Lee Child

A discharged soldier is framed for a murder by the chief of police in a small town in Georgia where he has just arrived. When the soldier learns that the murdered man was his brother he breaks out of jail and carries out his own investigation. A first novel.

Killing Floor

Ex-MP Jack Reacher goes into action to find his brother's killers after a series of brutal crimes terrorize tiny Margrave, Georgia, only to uncover the dark and deadly conspiracy concealed behind the town's peaceful facade.

Luke Harkness

A really quite brilliant book. The last 200-250 pages are absolutely incredible as more plot twists unfold and the action ramps up. Imagine Jack Reacher as James Bond but with less tech and not working for anybody but himself. Fantastic read. Arguably the best action story I've read so far. On to the remaining 20-odd Reacher books 👌🏼

Jonathan Tysick

A page turner (mostly) that had me hooked. But in the end too graphic, one dimensional and vengeance-based for me. Although to be fair, I probably knew most of that going in. If you want an action movie in book form, this is it.

Dhruv Chopra

A good thriller from Lee Child introducing Jack Reacher but somewhere it lacks the punch. The storyline is little predictive. I feel that successive Jack Reacher novels are more polished than this. Anyways it is still a goodread and you will enjoy it.

Colleen

3 Stars

I wanted something undemanding to read with my husband. We had watched the movie a while ago, but I had not read any of the books. I realize that the movie was based on one of the later books but decided to start with the first of the series.

It was an engaging enough story but not particularly unique from other action/thriller books. It followed the basic formula of ex military badass guy is in the wrong place at the wrong time and ends up entangled in a big political plot. Entertaining but not outstanding. 

I was annoyed that there were really only two female characters in the story and both end up being damsels in distress. It made it worse that the main female was supposed to be a very smart, competent cop but quickly downgrades to being helpless and hormone controlled. 

It was definitely evident that this was the author's first novel. The writing was choppy at times, and the dialogue was painful. Any long conversations that the characters had usually consisted of short, one-off sentences followed by "he said." I found myself literally cringing at times by the lack of any talking description other than "said." For example: "Did you have any trouble in the army?" he said.
"No more than you did in Boston," I said.
He was surprised.
"What do you mean by that?" he said.
"You did twenty years in Boston," I said. And that is how the majority of the dialogue in the book was. Sometimes there was a couple of pages straight of staccato sentences all followed by he said. Hopefully that is something the author improved upon as the series progressed.

Bad dialogue aside, I did mostly enjoy the book. It wasn't mindblowing, but then I don't really expect action/thrillers to blow my mind. They are just something nice to read when I want something lighter but am not in the mood for chick lit. 

I would also mention that some of the descriptions of the fight scenes and bodies are a bit gruesome, so I would avoid this if you are squeamish. 


RATING FACTORS:
Ease of Reading: 4 Stars
Writing Style: 3 Stars
Characters and Character Development: 2 Stars
Plot Structure and Development: 3 Stars
Level of Captivation: 3 Stars
Originality: 2 Stars

Brenda 🌙

Killing Floor is the first book in the internationally popular series about Jack Reacher, hero of the blockbuster movie starring Tom Cruise. 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.

An action-packed Jack Reacher novel. You know what you are getting.

Kathryn

Twice as long as it could have been and I felt like the relationship between Reacher and Rosco really got in the way sometimes but a solid adventure all the same

Tracie McMurray

My parents have been trying to get me into Reacher books for a while now. It was worth it! Pure entertainment.

Dana Kraft

I agree with another reviewer that this reads like an 80s action movie. Lots of action, not that memorable. Meh.

Cams Campbell

A bit ridiculous and American. Reads like a Matt Damon movie, or Tom Cruise it turns out. I don't plan on continuing with this particular franchise.

Fraser Simons

Pretty fun and seemed well researched with an unusual hook. The action and general pacing seemed about right, and I liked that the prose weren’t entirely sterile, even if it was over-the-top at some points. It would have been easily a higher rating for me but for the dialogue and some pretty heavy coincidences that made it hard to suspend disbelief. Reacher himself was alright, and he gets enough things wrong during the course of the mystery that he doesn’t feel super human or anything, but the secondary characters feel less satisfying despite being more than a foil (mostly). I could see the series getting better or worse. Might try more. Not sure yet.

Yulande Lindsay

My first Jack Reacher book. Brutal but totally exciting.

Rebecca Henry

Desperate on break and didn't have a book to read.

shellybn

I can see why Jack Reacher is such a popular character, but so far, I prefer Repairman Jack.

Melody Izard

This is the first Jack Reacher. Craig and I listened to it on the way to somewhere - I don't remember where. We both agreed that Lee Child really didn't have a firm view on who he wanted this character to be. He was just a baby Jack. He's changed in the later books. Almost glad I didn't start with this first book, because I might not have continued the series.

Killing Floor

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