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Killing Floor (Jack Reacher, #1)

Lee Child

Start date: May 1, 2010

Finish date: May 31, 2010

Discussion: Chapter 5: Suspense

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Chapter 5: Suspense

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What Members Thought

Sep 23, 2011 Lisa (Harmonybites) rated it did not like it

Shelves: crime, novels, fiction, mystery, contemporary, 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 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. ...more

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Aug 12, 2011 Paula rated it it was ok

Brutal, vicious, - Jack Reacher is a former military man who now lives off the grid hobo-like and stumbles on an evil plot involving an entire town. He is arrested for murder. Turns out the victim was his brother who worked for the government and who Jack has not seen in decades. He works with the local police who are not corrupt, sleeps with the pretty female one, and figures out who the corrupt ones are. He fixes the problem and moves on. The end. Meh.

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Aug 26, 2012 Brooke rated it liked it

This is a page turner and I understand why people like to read Child's books. It does have some graphic violence - as the title suggests. I can also understand the appeal of a lone figure striking out on his own going accross the county by bus with no ID - ending up reluctantly helping a town root out evil and taking revenge on the murder of a loved one. ...more

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Dec 16, 2009 Tim Gannon rated it liked it

Shelves: adventure-action

Your basic super hero doing good. An ex-military policeman, goes after the bad guys that killed his brother. Kills lots of bad people with his gigantic size and power and uses his super charged police brain to figure out all of their nefarious schemes.

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