| Killing Floor (Jack Reacher, No. 1) | 
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Avg. Customer Rating:   (based on 188 reviews)
Sales Rank: 4882
Category: Book
Author: Lee Child
Publisher: Jove
Studio: Jove
Manufacturer: Jove
Label: Jove
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Edition: Reprint
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 544
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 6.6 x 4.2 x 1.4
ISBN: 0515141429
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780515141429
ASIN: 0515141429
Publication Date: April 25, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Ex-MP Jack Reacher goes into action to find his brother's killers, after a series of brutal crimes terrorizes tiny Margrave, Georgia, only to uncover the dark and deadly conspiracy concealed behind the town's peaceful facade. A first novel. 50,000 first printing. $50,000 ad/promo. BOMC Feat Alt.
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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 183 more reviews...
 Classic Child, Vintage Reacher January 5, 2009
I've been a big Lee Child fan, but if you're like me, following a few recent outings ranging from the mediocre ("Bad Luck and Trouble") to the abysmal ("Nothing to Lose"), you may be asking: "Is Child losing his edge, or have my standards changed that much?" So to find out, I went back and re-read Child's first Jack Reacher carnival of violence, "Killing Floor", originally published in 1997. My conclusion: it is Child who has changed: "Killing Floor", even when read the second time, is an adrenaline-charged escapist romp of mayhem balanced with suspense and mystery, a larger-than-life drama that while wholly unbelievable is nonetheless addictive and enjoyable.
With homage due to David Morrell's contemporary classic "First Blood", Jack Reacher, former Army MP Major and current drifter, is arrested over a cup of coffee while passing through backwater Margrave, Georgia. Triggering unavoidable images of Stallone's Rambo, Reacher is accused of murder, and hauled in by the local sheriff's deputies on way to the state penitentiary's holding cells for the weekend. His incarceration is brief but hardly uneventful, and soon Reacher finds real motivation to stick around and help solve the murder for which he was originally charged.
Reacher's stoic loaner is the classic American icon - conjuring images from the Marlborough Man to Batman to the adventurous nomads who rode the rails without strings or responsibilities. With Rambo's command of martial arts and weaponry of all kinds and Sherlock Holmes-class power of deductive reasoning, Reacher thinks and slugs and gouges and shoots his way to resolution and redemption. Child sets his story and his hero well above the fray with lean and crisp prose, embellished but not unencumbered by liberal doses on fact and trivia on wide ranges of topics, Child's research adding authenticity and credibility to a tale of greed and corruption the would otherwise be tired fare.
In short, if you don't think too hard about coincidence and implausibility, "Killing Floor" is the literary equivalent of eye candy - a boisterous, no-holds-barred thriller that stands alone in pop crime fiction. Leads one to wonder if Lee Child shouldn't go back and get reacquainted with the original Jack Reacher as well.
killing floor December 13, 2008
It didn't matter that I read Killing floor last instead of first. It was still a very good book and a nice intro to Jack Reacher, this is another series that I really like and have collected. Jack Reacher is unique and fun, it's nice to follow someone that you really don't know from one book to the next where he will be, that is some of the appeal of Reacher, you just never know, a man without a home base, there's no telling where he'll wind up, or what kind of messes he'll end up in.
More personal info on Reacher November 23, 2008
Even though I grumble when action movies or 'tough shows' like Law & Order lapse into what I consider to be soap opera (what artistes call 'character development'), I must confess that I LOVED learning more about Reacher's brother. He's a less huge, more thoughtful version of Reacher, a well dressed treasury agent. I don't think I'm giving away the plot to tell you that the murder victim early in the book is Reacher's brother.
Maybe Lee Child will write another book that's a retrospective with more about Reacher's brother? I also liked the book with Reacher's mother and brother in it. Maybe I like character development?
The plot is pretty interesting and once explained, I thought "aha!" which is good! The best plots are ones that are completely credible yet intriguing.
Show me the money. November 17, 2008
Eno's was local, very local. In a small southern town like Margrave, Georgia, everyone knows eachother. It was law. Southern hospitality welcomed strangers, wanderers, riffraff, ramblers. So when Jack Reacher saw the local PD come at the diner like hell on wheels, well, they were there for him. Had to be. Locals, they'd get a quiet reprimand, and eased out slowly, no fuss, no mess.
And so it begins.
Jack Reacher, late thirties, tall, lean, buzzed cut that said military every which way, is out of a job as a respected and methodical MP with an impeccable record, and is now an honorably discharged civi. And so he goes, a stranger to the world that proves even stranger, and into the wide blue yonder. Or in this case, a happenstance dropoff he insisted to the Grayhound driver so he could hear how Blind Blake, an old guitarist who had passed through Margrave had ended his days. Should have been nothing.
Clean, pristine street. Perfect houses. Subsidies up the wazoo. Too obvious, too creepy Stepford perfect.
And it is.
When he decides to remain, despite the false arrest and all the BS he's getting, Jack Reacher has to stay. Because by another stroke of chance black luck, Margrave has become the killing floor of not only some people who were bad seeds to begin with, but his own brother, Joe Reacher, a genius mastermind in the highly successful anticounterfeiting unit of the Treasury Department, which has eliminated over 90% of all domestic counterfeiting rings.
People who know how to make killing look like an art are on his tail, and with a couple of trusty natives to help him find the rest of the clues, Jack is doing all he can to stay one step ahead. But it's hard, as bodies keep floating to the surface, and their secrets, left unheard.
The classic Great American hero, in that familiar Bond, Die Hard, Indiana Jones and Clancy mold, is given a refreshing and chilling color. Jack Reacher is a man's man, logical, pragmatic, utterly ruthless when needed, and a man who lives day by day and craves freedom, anonymity. He's fierce, knows more about guns and weapons that is comfortable, but in a tight fix, he's the man you want watching your back.
Some of the reviews criticized the caricature of Reacher as following the hero-myth-mold too well and that the character was unrealistically macho. Um--isn't that the point?
So Child's structure is terse, to the point and simple. No sonnets, but there were some great one liners and interesting introspection that will make you think twice. In a way, simplicity is sometimes the most elegant and clear-cut, especially when the story plot itself is complicated and you want the focus to stay on the main lead and what he's going through. The structure created a very tight and intense play of action, especially physical action, which was so well done. This would make for a great movie.
Child's style, did, tend to reduce the emotional element to something more robotic and clinical but that actually works with a mystery thriller like Killing Floor, and a male lead that Child has created. He makes no apologies for it and I like that Child was able to commit from beginning to end, the nature of this amazing character. Some people got annoyed by a few quirks like style, structure, tenses, or that Jack's too macho, which, to me, were all small issues when you're trying to find something wrong with a book that is nearly perfect.
One or two things will inevitably nag at you, and any book over 400 pages will do that to anyone. But don't let it deter you from reading one of the best mysteries I've read in a long time with a compelling cast of characters, a well researched and plotted story with lots of great scenes and action, and a hero you won't get enough of. I couldn't put it down until I'd finished it.
the best one of the Reacher series November 9, 2008
As far as thrillers go this was very good. The characters were deep and enthralling, keeping your interest all the way through. There was enough suspense to keep you turning the pages, and plenty of action. If you enjoy Lee Child`s Jack Reacher books then this will please you. I`m a series fan and enjoy Child and Michael Connelly books immensely, if you like that kind of thriller read the `Soft Target` books by Conrad Jones. They are unputdownable!! Back to the review, ten out of ten.
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