Killing Floor (Jack Reacher, #1) in Around the World in 80 Books

Nov 25, 2013 Jim rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, fiction

A lady of my acquaintance is addicted to watching crime shows on TV. You know the shows I am referring to...the crime labs with the lights turned down low, staffed by bikini models who strut around in power suits and stiletto heels, which same prove no hindrance in chasing down fit young men who are highly motivated to evade capture. The same shows in which police torture and trick suspects with no regard for the evidentiary value of the information obtained, and car chases and explosions are th A lady of my acquaintance is addicted to watching crime shows on TV. You know the shows I am referring to...the crime labs with the lights turned down low, staffed by bikini models who strut around in power suits and stiletto heels, which same prove no hindrance in chasing down fit young men who are highly motivated to evade capture. The same shows in which police torture and trick suspects with no regard for the evidentiary value of the information obtained, and car chases and explosions are the order of the day. It's all bullshit, with no relevance to the real world, and anyone with even a passing familiarity with police procedure can tell you that it's all a bunch of hooey. Reading this book was an experience similar to watching one of those shows.

To begin with, the Reacher character is flawed...perhaps it's better to say that the concept is flawed. Reacher is a Military Police Major who retires to a life of vagrancy after 13 years on the job. Mr Child suggests that Reacher is a West Point graduate who is widely experienced in commando tactics and routine law enforcement procedures, having made scads of arrests of errant military personnel. The truth is that any field grade officer is a pretty squared away individual, highly unlikely to be alienated from anything, and certainly not to the point of vagrancy. Furthermore, the bulk of investigation in any Military Police organization is conducted by senior non-commissioned members. A Major might investigate the golf course, or the Officers' Mess, but you will not find him on patrol on a Friday night. The Major does not investigate. Chances are he doesn't even supervise investigators....he'll have a Captain for that. Why bark when you've got a dog? If Reacher had been a drummed-out Sergeant, he would have been more believable.

Child basically asks the reader to suspend all common sense and accept on faith that modern police officers would share information with a vagrant recently arrested on suspicion of murder. Then he wants you to believe that Reacher beds the department's only female and is provided with armament by the same. It was too great a stretch for my poor old imagination to handle.

I believe that a writer should write about what he knows, or at least know something about what he writes. I came to the conclusion that Mr Child knows little about the Military Police trade and less about firearms. He attributes them with magical qualities and his descriptions are shaky. As an example, a .22 calibre pistol is referred to as 22 gauge (now that would be a unique handgun) and apparently in Mr Child's world a .22 silenced subsonic round will pass right through your head, no problem at all! And the devastation that he imagines can be wrought by a shotgun...Yikes! I could go on, but why belabor the point?

The only reason I didn't rate the book lower is that Child is a decent writer and had the potential to get me as a return customer if he had kept to a plausible story line. This one was all about double-digit body count, car chases and explosions. I don't need all the loud noises and flashing lights; give me some substance. ...more

32 likes · Like · see review

Sep 18, 2018 Karen rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I have not seen a Jack Reacher film, and this is the first Lee Child book I have read. It started out slow, but then the plot just picked up speed and I couldn't put it down. I'm not going to summarize the plot because I am very glad I went in blind.

02/18/2022: Re-reading. I really liked the Amazon Prime Mini-series Reacher. I thought it was well done, although there were some things that were not in the book. I really liked the casting in the show. ...more

5 likes · Like · see review

Oct 07, 2007 Pam rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

10/01/05 #169
TITLE/AUTHOR: THE KILLING FLOOR by Lee Child
RATING: 4.5/B+
GENRE/PUB DATE/# OF PAGES: Thriller, 1997, 407 pgs
COMMENTS: 1st in the Jack Reacher series. Jack is
drifting through a small town in GA when he is
picked-up for murder. He is an ex-military policeman,
who becomes very involved in findiing out the secrets
in Margrave, GA. Excellent plot, unique character!
Look forward to reading more in this series.

4 likes · Like · see review

May 06, 2010 Sunflower rated it liked it

Shelves: series-books, fiction-read-2010

Jack Reacher: an impossibly clever fighting machine who appeciates his new found freedom and wants to live an untraceable life. He pays cash for everything, keeps moving, and no doubt wanders into many adventures after this one, the first of a series. He does seem to have a high body count by the end of the book, a lot of blood has flowed out of its original vessels and into the environment, and the one thing that might have tied him down from his wanderings is efficiently dealt with in the last ...more

1 like · Like · see review