-guy Jack Reacher on my desk and said in her down-under accent, "Yah gonna love Jack," I was ready for some fast-paced escapism. Giddy-up Ange. Jack is a hoot.

Jack Reacher does not belong to any one place. He has no commitments. No permanent job. No permanent address. No permanent girlfriend. He grew up with his brother as a military brat in more countries than he can remember (well he can, but I can't). School meant making friends every 6 months.His adult career was spent working as a military policeman which meant his arrests were with military lawbreakers. Those lawbreakers were trained killers such as Rangers, Green Berets, and Marines. Men like Jack had to be trained better than your average policeman. This makes Jack "Better with weapons. Better unarmed." However, Jack's had it with bureaucracies. He shook the dust off his police boots, hit the road, and didn't look back.

Jack uses music as a way to deal with his situations or control his emotions. The author weaves different types of songs throughout the entire book. I didn't know half of them but enjoyed the connection. Hit the Road Jack, kept tinging in my head but Lee Child never threw that one in the mix. I suppose that's too corny. Or uncool. Jack's left his murky, dark past behind and is roaming the countryside with no responsibilities or commitments. He washes his clothes by tossing out the old ones every four days and he never stays in any one place too long.

When Jack stumbles into the town of Margrave he is accused of murder and sucked into an investigation he has no intention of solving. He's left that world behind. When he discovers he knows the murder victim, He makes a 180; now he's out for blood and revenge. He wants justice and is motivated by loyalty to the dead man. Jack will stand up for what's right or best for a community but he won't go by the book anymore. He kills people with the detachment of someone who has spent too much time in combat and he doesn't have much internal dialogue or conflict about it afterwards. He's a trained lethal weapon and the body count in this novel is close to a dozen people. He stalks the bad guys just as they stalk him. He turns the tables and can kill a man by knife, rifle, crushing his larynx or breaking his neck to name a few. He has no problems with poking out eyes, head-butting, or using any means to stop the bad guys. No remorse for Jack. Just justice. Even if justice is taken into his own hands.

The writing didn't transport or delight me like some prose souffle... but the action, strong characters, and plot twists did. I was flipping through the pages in quick succession like a hyperactive librarian. Or someone wanting to escape from the humdrum of everyday routines. It's great being able to pretend that I'm something that I'm not in the hero archetype found in the character of Jack. For a brief moment I am brilliant, tough, wise-cracking, tall (over 6 feet), detailed, have an awesome memory, can wield a weapon of any kind, and never make mistakes or if I do I can fix them. I wrote that sentence right after figuring out I had been using my inhaler upside down for the last three months - a lot more juice squirts out of that puppy when it's held upright... Jack Reacher would NEVER do anything so stupid. He'd find some cool way to take his meds. I'm sure a karate-chop would be involved. Or he'd use the inhaler for target practice.

The murders are quite grisly in the book with nasty villains, plenty of good guys, and plenty of not-so-sure if they are good or bad guys. Jack becomes attracted to another woman in the novel but their relationship is mostly physical. I liked this female character. She's strong-minded and smart. There's only one macho scene where she makes Jack promise to protect her. I thought it was out of character because I didn't think one policeman would ask another policeman to make such an impossible promise, but I could be wrong and she is in a small town where violent crime is nil. She just struck me as too self-sufficient. I did see how the author used it to advance the plot at the end - the author couldn't exactly have the character leave town and live with a relative. If I get more specific I'll give away the ending. The other plot twist that seemed somewhat thin was how Jack found Hubble. I liked the deduction but in actuality it was a bit of a stretch. Still fun because it showed how unbelievably smart Jack was. Maybe a little too unbelievable, but still fun. Just like him killing all those bad guys.

When I get tired of reading Ace Lacewing, Bug Detective and Max Minnow (Wiggle Eyes) in Mystery in Bugtown , I know who what to reach for... Jack Reacher. Thanks, Ange.
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Feb 20, 2012 Xox rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'm only half way through the book. But I read half of it in one day.

This is the first of the series, and as you see, I refused to give up on Lee Child yet.

He got arrested. He was put in jail for the weekend. He run into fight and win.

Nothing new yet, as this is not my first Reacher's book.

Yet, it make you guess what he would do next. Or what the writer want Jack to do next.

The character Jack is stand offish yet you would like him to fight on your side. He is not a guy you want to hug, or start...more

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Mar 25, 2013 Bill rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-suspense

Some very minor spoilers in this...

Okay, I don't get it.
There is mass appeal for the Jack Reacher series, there's been a movie made, Lee Child is making a gazillian dollars off it.
I also heard a pretty reputable BBC book review panel podcast where they were going absolutely bonkers over the series.
Well, I'm at 320 pages and the thought of plowing through 204 more has about as much appeal as chewing toenails.
First off, I'm sick of reading about this guy who, as a vagrant, wanders into town, gets...more

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Sep 18, 2012 Jasmine rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The book version of an all out, Bruce Willis-style action movie. Graphic at parts, but I enjoyed the characters. I found Killing Floor extremely easy to read - a good time out kind of book. I look forward to reading the rest of the Reacher series!

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Jan 09, 2013 Matthew rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: thriller

I found the writing style of this book to be pretty unique. I really enjoyed the short choppy, yet thoroughly descriptive, sentences. The action continued smoothly and was generally well-paced, although there were several points that I wished it would come to an end sooner - most of the villains were pretty obvious throughout the book, as well as their headquarters - what was the need for all this figuring out and waiting around and cleverness?

There were occasional moments of cleverness that I t...more

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Jul 14, 2012 Jim rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Having been weaned on Robicheaux, Longmire, Givens, and Spenser as exemplars of tough mystery-solving badasses, there now joins this pantheon a different sort of crimesolver. . .Jack Reacher, who unlike the aforementioned, is a loner at heart who doesn't need a permanent buddy sidekick, who intimidates more through stealthy tactics than outward bravado, who is a bit more cerebral (as the others seem often to stumble through their experiences), and, at least in the first book, doesn't suffer from...more

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Jun 20, 2011 Erin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: crime-suspense

This is really a 3.5, but I enjoy Jack Reacher so much, I'm bumping it up.

Jack Reacher! Jack Reacher is so incredibly awesome! I've heard a ton about Lee Child's Jack Reacher series, but it wasn't until a critic on Hit Fix (http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/motion-ca...) was going on and on about how horrible it would be if Tom Cruise played him that I really thought I should pick up the first one. And it was a lot of fun. Told in 1st person (which I guess changes from book to book), Jack is a 13-year...more

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Oct 09, 2008 Trudy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: lee-child

I have read these books out of order, which isn't how I like to read a series... but not a huge deal. However, THIS book - the first in the series - I think was my favorite so far. THAT is saying alot because I LOVE these books. I am going to have to rethink my "no book gets a 5 star rating rule."

I don't know how anyone that reads this "type" of book can't love this series. If you aren't into the genre, then OK, I will give it to you... But Child does a great job in an opening novel of hooking y...more

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Oct 16, 2007 John Kendall rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Margrave is a no-account little town in the Georgia Sunbelt. The busiest it ever gets is at the end of ther schoolday. But there's something strange about Margrave: it's completely perfect. So perfect, it's frightening. The lawns are like velvet and the trees look like they've just had a manicure. And from the laid-back barbershop to Eno's state-of-the-art diner, the local businesses thrive without customers.
When drifter and ex-military policeman Jack Reacher hits town, he plans to be gone by M...more

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Aug 27, 2007 LJ rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: suspense, unlicensed_investigator, georgia, contemporary_post_1945

KILLING FLOOR (Suspense-Unlic. Invest.-Georgia-Cont) – G+
Child, Lee – 1st in series
Putnam, 1997-Hardcover
Jack Reacher is on his own for the first time after spending his life on military bases. While having breakfast in a small Georgia town, he is arrested for murder. At first it's a misunderstand but when he realizes the victim was his brother, a U.S. Treasury Agent, Reacher is determined to find out why his brother was in this town and who killed him.
*** I had not read Child before. Once one g...more

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Nov 07, 2010 Nix rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: own-condensed-version

Reading Killing Floor felt like watching an old movie narrated by Tom Selleck -- if Tom Selleck were a killing machine. The ULTRA-uber-cool protagonist tells you the story. In short sentences. He's efficient, calculating and has no time for that pesky little thing called 'emotion' which just gets you killed. Oh, and he scores a hot chick.

The plot was quite clever/interesting -- but Child's idea (the 'key' to it all) has been used since, in at least one movie, so instead of feeling stunned ('bril...more

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Jul 19, 2007 Cardi rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

have heard very good things about this series, and comes highly recommended in More Book Lust
Well I've finished it now, and quite quickly!
Good thriller, does what a thriller is supposed to do, and keeps the reader turning pages at a cracking pace. Very violent as I had been warned by Nancy Pearl , some moments made me go 'eeew..' but I was grossed out in a good way. Reading the book was sort of like watching an engaging action movie (I'm thinking "True Lies" here...) - you know it's unrealistic...more

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Jan 17, 2012 Grace rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: e-books-read

I was a bit disappointed with this novel. I don't know why but I expected more. There was nothing wrong with the plot, in fact that was good and it was different to anything that I have ever read. What disappointed me was the execution of the novel by the author. I thought that it was very cliched, which was a shame as it wouldn't have taken very much to turn this into a great novel. This is the first book that I have read by this author. I may try another one just in case this was a fluke. Mayb...more

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Nov 22, 2010 Jim rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

good dialogue, descriptions and keeps intensity throughout
excellent book - will read more of Child's books

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Jun 13, 2013 Mike Finn rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: crime, audio-book

"Ingenious plot and calm but deadly hero"

I'm obviously late discovering Jack Reacher, brought to him by the publicity around Cruise's movie (although only the weirdness of Hollywood would cast 5' 7'' Cruise to play 6' 5'' Reacher).

I listened to "Killing Floor" flying across the Atlantic and back. It was the perfect airplane read: fast pace, ingenious plot, lots of action and simple, clear prose.

But what sets the book apart is the Jack Reacher's "voice". He's more than an action hero. He has a wo...more

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Mar 03, 2013 Casey rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

4 stars
Jack Reacher is walking down the highway and he stopped at a diner for breakfast when he is arrested for murder.
my grandfather read a lot of mysteries. and truthfully I actually really like mysteries, but I read so many of them that I can usually figure out exactly what's going on within the first couple chapters. this translate to I don't read mysteries very often. however my grandfather has all of the child books and he thought I might like them. so I decided to indulge the man and try...more

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Feb 07, 2013 Al rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 c

...more

Amazon.com Review

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.

From Library Journal

The transient Jack Reacher finds himself in tiny Margrave, Georgia, and is almost immediately arrested, if briefly, as a murder suspect. Imagine his surprise when he discovers that one of the victims is his brother, a brilliant U.S. Treasury agent. Reacher himself is no slouch; a former military policeman, he can dispatch villains with an astonishing array of weapons, including various parts of his body. In the company of a straight-arrow detective and a beautiful lady cop, Reacher soon unearths a conspiracy stretching through the little town and beyond. Blood flows freely, terrible threats are made and carried out, and body parts accumulate. First novelist Child, a former television writer, stretches coincidence outrageously in this would-be noir outing, whose hero is creepily amoral, violent, and generally unpleasant. Only large pop fiction collections need consider.?Elsa Pendleton, Boeing Information Svcs., Ridgecrest, Cal.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Feb 28, 2010 Matt Barker rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was a fantastic book! My first time reading a Lee Child book, but definitely not the last. This was the first book in the series of Jack Reacher by Lee Child and I will definitely be reading through the whole set after reading this book. It had a good mix of wry humor, thrill and suspense which kept my attention through the end.

Publisher's Summary
All is not well in Margrave, Georgia.

The sleepy, forgotten town hasn't seen a crime in decades, but within the span of three days it witnesses eve...more

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Mar 30, 2009 Matt Howard rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the first in a series with more than a dozen novels in it, all featuring the ultimate strong silent type, Jack Reacher. I won't pad my book list by listing each individually. You have to imagine a man 6'5" tall, who can kill five or six opponents in a hand-to-hand fight, survive severe wounds, outsmart consistently the worst criminals, and who kills without guilt whenever it's the quickest way to solve a problem. If you can imagine it, and not gag, these are the airport thrillers for you...more

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About Lee Child

Lee Child was born in 1954 in Coventry, England, but spent his formative years in the nearby city of Birmingham. By coincidence he won a scholarship to the same high school that JRR Tolkien had attended. He went to law school in Sheffield, England, and after part-time work in the theater he joined Granada Television in Manchester for what turned out to be an eighteen-year career as a presentation...more

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Quotes from Killing Floor

“I'm not a vagrant. I'm a hobo. Big difference.” — 22 people liked it

“Evaluate. Long experience had taught me to evaluate and assess. When the unexpected gets dumped on you, don’t waste time. Don’t figure out how or why it happened. Don’t recriminate. Don’t figure out whose fault it is. Don’t work out how to avoid the same mistake next time. All of that you do later. If you survive.” — 10 people liked it

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Killing Floor (Jack Reacher #1)

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